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Month: April 2023

Zoon – “Dodem” (Video Premiere)

Zoon
Adam Grundy

Today I’m thrilled to bring everyone the latest single and music video from Zoon, called “Dodem.” On this great-sounding track, Zoon channels their love for lush string arrangements paired with breathtaking pop sensibilities in a crowd-pleasing song. While speaking on the latest single, Zoon shared:

In Ojibway, ‘dodem’ means the clan you’re from. I’m from the Ma’iingan clan, wolf clan. I wanted to honour that word because I learnt a lot about where I come from. I wrote ‘dodem’ while living on the reservation with my father. He had taken me in during one of my worst relapses and I felt very vulnerable but used my time there to write. I remember clearly my uncle saying ‘that’s a hit!,’ I remember thinking maybe a rez hit.

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Blink-182 Live at Coachella Bootleg

Blink-182 Bootlegs
Jason Tate

Blink-182 performed two nights at Coachella as their first two shows back after reuniting with Tom DeLonge. I wrote about what the first performance meant to me in my newsletter:

Last night, Blink-182 returned to the stage to perform with Tom DeLonge for the first time in almost eight years. And the return at Coachella was live-streamed on YouTube. While I feel awful for the fans that had their shows postponed due to Travis’s injury, this being the return, to a massive hometown crowd and the entire thing being streamed so that fans across the globe could experience it together … was such a perfect treat. I texted a few friends to let them know it was happening, sat down on the couch, and experienced a new Blink-182 memory that I’ll carry with me for years to come with a whole bunch of fans in the Blink-182 thread on Chorus. It was an incredible evening. The band sounded as good as I think I’ve ever heard them with Tom. Mark sounded incredible. Tom sounded like he wanted to be there. Travis was an animal behind the kit. Seeing the smiles on the band’s faces, seeing how happy Mark was, and hearing the banter back and forth again was everything I could have hoped for. I sat there with a stupid grin on my face. Just an hour of being happy. An hour of hearing some of my favorite songs being played by one of my favorite bands and getting to nerd out with a bunch of like-minded fans just losing our shit like it was 2001. There’s a magic this band has always had that just hits different. A mixture of fun times with band members that we’ve grown up emulating and songs that we’ve spent countless hours listening to. And for those of us they’ve infected, it’s been an almost lifelong obsession now. Last night was a beautiful entry into the pantheon of Blink memories. With all the band drama, the health scares, and the years adding up on all of us, to see the band at this level deliver on that stage, with all of us experiencing it together, was truly special. Maybe it’s because I turned 40 a few weeks back. Perhaps it’s a combination of the collective trauma of the past few years. Or maybe it’s just an elder emo being over dramatic on a Friday evening, but I couldn’t help but be a little choked up seeing this all play out. The adoration for the songs that have meant so much to me over my life, the happiness radiating from the stage, and the shared experience with other Blink fans, was one more addition to the scrapbook of memories I’ve had with Blink-182. And they absolutely crushed it. Blink-182 for life.

Being able to experience this show, with other fans, really captured how much being a Blink-182 fan means to me and how the fanbase really is a wonderful community. I’m not usually a big bootleg, or even live album, listener. However, these two shows were so much fun to experience, and were two of the best performances I’ve heard from the band in ages, that I felt like they should live for posterity for all fans to experience over and over again.

I used the highest quality rip of the performance I could find, a direct from source download. Then I cut the files up into individual tracks, using The Mark, Tom, and Travis model of where to put the dialog and splice the songs. And then I used my, admittedly very novice, audio engineering skills to “master” the files in Logic Pro. I tried to clean up the audio the best I could, removing extra artifacts, trying to reduce the audible “hiss” that permeated weekend two’s vocals, and giving the entire thing a more clean and punchy EQ. It’s edited to my personal taste in what my ears find pleasing. Then I raised the volume to better match what I expect an album to sound like, and avoid any clipping, and exported all the tracks as 320 kbps MP3s.

I added the awesome artwork done by Danyel Saldanha Evangelista and am now sharing the entire thing with other Blink fans. Please feel free to share these as I believe everything deserves more Blink in their life. And, I’m crossing my fingers no one gets too mad at me for sharing live bootleg audio only files.

Y’all can keep the videos for your YouTube channel, let us share and experience the audio!

UPDATE • Apr 28, 2023

Welp, Coachella’s lawyers are a bunch of party poopers:

God forbid people want to enjoy something and actually have a positive feeling about your festival. 🙄

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LOVEBREAKERS – “Attracted To Your Fashion”

Lovebreakers
Adam Grundy

Today I’m excited to share with everyone the new single and music video from LOVEBREAKERS, that comes from their forthcoming album Wonder, called “Attracted To Your Fashion.” The band recently toured Europe with punk veterans Social Distortion and appear poised for their musical moment. The band shared:

”‘Attracted To Your Fashion” is about the first time I met my girlfriend. We were chatting online, and I was instantly hooked by the way she dressed. She wore vintage clothes with no labels and did her hair and makeup like she was from LA. I remember being obsessed with her fashion sense before we got to know each other on a personal level. I wrote the song with her in mind, and I added in aspects like the pin badges and all the other girls being jealous. I wanted the song to be a celebration of being attracted to somebody before you meet them. It has a sense of excitement and anticipation, which was how I felt the first time I saw her. After we got chatting, we instantly had chemistry. We are now 9 years into our relationship, and I’m still attracted to her dress sense and many other things!

If you’re enjoying the new single, please consider purchasing their music here.

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“Concert Mode” for AirPods?

Airpods
Jason Tate

Mark Bramhill writes about the idea a “concert mode” for AirPods:

On paper, concert earplugs are very similar to Adaptive Transparency: they allow the sounds of the world around you to pass through, but they lower allsound by an even amount. There are several reasons people use concert earplugs: to prevent searing pain from loud volumes, protect hearing from long-term damage (especially for musicians and audio professionals), and limit overstimulation for neurodivergent people. But while reducing all sounds and frequencies evenly is the goal, even good concert earplugs don’t achieve this. They sound somewhat-to-very muffled, which makes it harder to feel immersed in the music around you.

I have a similar thought as Nick Heer:

This is a great idea in every way, with the sole exception of the optics of a crowd of people watching their favourite band while apparently listening to something else. That will never not look strange to me.

My current favorite concert earplugs are barely noticeable.

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