Brendon Urie Lays It All Out

Panic at the Disco

Beatrice Hazlehurst, writing at Paper:

No. I’m married to a woman and I’m very much in love with her but I’m not opposed to a man because to me, I like a person. Yeah I guess you could qualify me as pansexual because I really don’t care. If a person is great, then a person is great. I just like good people, if your heart’s in the right place. I’m definitely attracted to men. It’s just people that I am attracted to.

So you’re pansexual.

I guess so, I guess this is me coming out as pansexual.

Some Stuff to Think About on a Slow News Day

Funny Animals

Given the slow news day, I wanted to highlight a few things I think are worth your look.

One of the longtime members of our forum community, nohandstoholdonto, is raising money for surgery:

My name is Audrey, I’m 25 years old, and I’m a transgender woman. I’ve been medically transitioning for just about three years now, and while being on hormones has greatly helped me get closer to feeling more like the woman I know myself to be on the inside, I still frequently wrestle with gender dysphoria due to my current genitals… to put it bluntly. Unfortunately, the costs to actually surgically correct this issue are prohibitively expensive.

Our Comic Book thread continues to be a great resource if you like, or want to get into, comic books. I recently asked what the best book people have read in the past three months is, and I’m looking forward to going through the recommendations.

I also asked on Twitter who the most underrated pop-punk band of the early 2000’s was. I posited FenixTX and I’ve been having a blast reading the mentions and seeing all these other bands that could take the crown. If you’ve got a vote, let me hear it, I’ll be making a playlist of the most popular in the next few days.

And, lastly, I found this article by The Washington Post, asking if the Billboard music charts are meaningless in the streaming age, thought provoking:

All these headlines spark a few questions: If records are being broken every time the chart-bearers change the rules, then do they mean anything? Is it fair to compare Beyoncé and the Beatles? It was harder to purchase “The White Album” than to put a stream of “Lemonade” on repeat, after all. And if not, what happens to the way we conceive of the history of popular music? Meanwhile, are those shifting metrics altering the actual music we, the consumers, are receiving?

Review: Billy Raffoul – 1975 (EP)

Billy Raffoul - 1975

On Billy Raffoul’s debut EP for Interscope Records, entitled 1975, Raffoul capitalizes on his strengths: powerful, soulful lyrics and precise musicianship. At just 23 years old, Billy Raffoul mesmerizes on this EP with his bluesy vocals and pain-felt delivery of every lyric. On top of that, he’s an incredibly talented and underrated guitarist.

On the first single released from the EP, called “I’m Not a Saint,” Raffoul belts out that “I’m not a saint/But I could be if I tried.” With the earnest and heartfelt delivery found on this track, you would be hard pressed to not be a believer in what he sings about. With an almost everyman-type approach to his songwriting, much like DIY-ers Brian Fallon and Butch Walker, Raffoul makes you really feel what he was going through when he wrote this songs that are easily relatable, while simultaneously brilliant.

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Nick Martin Creates “Much Love Journal”

Sleeping With Sirens

Nick Martin of Sleeping with Sirens has teamed up with Offer Music to create the “Much Love Journal,” a place where you can write anything and everything. The journal includes a free bookmark, handwritten positive affirmations, and tour photos. It is only available until July 12th. 10% of sales go to benefit Love is Louder, a non-profit organization that supports anyone feeling mistreated, misunderstood, or alone.