Weekly Recap (May 1st-7th, 2023)

 Highlights of Discover Weekly (Spotify)

• Berried Alive - Blood Orange
• Very fun song, sounds like it might be from an animated show, but I don't really watch those, so I don't know.
• Dropout Kings - Bad Day
• Some kind of nu metal. The traditional kind, metal and rap. I feel nostalgic despite never hearing this song before.
• Harley Poe - Gorehound
• Folk Punk. It's just as awesome as it sounds.
• Grim Salvo feat. Sect Unit - Heart of Darkness
• Music that sounds like progressive rock, but that Google claims is hiphop. Either way, I love it. Progressive metal is my favourite genre overall and lately I've been super into hiphop, so... This is perfect. I'm adding both of these names to my Three Song Listen list.
• Zero 9:36 - Reset
• Again, rap music with some serious progressive rock/metal vibes. I love it. Rapping sounds a bit like Eminem (aggressive, spitter-style, but not as fast or complex rhyme scheme-wise as Eminem), chorus and beat are straight up progressive rock. This is amazing. Algorithm is algorithming. Going on the list.
• Prison - I Don't Want To Be Afraid Anymore
• Another traditional nu metal sounding song. I like it a lot.
• Lead Horizon - Totally Spies
• Apparently it's a girl band from Russia, who mix trap, metal, hiphop and rock. Sounds amazing. Kinda like Delilah Bon, but catchier. Where as in Delilah is a bit more aggressive and serious. I like this. I followed them on Spotify. I bet they have another song out there that I'm gonna absolutely fall in love with.

In the middle of the week I did a deep dive into Don Johnson Big Band's discography. I don't have time to do an entire post about it, so here goes:

Don Johnson Big Band is not a 'big band', despite the name. They are a Finnish alternative hiphop group, who have a jazz band and an MC, Tommy Lindgren. Before hearing Ren, he was my favourite MC, now he's my second favourite. He's amazing. The best in Finland. Anyway, the band does most of their songs in English, but for example Strucci is not really English or Finnish - it's sort of in between. I'm adding it to my list of translations to do on the other blog. Most of their stuff is pretty consistently jazz, with a couple of more hiphop-heavy songs in the mix. All their big hits are from the 2000s. I think they got a little too experimental with it to appeal to the masses. But I liked it, I liked most of the songs. Last two albums steer away from the jazz. I don't know what happened, why are they doing that, but anyway. They went digital. It was still good, but not as great and amazing and wonderful as their early/mid-career stuff. They begun in mid-1990s and published their first album in 2000 by themselves. Then they got a record deal before the second album and released their first single, One MC and One Delay. The first album isn't on Spotify, so I skipped it, for now. If I can find it online or the library has a cd, I might check it out at some point. Their latest album so far came out last year, so the next one will probably come out in 2024-2027. From the discography I've heard, the big hit songs are obviously nostalgic to me (One MC, One Delay; Road and LLH), but I also loved the melancholic, beautiful Nightman, the happy Living the Life, and obviously Strucci is absolutely bonkers and hilarious, if you know both English and Finnish.

Biggest music event of the week for me was Ren publishing his new song Animal Flow on Thursday.

He announced it with an "interactive experience" on his website 1,5-2 weeks ago, renmakesmusic.co.uk, where you solve a mini game (escape room style) and the reward is the trailer for the song. The trailer was also on the YouTube video, obviously, before the song came out. He mentioned the book, Animal Farm, as a big inspiration, which is like 125 pages long, so I decided to read it. I considered the possibility of the book or the video containing clues for the game to get a different result, but I couldn't get one. It would have been cool, though. Anyway, the book was great, highly recommend to all adults (and teens who want to educate themselves). Basically it's a fable, aka an animal fairytale, where animals in this one farm decide that humans suck and the world would be a better place without them. So they organize a riot, drive out the humans and start their own civilization. At first it's all great, I loved the society they created. And it was so funny how each animal behaves exactly as you'd expect it to. Sheep blindly follow orders, cat disappears when it's time to work and appears when it's time to eat, etc. Then certain animals (not saying which ones, so I don't spoil the whole book for you) start to gather more and more power to themselves, and it ends up as a totalitarian dictatorship, where the leader animals are indistinguishable from the previous human leaders. I'm not good with political terminology, but I get how this particular one (totalitarian dictatorship) is born a little bit better now. And I never thought a book that short would make a hate a character, let alone an animal, with such a burning passion. Extremely well written, despite being almost 100 years old.

