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sophia_sol) wrote2011-07-05 08:30 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2011-07-05 08:30 pm
Entry tags:
Yet another new fandom
So, uh, last week I kind of got really into reading bandom fics for some reason. As I tend to do with random fandoms I stumble across recs for. I'd tried doing bandom before but apparently I was just reading fic about the wrong band to be properly wooed. But Panic! at the Disco is really adorable so I was having a grand time reading fic about them even though I knew nothing about their music and couldn't tell their faces apart for the life of me.
And then today I ended up on youtube watching a few too many of their music videos and GODDAMN THEY ARE WEIRD. I am kind of mesmerized. There's one where a circus crashes a wedding with an unfaithful bride, and there's one where there's lesbian vampires in high school who turn out to be bi, and there's one about a mime doing a porn show and dating a girl and the lyrics borrow things from the Sound of Music, and there's one where everyone's heads are in fishtanks, AND IT GOES ON. Also half the time the song titles don't seem to have any relevance to the lyrics, and the lyrics don't seem to have any relevance to the video. And apparently I like their music now or something? IDEK. (I have watched Ready To Go possibly more times than is healthy and kind of adore everything about it.)
Also, I still can't tell them apart, but I can at least definitively say now that they're all pretty?
And then today I ended up on youtube watching a few too many of their music videos and GODDAMN THEY ARE WEIRD. I am kind of mesmerized. There's one where a circus crashes a wedding with an unfaithful bride, and there's one where there's lesbian vampires in high school who turn out to be bi, and there's one about a mime doing a porn show and dating a girl and the lyrics borrow things from the Sound of Music, and there's one where everyone's heads are in fishtanks, AND IT GOES ON. Also half the time the song titles don't seem to have any relevance to the lyrics, and the lyrics don't seem to have any relevance to the video. And apparently I like their music now or something? IDEK. (I have watched Ready To Go possibly more times than is healthy and kind of adore everything about it.)
Also, I still can't tell them apart, but I can at least definitively say now that they're all pretty?
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/feeeeeeeeeeeelings
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Clearly I have no idea how to give someone a comprehensive intro into "things I like about Panic."
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Panic are SUPER CONFUSING because they....changed their look a lot, and also they split up a while back! There is still a Panic but it's just the drummer and the lead singer.
FOR YOUR EDIFICATION: Brendon is the singer/multi-instrumentalist with the ridiculous hair and enormous mouth. Ryan is the fine-boned gangly lyricist/guitarist who wears the silliest clothing (rose-covered vest? yes.) and is CHILDHOOD BFFS with Spencer, the drummer, who has light hair and usually some pudge and who looks like a teenage girl except in the photos where he has a mustache. He was generally my favourite because he gets characterized as The Sensible One. And Jon is the bassist and tall hippie-looking one who's always wearing flip-flops.
WHY DO I STILL HAVE THIS INFORMATION IN MY BRAIN AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
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INTERESTING.
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And...this is the sad part, where I admit that I actually already KNOW all the stuff you just said about the band members, from reading way too much fic, and yet when I look at pictures THEY STILL ALL LOOK THE SAME TO ME. It is handy in music videos that usually there are instruments and things to help identify which band member I am looking at.
(okay when they are all four in one picture together with nobody else just the four of them, through a careful process of elimination I can come up with what name goes with each. But if there are less than all four of them, or if there's other random people mixed in, I do not have enough information to go on! My facial recognition skills are crap, I knowwwwwww)
(My favourite is probably Brendon, idk why, I just -- really like him. Spencer's probably second though!)
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(YOU WILL LEARN. believe me, soon enough you will learn, and you will never be able to un-learn.)
(because he's bouncy and adorable and you're interested in some of his history/issues with being mormon??)
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(SADLY I probably won't learn. I STILL have issues with recognizing Buffy reliably after watching nearly TWO SEASONS of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. *headdesk*)
(...YOU SPEAK THE TRUTH. And he is so adorable. I do this thing where I tell my computer screen "you're so adorable!" in an undertone (or just mouth it) when characters are particularly adorable in a fic and I have been doing it a LOT for this fandom, ngl!)
