Five & Five on Friday 10/20/2023
Basketball, Ghibli food, and Bandcamp alternatives
Happy Friday! Congratulations on making it to the end of the week. As you head into your weekend, here are five recommendations and then five micro reviews of albums from my high school CD collection. Maybe you’ll find something new to read, listen to, or do this weekend. See you next week!
I really enjoyed this video from animator/YouTuber STEVEM, which attempts to answer the classic question “Why does food in Studio Ghibli movies look so good?” by pushing past the easy and exoticizing answers about Japanese culture to instead breakdown the styles and approaches of individual animators from the studio. I also appreciate, in the same spirit as my Drumming Upstream project, that STEVEM put his money where his mouth was and tried to make a Ghibili-style food animation of his own.
The WNBA season just finished (and with it the last hope for New York sports in 2023, RIP New York Liberty) and the NBA season is just about to begin. If you, like me, cannot stop ingesting as much basketball content as you can before you inevitably get sick of the whole sport after your team fails to win more than three games in a row (uhhh, maybe that last bit is just me), I’d recommend this review by Yumi Lee of the book The Sense of Wonder on The Baffler, which takes a critical eye to the dynamics at play in the Jeremy Lin phenomenon from 2012. Wow, Linsanity happened a decade ago. Where does the time go?
Speaking of literary criticism, I found this piece about the pervasive influence of the College Application Essay on modern fiction fascinating. Having had to write application essays since middle school, and being in the middle of a cover letter writing rampage in the present day, a lot of this piece rang true to me. Are we writing to communicate or are we just applying for the next job? Worth chewing over!
Things are not looking good at Bandcamp. After being sold to the business-to-business music licensing company Songtradr, at least 50% of the staff has been laid off. The immediate consequences of these layoffs, is that Bandcamp’s editorial wing has been completely gutted, its Union appears to be busted, and a number of artist friendly features on the site are likely to function way, way worse in the near future. Time to start planning for alternatives. My first recommendation is for artists to start compiling their mailing lists and building out their own newsletters so they can keep communicating directly with the audience. My second recommendation is to check out Ampwall, a new Bandcamp-esque platform in development, spearheaded by Chris Gregg of Woe. If you have any leads on other alternatives, by all means send them my way!
Sometimes I worry that my DIY music recommendations are a bit too NYC-centric, considering that there are plenty of readers from outside of the tri-state area. Thankfully, ~*my girlfriend*~ sent along this massive oral history about the Chicago DIY scene from 2008-2016. I lived in Chicago during that whole stretch and played at a number of the venues Hugo Reyes mentions in this oral history, and I’m familiar with a few of the people interviewed. Weird/cool to see your own history get recorded into tales of bygone scene history.
Now, onto the five micro reviews. Long time Lamniformes Instagram followers will recognize these from my stories back in late 2020, however they’ve been re-edited and spruced up with links so that you can actually hear the music instead of just taking my word for it.
Deliver Us by Darkest Hour (2007) - Metalcore
I was super pumped for this one because Undoing Ruin was and is a perennial favorite. That the band were working with Devin Townsend again only made me more excited. My reaction when I finally heard it was muted. I think the sudden introduction of clean vocals threw me for a loop. This is a really great sounding metal record, and its got some cool tunes, but it feels like a bit of a retread of the best parts of Undoing Ruin at times.
The Promise by Ringworm (1993) - Metalcore
Another Deathwish Inc clearance pick up. I knew this band was a big deal in the Midwest hardcore scene but this album did not connect with me. Having heard their later material I can appreciate this in context, but it won’t be one I reach for often. Points for concision though!
Battalions of Fear by Blind Guardian (1988) - Power Metal
God, I love this album cover. So goofy and cartoonish, the way more heavy metal should be imo. Blind Guardian’s debut, so it’s way less ornate and overblown than they’d get later. Pretty much a straightforward speed metal record. Very fun, and I love the Dvorak quote in the closer.
The Great Cold Distance by Katatonia (2005) - Nü-metal
I think I saw the “My Twin” video while looking up metal bands on YouTube and got sucked in by how poppy it sounded. Good single choice since it inspired me to pick up the full length! My favorite of this band’s hard rock period. Great drumming, direct songwriting, lots of ear candy and strong vocal hooks delivered in a reserved monotone.
Wake Pig by 3 (2004) - Rock
Saw this band open for Porcupine Tree and then Dream Theater shortly thereafter. They made a hell of an impression, two drummers, flamenco guitar, lots of solos, etc. I thought they were poised to break out and then… they didn’t. The terrible band name couldn’t have helped. Probably not great they had to live up to Coheed & Cambria comparisons because of their singer and their shared Woodstock, NY background. This is an EP’s worth of good tunes inflated into a subpar full length.