The song was very good, too. There's a lot to break down, so I'm probably gonna do a Lyrical Breakdown of it, and include the video and what Ren has told us about the song and video.

I was in the YouTube chat with 4000 other people half an hour before the song came out, and saw Ren holding the Animal Flow sign on Twitch as well. Then I watched the song from start to finish on one go, then again two times, but pausing to gather information for the game (which did not help - I got no results) and second time to catch as many bars (lyrics) as I could. I thought about those for some minutes to form my own thoughts, as I always do nowadays before watching Knox's reaction, and then went to Knox's channel to see his reaction. I knew he'd do one very quick. He always posts at 7pm my time, but the song premiered at 10pm my time and he had not posted anything that day, so I knew he was gonna do another Ren reaction right after it was published. After seeing that, I happened to click Twitch again and Ren was live! There were 3000 people there, then Ren's internet crashed and about 1400 people joined again. I simply could not get a word in, so I gave up. I just basked in the moment for a while - here's this guy, who's about the biggest idol I have right now, but whom I also relate to so fucking much, and he's live. Like, live live. He's there, right now. Can't wait to see him live live live 😄 In person, in a concert. I will, as soon as he steps foot in Finland. I haven't really travelled that much on my own (=as an adult, without parents), so I'd be way too nervous to go to another country to see an artist or band. An in-law recently asked me to a Three Days Grace concert, because he likes the new stuff and I like old stuff, but yeah... Way too nervous. Also, Ashnikko is touring USA, UK and Japan right now, so I could have technically went to UK to see them live, but... No. Ash is gonna have to settle to remain on my bucket list of artists to see before I die, lol. So yeah, I enjoyed the live live experience for a while and then decided it was time I went to sleep. It was midnight and I had to get up at 6am, go to work where my boss' boss was visiting (just a casual annual "how are you guys doing" kinda visit, but I'm new there so I tried my best to leave a good impression - this is only the second time I see her, ever), and then in the evening go out because it was my birthday.

But first, Highlights of Release Radar (Spotify)