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I don't remember if I've read anything by them but the name is familiar and they've written a lot, so, softlyforgotten's fic (http://softlyforgotten.livejournal.com/123374.html#cutid1).
Our Comedies Are Not To Be Laughed At (http://maleyka.livejournal.com/192815.html), a multi-bandom fic where EVERYONE IS IN FILM SCHOOL TOGETHER AND WORKING ON THEIR FINAL PROJECT and it is amazing and I reread it a lot.
And there's a few that I sort of remember being good but in so vague a way that I have no way of knowing where I read them /o\ y'know what I'm just gonna link you to someone's del.icio.us account (http://www.delicious.com/motardranger/bandslash+panic).
O, MEMORIES
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And IF YOU WANT you could educate me in the joys of the other bands too? So that I can for example read your Absolute Favourite Bandom Fic?
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MCR, My Chemical Romance. Started in late 2001 by a depressed former art student who witnesses 9/11 from a ferry on its way from Jersey to NYC. Gerard Way, kind of weird, great voice, melodramatic lyrics. Recruits his brother, Mikey (tall and gangly and hilaradorably knock-kneed), for bassist, his friend Ray Toro for guitar (massive amounts of curly hair, big lips, amazing musician), and his other friend Matt for drums. They're loud and thrashy and almost immediately start recording demos. Frank Iero, pocket-sized Italian-American guitarist, decides they are fantastic and fanboys them till they ask him to join as a second guitarist. They record demos, get signed, are managed by Brian Schechter who has a lot of tattoos and is super-cute. They record two albums and tour a lot and get progressively more fucked up on booze and drugs (especially Gerard) until Gerard decides to quit drugs and alchohol and.... Matt leaves? Is kicked off? Drama happens. Anyway, this happens in Japan and they're set to record a music video as soon as they get back. So they call up this techie they know who drums (and who toured with them in Europe for free doing the sound work in early days), Bob Bryar, ginger-haired blue-eyed pierced hotass, and he basically memorizes the song in a day and they record the video with..... this new drummer and their lead singer basically in detox, and the video is I'm Not Okay (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZudX66IBat8) and if it were a real movie I would be ALL OVER IT. ps, if you do get into them, the "making-of" videos for the music videos are all great.
So they tour more and get used to sober Gerard and Bob and work on their third album. At some point Mikey has serious issues and takes a break for a while? At some point also Gerard gets married to Lyn-Z of Mindless Self Indulgence and they are adorable. They finish the album, they tour forever, Bob injures himself a lot. They record a video in front of a pile of burning wreckage and Bob gets serious burns all over his leg because he didn't want to stop drumming and wreck the shoot and ALMOST DIES so GOOD JOB BOB. Gerard writes the Umbrella Academy comic, and it's actually really good. Bob fucks up the tendons in one of his hands drumming too long. I sympathize a lot with Bob's inability to ASK FOR HELP FOR BASIC MEDICAL ISSUES.
The big tour finishes, they retreat to work on the new album, I think they scrap a lot of ideas and restart a lot, there is ~~simmering tension behind the scenes and the fans don't hear much. Then Bob quits or is fired or we don't know what but it may have something to do with his fucked-up tendons, and the remaining MCR guys make this enormous concept album called Danger Days about, like, post-apocalyptic rebels and Grant Morrison guest-stars in the music videos and the aesthetics are ridiculous and the colours are saturated and it's a lot of fun. BUT NO BOB ): So they tour and Gerard got really skinny and they still don't appear to have a full-time drummer and I'm not up to date on if they're working on something new. Oh, and Gerard has a baby that he and Lyn-Z named BANDIT LEE.
THE END. GAWD.
