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The Local Beat: Arson Daily
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Spotify Wrapped 2019
It’s the end of the year and since everyone’s sharing their spotify wrapped I figured I would too. Just the 2019 one though, I’m not sure I want to expose myself by sharing my decade. I have to say I wasn’t really surprised by anything (I mean I know what I listen to), but it is super fun getting a rundown of the data.
My favorite part is that top 100 song playlist, I’ve had a serious nostalgia trip this week listening to that since a lot of the music I listened to at the start of this year I haven’t heard since then. It’s odd how emotionally heavy it can be looking at the year through music, it’s not even just the music (though that totally counts because the music you listen to can say a lot about where you and your head are), but because I usually get a vivid picture in my mind of where I was when I first heard the song. Memories come flooding in and I begin to realize just how much has gone on this year. Anyhow, to get it over with here is DJ Psycheds Spotify Wrapped for 2019.
Top Artists : #1 Smallpools
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I love this band a lot (obviously) and they were the first band I saw in concert this year at Motorco. I first started listening to them when I was a freshman and the show was so amazing I’ve had their setlist on repeat ever since.
2. Clarence Clarity 3. Arrested Youth 4. Panic! At The Disco 5. Mike Shinoda
Top Genres : Indie Pop (as an indie DJ this was expected, Pop (I didn’t see that one coming but then again my workout playlists is pretty pop heavy), Lo-fi beats (I listen to that lofi study playlist a lot so sounds about right), Rap and Modern Rock
Top 10 Songs : #1 We change by Clarence Clarity #2 Naysayer, Magick Obeyer by Clarence Clarity
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These two songs are amazing, the whole album is but these two songs get me everytime. I have yet to get tired of these tracks and the transition between them is so smooth I can see how they became my top two songs, it’s hard for me to listen to one and not want to listen to the other
3. Blood // Water by grandson 4. Get to You by The Honeysticks 5. Promises I Can’t Keep by Mike Shinoda 6. Don’t Know How by Ricky Montgomery 7. (finally getting more into that indie music) Death, Thrice Drawn by The Scary Jokes 8. Wavy Gravy by Okey Dokey 9. Trippy by Mindchatter 10. Ok by J.P. Plains
So what were your top listens of the year (Spotify user or not)?
P.s. Panic! At The Disco was my artist of the decade.
– DJ Psyched
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Chainsaw Charts 12/3
Artist Record Label
1 CATTLE DECAPITATION Death Atlas Metal Blade
2 COUNTERPARTS Nothing Left To Love Pure Noise
3 DESPISED ICON Purgatory Nuclear Blast
4 LEFT BEHIND No One Goes to Heaven Pure Noise
5 KING DIAMOND “Masquerade Of Madness” [Single] Metal Blade
6 VATICAN “Ex Nihilo” [Single] 1126
7 MESHIAAK Mask Of All Misery Mascot
8 CREEPING DEATH Wretched Illusions eOne
9 SKYBLOOD Skyblood Napalm
10 LORNA SHORE “Death Portrait” [Single] Century Media
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Daytime Charts 12/3
Artist Record Label
1 BASEMENT REVOLVER Wax And Digital [EP] Sonic Unyon
2 GEOWULF My Resignation PIAS
3 DAYGLOW Fuzzybrain Self-Released
4 BLACK SURFER Black Surfer [EP] Self-Released
5 NEW PORNOGRAPHERS In the Morse Code Of Brake Lights Concord
6 CHASTITY BELT Chastity Belt Hardly Art
7 OH ROSE While My Father Sleeps Park The Van
8 GREEN BUZZARD Amidst The Clutter And Mess I Oh You
9 BOY SCOUTS Free Company Anti-
10 ERTHLINGS Indigo [EP] Future Classic
11 MATTHEW SQUIRES Visions Of America Self-Released
12 HOVVDY Heavy Lifter Double Double Whammy
13 NATHAN BAJAR Playroom In Real Life
14 GASPAR SANZ Meanderthal [EP] Helium
15 BLACK BELT EAGLE SCOUT At The Party With My Brown Friends Saddle Creek
16 PEACH PYRAMID Bright Blue Oscar St
17 PENELOPE ISLES Until The Tide Creeps In Bella Union/PIAS
18 CHRIS FARREN Born Hot Polyvinyl
19 HORSE JUMPER OF LOVE So Divine Run For Cover
20 GRINGO STAR Controlled Burn Baby Robot
21 GOOD SERVICE Summer Muses Self-Released
22 MARIKA HACKMAN Any Human Friend [EP] Sub Pop
23 GOOD RIDDANCE Thoughts And Prayers Fat Wreck
24 TRUTH CLUB Not An Exit Tiny Engines
25 CHAI Punk Burger
26 DUMB Club Nites Mint
27 JAY SOM Anak Ko Polyvinyl
28 NIGHT SINS Portrait In Silver Funeral Party
29 LUNCH LADY Angel Danger Collective/Upset The Rhythm
30 PURPLE MOUNTAINS Purple Mountains Drag City
TOP ADDS
1 MACSEAL Super Enthusiast 6131
2 CHARLY BLISS Supermoon [EP] Barsuk
3 PIKES “” [Single] Self-Released
4 DANIELA ANDRADE Tamale Crooked Lid
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Afterhours Charts 12/3
Artist Record Label
1 KEDR LIVANSKIY Your Need 2MR
2 DEATON CHRIS ANTHONY BO Y Self-Released
3 ROBYN “Beach2k20 (Yaeji Remix)” [Single] Konichiwa
4 GRACE IVES 2nd Dots Per Inch
5 COMPUTER DATA “Alright” [Single] Self-Released
6 LONE “Abraxas” [Single] Ancient Astronauts
7 HURLEE Beating For You [EP] Apparel
8 OCTO OCTA Resonant Body T4T LUV NRG
9 YEULE Serotonin II Bayonet
10 FOUR TET Anna Painting [EP] Text
ALBUM REVIEW: Cigarettes After Sex – Cry
BEST TRACKS: Heavenly, You’re The Only Good Thing In My Life, Touch
FCC Violations: Kiss It Off Me, You’re The Only Good Thing In My Life
Recommended if you like: Beach House, Slowdive, The xx
Cigarettes After Sex is back after 2 years of absence with a new, self-produced release, Cry. Their self-titled first album is a hard act to follow, containing what is, in my opinion, one of the purest, fuzzy-feeling modern love songs ever written, Sweet. I was excited to see what this album had in store for us. Much like Cigarettes After Sex’s first album, Cry is slower than molasses, and sweeter too.