• Ren - Animal Flow
• duh
• Knox Hill feat. Grizzly Hendrix - Killing Spree (remix)
• Haven't gotten super into this yet, and Knox's music isn't the easiest to get into... He changes flows a lot, raps quite fast, has a lot of doubles and metaphors, and the music's not typically very catchy, either. There are exceptions - songs that could have been bigger hits than they were - but generally, it's a bit of... like, music for music geeks. I like it, though. Music like this is not the easiest to get into, and the same goes for progressive metal, which is my favourite style of music. His music is clearly hiphop, but it has that same intellectual / musical complexity aspect as prog rock and metal. I don't play any instrument, but this kind of music just scratches an itch in my brain that simpler music just doesn't. You never know where the melody is gonna go, and then when you learn it, it gets stuck in your head for days and you don't care, because it sounds so interesting. Songs' replay value is so so high, because there's always something you didn't catch the last time. Different instruments, singing techniques, production, song structure, rhythm, tempo, delivery, all the layers of the lyrics, etc.
• Poppy - Spit
• OMG I LOVE THAT SHE'S STILL DOING NU METAL. She already did two whole albums of it, but now I cannot wait for more. I recently watched a YouTube video titled "All the genres Poppy has done" or something like that, and it was mostly pop, but there was a bunch or rock, metal, EDM and like, noise music and everything... She's way more interesting than what I first thought she'd be. She's on my list of Deep Dives, for sure.
• Arankai - Haunted
• My second favourite independent artist, right after Ren. Knox is third. Evergreen is still my favourite song, but Haunted is very good as well. Beautiful, but also metal, song about losing a loved one. Knox has mentioned he wants to do a live stream to feature only independent artists on it, and I'm just waiting here, like "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY". I'd be very willing to pay him 50 bucks to feature Arankai on there. The song would be Hangman (Villains Edition), though, because that has everything he does, vocally. Rapping, clean vocals and metal scream vocals.
• Set It Off feat. Scene Queen - Win Win
• Set It Off is a punk band, Scene Queen is an artist (she mixes metalcore, rap and pop). They are behind the TikTok hit song Barbie and Ken. That was a Scene Queen song where Set It Off was featuring in, and now she's returning the favor. Once you get what her whole deal is, her songs are easy to get into. But the initial step of getting it was not easy, at least for me. Few months ago I didn't like her at all. Now I love her. She's signed, but on a very small label and does her own promo, so she's constantly on social media doing stuff and liking fan comments and such, just like independent artists like Ren, Knox and Arankai are. Maybe even more than those guys. If you haven't heard from her before, I recommend starting from the song 18+. It's her best one so far. And you should be aware that she's hyper feminine on purpose. She's reclaiming the word bimbo and is actually very smart. I didn't get it at first, but now I actually think it's very bold, brave and punk of her to present so hyper feminine. It's gonna piss so many people off and they're hopefully gonna be smart enough to start questioning why they are pissed and grow as people. Songs other than 18+ are not what they seem at the surface. You should really look at the lyrics or google what the song is about. They all have a feminist theme to them - some very serious and some not so serious. Sorry for not commenting this song at all, I heard it once on my way to work on Friday. I did like it, but that's all I got on the first listen.
• Kanine - Escape
• It's an EDM song. I have at some point followed Kanine on Spotify. I do not recall when or why, because this is the first song I've liked by them on there...
• Todrick Hall - Roach Killaz
• Not his best song, but he's kinda rapping in this?? That came as a surprise. My favourite song by him is probably Both.
• Halocene - Maleficent
• Apparently it's another independent group. Interesting mix of genres. Very catchy rock, with influences from pop, industrial and metal. Two or three singers.
• Depeche Mode feat Massano - Ghosts Again (Massano Remix)
• Yup, they're still a thing. Nice EDM remix.
• HEALTH - HATEFUL
• Second time hearing the group. Some kind of dark EDM. Sounds good. I'm gonna give them a follow on Spotify, I want more of this. Did not remember hearing them before, but apparently I've liked the song DEAD FLOWERS before.
• Tiësto - Bet My Dollar
• Tiësto never disappoints. The songs are always absolute bangers. I like listening to i.e. him when I party and when I'm at the gym. Makes me want to move. Also, whoever this featuring artist is, has a very beautiful voice.

Birthday night out

So, we ended up going to this bar with my fiancé, my brother and his girlfriend. It's supposed to be this dance music place, with a little bit more rock thrown in there. But, they had this DJ. He played a mixture of some experimental jazz (which is fine, but doesn't make me want to dance), Finnish a cappella folk songs sung by old women and this very obscure progressive extreme metal / noise music. The jazz and the metal I could have vibed with, if it wouldn't have cost me 12 bucks to go there, and if I wasn't there to dance. It sucked so hard I was getting hysterical, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. About 20 people entered in the 1st half an hour after the place opened, including us, but they all disappeared... Until I realized, there is a karaoke room in the bar as well. We went there and all the people in the club were there! 😂 We went to sit in the front and had the time of our lives. There was this amateur theater group having a night out and their performances were so fucking good, me and my fiancé decided we're gonna go see their play one day. My brother sang Viva La Vida and I sung SOAD's Aerials, Bad Religion's 21st Century Digital Boy, A7X's Buried Alive (which I intended to be the last song of the evening, but then the bar wasn't closing for another 45min) and Breaking Benjamin's Breath. First three I think went well, but I was a bit too drunk on the last one. I had my first beer of the day at around 8pm at a restaurant we ate in, then second one at a pub, and then several beers and one tequila shot during the next 6 hours we were in the karaoke place. The DJ did move onto better music (better for the occasion) later, playing many rock classics like Queen, Nirvana and MCR. We left when the bar closed, at 4:30am. I had a blast.