Fic: aaaaaabsolute favourite is Not a Pretty Girl (http://idyll.livejournal.com/427132.html), the one that explores WHAT IF BOB WERE A GIRL. It just deals so well with the problems that come with being a lady in such a male-dominated industry! HEARTS IN MY EYES. I am also in love with Life on the Fashion Scene (http://idyll.livejournal.com/407020.html), which is by the same author, and explores the deep questions of WHAT IF MCR WERE CONTESTANTS ON PROJECT RUNWAY. Also, someone wrote a gigantic AU (http://bexless.livejournal.com/752704.html) where Gerard is a priest and Frank works in a piercing/tattoo place UNTIL HE STARTS GETTING STIGMATA WHAT HOLY SHIT et cetera. Not my favourite but it's ..... pretty good!
djsfhkdsfhkasdhffdjkf sophiaaaaaaaa
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if you ever decide you're curious about Fall Out Boy or Cobra Starship I could probably prime you up on those too. I KNOW TOO MUCH ABOUT BANDS I BARELY LISTEN TO ANY MORE. ):
Good night!
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AND NOW I REALLY AM GOING TO BED.
And absolutely I would be happy to hear what you have to say about Fall Out Boy and Cobra Starship!
this is not going to be very coherent as i am tired
and yes GO TO BED
uh.... gosh. okay! you know what, OKAY, IF YOU WANT AN IN TO BANDOM, YOU GOT IT.
Fall Out Boy are a really popular bandom band. Um, I don't know much about their beginnings and the guys who left before they got big, so in brief: Pete Wentz (you will see his name a lot in bandom. he is everywhere) and Joe Trohman, MUSICIAN BUDDIES, want to start a band. They need bandmates! High schooler Patrick Stump, tiny and adorable, overhears them chatting about music and introduces himself. He gets to know Joe and Pete and auditions for drums in their band, and he's good, but then it comes out that he's ~*~SO GOOD~*~ at singing. ANGELS WEEP AT HIS UNTRAINED VOICE. But he is a shy and awkward dude so while he does do the singing bits, Pete (bassist/lyricist, tiny and dark and over-excitable in the mold of Frank Iero, but also kind of depressed at times) does the frontman's job. FOB play a few shows without a name and at one show they go "hey audience!! we need a name, what should we call ourselves?" and one person goes "FALLOUT BOY LIKE THE SIDEKICK FROM THE SIMPSONS" and Pete Wentz is like "WELP SOUNDS GOOD TO ME"
so that's how a simpsons joke got on the top 40s charts
So FOB have a name and they tour some and they gain a real drummer in Andy Hurley, who has huge amounts of hair and tattoos and is..... some kind of hardcore straightedge anarchist vegan? he is hilarious and has been in a bunch of other bands and every single one except FOB has been like... PUNK METAL HARDCORE ROCKKKKK.
Anyway, FOB tour and make more albums and tour and Patrick Stump is like SEVENTEEN when he joins and they live in a van on the road for a while. Pete makes a lot of weird blog posts, Patrick wears a lot of trucker hats because he is self-conscious about his RECEDING HAIRLINE. They tour with MCR one summer during Vans Warped I think? and Pete is BFFs for a while with Mikey Way and the internet shipped them forever. also, panic like idolized them. there is a myspace-type photo of ryan ross in a FOB shirt from when he was WEE.
Pete starts his own record label imprint thing (Decaydance) and brings all his friends onto it, he has a clothing company, he has BARS, he is ENTREPRENEURIAL. They make a lot of music videos.
More records, more touring, they release an album called Folie a Deux in 2008, there are a lot of collaborating artists on it. More touring! AND THEN! HIATUS. FOB are not officially broken up; they've been on hiatus since 2009 and I think they are just taking an extended break from FOB. Patrick Stump did/is doing a solo album and it's either super cheesy or SUPER EXCELLENT depending on who you talk to. He also cuts his hair and gets really skinny and starts wearing SUITS. Pete Wentz marries Ashley Simpson, I think they have a kid, they got divorced this spring. THE END!!
cobra starship in the next comment
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Gabe Saporta is Uruguayan and Jewish and RIDICULOUSLY TALL. He is in the band Midtown, but it breaks up and he is sad ): but he's buddies with Pete Wentz, who has a record label, so it's cool! So Gabe and some other people from successful bands form Cobra Starship and do the Snakes on a Plane song and a video for it and then the other people go back to their bands but GABE DOESN'T HAVE A BAND TO GO BACK TO. So he recruits people!