Listening to this album, it’s obvious that front man Greg Gonzales holds firmly the belief that less is more and executes this ethos flawlessly. Cry is mind-blowingly gentle and slow, yet still somehow manages to keep the listener’s ear perked with ultra-downbeat hints of dreampop. Gonzales’ voice sounds like a moon fairy whispering into your ear. From the first note, Gonzales creates an unshakable atmosphere, like time standing still, through echoing guitar strums, and that lovely low hum of a bassline.
Though the music is unique and fantastic, there is not much substance in the way of lyrics on this album. Though it’s refreshing to see such blatant themes of sexual desire in a genre that is usually so subtle and prude, there is not enough depth or poetry in the writing. Lyrics come off as generic and clichéd. Listening to these songs kind of made me feel like I was reading the diary of a hormonal teenage boy who thinks he’s in love.
I’ll say that this album is still worth a listen purely for the atmosphere created by the music. That is, if you don’t let the corny lyrics jolt you out of the mood. This is an album for horny romantics and painfully hopeless fantasizers. If you are, or ever were, an unashamedly diehard fan of Twilight or 50 Shades of Grey, then give this album a spin.
-Safia Rizwan
ALBUM REVIEW: Pure Reason Revolution – “The Dark Third” 2007 Europe Release
BEST TRACKS: Golden Clothes, Twyncyn / Trembling Willows, Voices in Winter
FCC Violations: none
Recommended if you like: Space rock AND Symphonic metal
One of the best progressive rock albums to be released in 2006, but went largely unnoticed. The Europe Release in 2007 is the important one to obtain given that it has 5 added tracks that can only be found on that release and are some of the best tracks on the album.
Some background is that Pure Reason Revolution was formed in England in 2003 and have released 3 full-length studio albums since then. The Dark Third is their first and probably their most essential album. If you have any interest in both space rock and symphonic metal, this may become your new favorite album.
According to Wikipedia, the “dark third” is a reference to how a person spends a third of their life asleep, and this comes out in the spacey themes that pervade this album.
Produced by Paul Northfield (who has produced albums from many other progressive outfits such as Dream Theater and Rush), this album takes virtuosic instrumentation and a capella and crafts it into a rainbow of different emotions. One moment you’ll feel reminiscent for the past, and the next you’ll feel an epic march toward the future. I have always described this album as “if the members of Pink Floyd decided to start a symphonic metal band and add a female vocalist.” In fact, one of the tracks from this album “The Bright Ambassadors of Morning” is a direct reference to one of the greatest Pink Floyd tracks of all time, “Echoes.”
The beginning of The Dark Third is a long wash of spacey guitar riffs as it works its way into the 2nd track “Goshen’s Remains” where the female vocals come in, the music slows down, and builds into an intense wall of sound, which continues to persist throughout most of the tracks. Of course there are parts where things get slowed down, but that delectable intensity never quite ceases. One of my personal favorite tracks on the album is “Voices of Winter / In the Realms of the Divine” which exemplifies this duality perfectly. The first side of the track being more low-key “astral folk” and then moving into the second half which uses the themes from the first half for a crazy build up into another crash.
Another track that exemplifies the “eclectic”-ness of this album is the last track (European Release only) “Golden Clothes.” This track is 7 and a half minutes long but contains 3 themes that go from light to dark and back with ease, and contain an impressive mixing of genres ranging from classical, to alternative, to metal, to electronica.
Give this album a shot if you are interested in anything that does a lot of genre-mixing, but even moreso if you enjoy space rock and symphonic metal.
-ArtZoid (Host of The Election)