Babymetal is Back

In a big way. MONOCHROME is the best song since Yui Mizuno left the band. As usual, the live version is even better than the studio version. It’s got a bit of KARATE in it, a bit of NO RAIN, NO RAINBOW, and the same anthemic feel as THE ONE and ROAD OF RESISTANCE. Kobametal clearly knew he was onto something with this one, as it even has a beautiful piano version that shows off Suzuka Nakamoto’s unbelievable voice as she records the entire song live in one take.

UPDATE: How could you not love Japan? Turns out they do originals too, although more metal than Band-Maid’s hard rock. Not that Band-Maid has been idle of late.

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This is Why They Take the Ticket

The Prince of This World protects his favorites:

Kevin Spacey said he is ‘humbled’ after being dramatically cleared of sexually assaulting four men today following a high-profile trial in which Sir Elton John gave evidence in his defence.

The double Oscar winner, who marks his 64th birthday today, was overcome with emotion when the jury at London’s Southwark Crown Court returned not guilty verdicts on all counts.

Spacey was accused of abusing his fame and power to carry out nine sex attacks on four men during his tenure as artistic director of the Old Vic theatre. But he insisted the claims were ‘madness’ and accused the claimants of ‘lying for money’.

Perhaps justice was served and an innocent man was spared unmerited punishment. But I doubt it. I doubt it very much indeed.

But that’s not to say that the ticket-takers don’t pay the price for their “success”; the much-troubled Sinead O’Connor is dead at 56. I ran into her once at The Perimeter in Minneapolis, I think it was 1991. I was surprised at a) how small she was, and, b) how unfortunate her profile was. But I always respected the way she absolutely crushed the song Prince originally wrote for The Family.

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Attention is not Success

If at first you don’t succeed, just tell everyone that you meant to fail:

Jered Threatin, known by the mononym “Threatin”, is a solo artist, singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist from Los Angeles, CA. He gained notoriety in 2018 following a publicity stunt on his “Breaking the World Tour” where he manipulated social media numbers, ticket sales, and fabricated a number of fake businesses to fool venues and music industry professionals into booking a European tour where he performed in a sequence of empty rooms. This hoax successfully displayed the music industry’s reliance on social media numbers and image. During the event Threatin released a public statement; “What is Fake News? I turned an empty room into an international headline. If you are reading this you are part of the illusion.” The stunt became a viral sensation and obtained mainstream media coverage from The New York Times, BBC News, Variety, The Guardian, NME, Rolling Stone Magazine, and many other major publications.

That’s his version, anyhow. This is how an uninterested party described it.

The short version is this guy faked having a major band to book a “European Tour” and no one showed up. Then people proceeded to make documentaries & news stories about this once the venues were upset with being tricked. When you read his website he spins it as all a publicity stunt to “expose how venues rely on bad social media information.” A.K.A. “jokes on YOU! I WANTED no one to show up to my shows!” haha.

Now, there is truth to the wisdom in turning lemons into lemonaide. And few business plans survive contact with the market intact. One has only to consider the convoluted paths to success of Marufuku Co. Ltd., the Connecticut Leather Company, or even, on a much more modest scale, Castalia Library, to understand the wisdom of flexible ambition.

But media attention is not synonymous with success. Any natural disaster attracts more media attention than even the biggest success. The difference can be seen in whether the course has actually been changed or if it is claimed that the obviously inadvertent deviation was the original objective all along.

And if there is one thing that we have learned over time, it is that gammas are always going to gamma and their jokes are always on you.

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Of All the Boomers Who Ever Boomed

These may have been the boomerest. From SocialGalactic:

Late 80s high school friend attended a state retreat for gifted kids. They chose a theme song at the end, Alphaville’s “Forever Young”.

The Boomers in charge overrode with “Imagine”.

I don’t know that anything summarizes the awfulness of the Wicked Generation better or more succinctly than that. It’s all right there, the generational solipsism, the entitlement, the inexplicable abuse of power, the Beatles, and most of all, the total lack of regard for their children and grandchildren.

It’s not just that the Boomers abused their power and privilege, as they observably did, but the weird and foolish ways they chose to do so.

It’s ironic from a musical perspective too, because Forever Young is a much better and much more epic song than Imagine. Based on the streaming statistics, the younger generations would even appear to agree.

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Tell Me You’re a Boomer

Without actually telling me you’re a Boomer:

I would like to add a song to Randy L’s list that should be banned from being played in public. The Backstreet Boys “I want it that way” should be on it. There are a few boy band songs that are probably worse but I’ll admit this one is personal for me.

The New York Mets used to play Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” in the middle of the 8th inning at every home game which is a great choice because it’s a classic and Billy Joel is from Long Island. This year they allow the fans to choose from three different songs, Piano Man and I Want It That Way are two of the choices.

I have been to three home games and the Backstreet Boys have won every time, all by very narrow margins which makes me think the voting is rigged because there is no way this should happen in New York. To add insult to injury, the scoreboard then finds every millennial and gen z guy who is lip-singing and posing as if they are making a boy band video.

The whole thing is nauseating to me but I am hoping that one day reason will prevail and Piano Man will be returned to the 8th inning where it belongs.

Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” was released in 1973. So, it wasn’t enough for the Boomers to force their music on Generation X. Now they’re actually offended that their music is finally being replaced by the generations that came after the one that came after them. Because how can their music be the best there ever was if people who were born 40 years after it was released aren’t as captivated by it as they were?

So obnoxious. The Day of the Pillow can’t come soon enough.

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Never Too Old to Take the Ticket

How on Earth does she do it? We’re supposed to be amazed by Kylie Minogue’s “comeback of the century” as a pop kitten at the age of 55.

Kylie Minogue is currently in the midst of a career resurgence not seen since her Can’t Get You Out of My Head days. The Australian hitmaker, who just celebrated her 55th birthday, is racing up the charts with her comeback single Padam Padam and reaching a whole new generation of fans via social media.

The addictive dance track has become a viral sensation on TikTok and Twitter, racking up millions of views through hilarious memes. It’s also shaping up to be a massive hit on the music charts, becoming her highest-charting single in Australia in over a decade after debuting at No. 39 in its first week.

The song is racing up the UK charts too, hitting No. 1 on the UK Big Top 40 chart, which measures radio airplay, iTunes sales and Apple Music streaming.

Very impressive, right. It’s just a mix of the right song, the right producer, and the right singer at the right moment, right?

Whatever. She’s just another manufactured Illuminati whore.

So we have a very good idea of how this “unexpected comeback” was arranged. What’s interesting, however, is that the global media is openly attempting to run cover for her ticket-taking. It’s not the fact that they’re doing so that’s interesting, that’s only to be expected, but the fact that they feel the need to do so.

Kylie Minogue is embroiled in a bizarre and baseless Satanic conspiracy theory.

In other words, we’re actually supposed to believe that the way that the vast majority of people are granted fame and what passes for success in the entertainment world, the very way that celebrities from Bob Dylan to Lady Gaga have openly admitted is how it was given to them, is “bizarre and baseless”.

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