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Well the con summer 2026 is over for me so let's get some thoughts out on everything in one go. Confuzzled 2026 (photo by Stormfloof) Confuzzled is the old reliable. I've been attending the convention almost annually since 2009 (only missing a couple of years in between) and the con has been in its current venue for a good 14 years now, and outside a few minor tweaks along the years as its grown to accommodate bigger crowds, it has largely remained the same for its duration in the current…
The Finnish rock band Lodger had a pretty good start, all things considered. Their debut single "Footsteps" was marketed with a quaint Flash animation featuring a one-eyed stick guy having a rough day; a very basic video by modern standards, but a surprising and unexpected choice for the video for an actual band and it rather randomly took off. The "Footsteps" video ended up winning first place in the national music video award/competition and the band's debut Hi-Fi High Lights Down Low (2005)…
The June 2026 music round-up comes to you fashionably late because I've been too busy Anthroconning. New Music Immediate ImpressionsA fair bit of new music this month! Death Cab for Cutie - I Built You a Tower The 2nd indie rock divorce epic of 2026 (after the latest American Football album). Doing my Death Cab discog review-through last year really reinvigorated my love for the band and I've been greatly enjoying this new album. While generally speaking this is perhaps what you'd expect from…
A few months back Car Seat Headrest announced (and digitally released) a partially re-recorded and reshuffled version of their breakthrough album Teens of Denial (2016), to the fandom's collective "but why?" Now that reaction was largely on the back of the rumour mill behind the changes and the general uncertainty on why this album needed any re-recording to begin with, and it wasn't because of the mere idea of the group going back to retouch old favourites. After all, that's just part of what…
So the Steam sales are on shortly, and so is this thing doing rounds where people can recommend 9 games from the sales for anyone who cares to listen. There are no criteria or anything, it's just sharing what you love and hoping someone might be inspired to check it out while it's being discounted. So (taking a leaf from Quailblog's page here are nine games I'd like to recommend while the sales are on. Specifically, these are nine games that might have fallen under people's radars for one…
Coincidental timing. Over on my music review site I've just started talking about the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and here the RNG provides me with a solo album from their most iconic guitarist. In my discography run I've still got a bit to go before Frusciante makes his entrance and a lot longer until he truly transforms into the John Frusciante we know and love, but in terms of my life with the Peppers overall, this appeared relatively early on. The Peppers were one of my defining bands around the…
I'm continuing my travels through the Finnish #1 singles history, and I've now completed my dig-through of 2002. As always the full list and my thoughts on every song that made it to the top of the charts are found on RateYourMusic, but below you'll find a summary of the year's highlights. >> If you want to read all the thoughts on the full year's chart, check the list out on RYM (2002 starts pretty early into this page) << 2002 is a weird year, with no real discernible trends and instead…
Hello May, how the hell are we here already? In any case, this is a slightly lighter update; most of the music events happened either really early or really late into the month, and I didn't actually get to spend as much time with tunes during that big middle period. But we make do what we have. New Music Immediate ImpressionsMay didn't actually have all that much new music. Or it did, but I just somewhat lost touch of it a bit. So this month's impressions list is going to be rather short.…
Stop tittering about the band name, it means "ultra good" in Swedish. Ultra Bra are, however, Finnish - and an era-defining cultural force who are synonymous with the 1990s for certain generations. They were a formidable force as well, with the band's line-up consisting of about 12-13 people - that's 4-5 singers (depending on the album), a full rock band, a pianist, a percussionist, a horn section and other miscellanea. That crowd wasn't just set dressing either, but an integral part of the…
Revisit of the last two weeks (and one day - I know I usually post these on a Thursday), really. I went to Confuzzled and figured I'd just stretch this period to double the time to account for it. Might write a post about CFz later. I was, as always, fashionably late to Sidney Gish. "Presumably Dead Arm" came up in a random playlist tailored by the Streaming Service for my other half, and it was one of those moments where I just had to take stock and pay attention, and then seek out the artist…