He made up this great story about aliens and snakes in the desert to explain why he called his band Cobra Starship and what their mission is (TO MAKE YOU DANCE). Nate Novarro is the first recruit to the new CS, and also the SHORTEST. Every CS member is in the six-foot-plus range, except for Nate. Nate stays a while in Gabe's basement, which leads to a lot of jokes on the albums and off. Nate is the drummer.
Alex Suarez and Ryland Blackinton were CHILDHOOD BFFs who lost contact, but met by chance again years later! They formed This Is Ivy League, a sweet pop band, and Gabe contacted them to be part of CS. They accept and lend some sweet keyboards to the band. Ryland Blackinton is also a good actor and has this fake persona, Guy Ripley, that he uses to interview the band. He is gawky and humorous and Alex is SO HANDSOME and does... remix stuff? dj stuff? MYSTERY.
Victoria (VICKY-T, never just Vicky) Asher is the KEYTARIST. She's also really, really attractive. She was a professional actressmusicianidek and then she met Alex and auditioned for CS! There was another lady keytarist before her who quit or was fired or something idk BAND DRAMA
I think initially some of the point of Cobra Starship was to prove you don't need guitars for a good rock/pop song? So the entire first album has no guitars, just two keyboards and keytar and drums and Gabe's vocals. After that, Ryland does guitar and Alex does bass in addition to their keyboard antics.
Cobra Starship have a very distinctive visual style. Lots of flashy colours, neons and so on, lots of '80s styling. Gabe Saporta had a necklace with a picture of Justin Timberlake on it for a while and it's featured on the cover of one of their albums. Their musical style is.... idk how to describe it, it's very unique and I still listen to them a lot. Here, Wiki says "Alternative rock, synthpop, pop punk, alternative dance".
CS are really buddies with a lot of the Decaydance bands. Patrick Stump produced their second album, Travie Mccoy of Gym Class Heroes was one of the initial Cobra Starship people and still collaborates with them, and William Beckett of The Academy Is... is tall person bros with them. Everything about CS always makes it look like the members all genuinely like each other and have fun together and I love them for that. They make fun of the pretension of the SCENE a lot in their music and videos, it is great. They tour and make more albums and joke Guy Ripley videos and they are now working on a fourth album called Night Shades which is out at the end of August. I AM EXCITE. THE END.
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PATRICK STUMP DOES NOT ARTICULATE WELL WHEN HE SINGS (AS IF HE HAS A MOUTHFUL OF MARBLES)
AND AT ONE POINT IN A FOB SONG HE SAYS SOMETHING LIKE "IT'S OH SO INTRICATE"
BUT IT SOUNDS LIKE "ALSO INTO CATS"
SO GABE SAPORTA DOES THIS VIDEO HE PUTS ON YOUTUBE WHERE HE'S LIKE, HEY, LOOK, I GOT A TATTOO
AND HE ROLLS UP HIS PANTS LEG AND ON HIS ANKLE IS A LITTLE CAT DRAWN IN SHARPIE
AND THEN HE GRINS AT THE CAMERA AND SAYS HE GOT IT BECAUSE HE IS ALSO INTO CATS!
~*~GABRIEL SAPORTA~*~.
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So much about bandom makes so much more sense when I know what the hell is up with bands other than just the one. And this is all so fascinating!
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And yeah, bandom is all shmushy because bands and people interact! constantly! and I am imagining especially Panic fic must make a lot more sense with the context of Fall Out Boy inspiring them and then signing them to Pete Wentz's label.
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(I thought you'd gone to bed? :P)
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