Confuzzled 2026 is around the corner. For Confuzzled 2022, which was the first post-COVID convention I attended, I created a little mix CD which featured songs that for me celebrated being together with others - I handed them out at the con and left some in public spaces for strangers to grab. I've been wanting to revisit the idea for a few years now but things have been getting in the way. The same happened with CFz 2026 as well - I just ran out of time and focus to actually make this into a…
I've been playing games recently too! I've just not been posting about them, though I've kept my habit of trying to say a little something about each one in my BackLoggd account. But for those who don't follow me there, here's a big ol' review dump of games I've played and completed over the past couple of months. Grotto You are a soothsayer in a cave (a grotto, if you will). Denizens of the local village come to you for guidance and you consult the stars to provide it. Only, the stars are…
I've been listening to two greatest hits compilations from seminal 90s alternative rock acts from the US this week: R.E.M.'s In Time for my music review site, and Rotten Apples for this side hustle. Both attempt to summarise the imperial phases of their respective bands as they conquered the airwaves in the 1990s, both come with a brand new song that deservedly fits in with the rest of the big hits, both have a slightly eyebrow-raising inclusion of a song from a soundtrack, and both have a…
This is a post I originally wrote for Cohost in 2023. It has been revised ever so slightly to clean up a few typos and to fit it into this new context, but otherwise I've kept it intact. Art by Mag Ferret In honour of my kangaroo character Berninger's "birthday" around this time of May (i.e. the day I picked him up from the fursuit maker - 14th May specifically), I felt like resurrecting my old post about the history of the big orange roo. Flint is my primary form of identification online but…
Hot take 1: Think Tank is Blur's best album. Again, it's Flint here with an affinity for a band just doing a weird-ass career derail of a record. During the sessions Blur had become a trio because guitarist Graham Coxon got fed up with the musical direction Albarn was pushing the band towards and clashed with Norman Cook (AKA Fatboy Slim) who was producing parts of the sessions, and decided to simply ditch the band (hot take 2: the only Coxon-featuring song here, "Battery on My Leg", is the…
It's April - spring is making its moves, the plant gunk flying everywhere has brought the traditional hayfever fits with it, and I heard some new music and bought some less new music. Not as much as last month in the latter department, thank god. New Music Immediate ImpressionsAmerican Football - American Football [LP4] The on-and-off US indie legends return again after a long period of absence, and they're more tightly wrapped up in their own world than ever. LP4 is a dense listen: in its core…
My first thought when the RNG chose this as my weekly revisit was to skip it. After all, I only just reviewed this for my music site. And then I checked the timelines and realised I reviewed this in 2023. Christ, time, what the hell? I still co-sign my more analytical, long-form ramblings which you can read through link the above, so there isn't really much to say in that respect without risking repeating myself. Because Bright Eyes were a US indie project, the whole concept of "b-sides" was…
Chances are, you've not heard about PMMP. That's fine - they're a Finnish act operating solely within their domestic borders. In their home country PMMP were one of the defining acts of the first decade of the 2000s, and their reunion concerts the other year were one of the biggest pop culture events of the country. Outside Finland, they may as well be obscure nobodies. One of the many, many reasons why I love writing about music is the chance to tell the world about these acts from my corner…
Before the Juno and Polaris award nominations, before the anniversary tours of beloved albums that have become a cultural touchpoint for a particular generation, before the performances all around the world - there were just two guys in a small New York flat, converting their ailing dreams in their respective arts into gentle, heartfelt pop songs. Nightsongs is one of those kinds of debut albums where the gap between the artist then and the artist as we have come to know them is wide enough…
Quick thoughts on Faunts' so-far final EP
I finished reviewing the Chumbawamba discography and now I'm telling you about it.
Wrapping up March in music.
Exactly what it says on the tin. Madness.
Thoughts on the Y2K Internet Simulator puzzle game with a real deep heart
