Music – Random Geek Child

Mythology, Folklore, and Musical Comedy

I’m five hundred posts into this blogging thing – insert cheering here – and it’s only just occurred to me that alongside talking about artists, I can post about individual songs! I don’t know why this hadn’t occurred to me earlier, given the patchwork composition of my playlists, but it has now and here we are!

I’m Sorry Trojans is an excellent example. How did this wind up in my life? Unknown. Am I glad that it did? Hell yes! A sort of narrative nonfiction/literary analysis comedy duo about the Trojan Horse, complete with OSP-style info-packed art. Along the same vein of Greek mythology (in multiple ways – hisss), Plaything of the Gods is the story of Medusa, featuring the cutest head-snakes and Medusa’s own perspective, and not of Greek myth but similarly narrative/chaotic/quietly ethically ‘eh…???’ is Three Kobolds In A Trenchcoat! Once again, adorable – all of these animators seem to have had a delightful time. And as a fan of 9th Level Games’s Knuckle Sammich – also about Kobolds – this one is doubly entertaining for me. Their Kobolds would do that! Regardless of context, though, it’s both a journey and a bop.

Faun

Once I’ve been studying a language for a while, I make a mission of finding music in that language that I really, really like – the kind you can happily listen to over and over again until you have all the lyrics memorized. For German especially, I hit the jackpot! The first song I listened to was one of Faun’s.

First off, the vibes are impeccable. I could not understand a word of this and be having a good time. On top of that, it’s like listening to a fairytale! In fact, sometimes it is. Rosenrot, for example, tells the story of Snow-White and Rose-Red. Non-fairytale story-songs, meanwhile, include Gold Und Seide, Feuer, and Federkleid! These three especially have some of my favorite uses of language as a craft, and Faun’s work collectively has become a crucial memory device for the particulars of German grammar. Vocab, too – there’s nothing like humming your way to the word you were looking for!

Alongside all of that, they also delve into Pagan traditions, like the Celtic festival Lugnasadh!

MALINDA – In Concert!

In 2020 I sung MALINDA’s praises, and now she’s on tour! I saw her at the Chicago show at City Winery Chicago, which also happens to have a great dinner menu.

This tour is specifically featuring MALINDA’s album It’s All True, as well as some other originals (like “Don’t Make Me“!), folk covers, and sean-nós, or “old style” Irish music. What I learned at City Winery is that MALINDA concerts are so, so special, not just because I love her music, not just because she has an extremely talented team joining her on tour, but because there is such an infectious energy to her concerts! It’s epic and personal and More (With You) and the audience participation for songs like “Figured Out” was really just the icing on the cake.

If there was ever a concert worth seeing over and over and over again, it’s definitely MALINDA’s, and if you’re near any of the cities that still have tickets left, I highly recommend going! It’s absolutely worth it. As for the rest of us… here’s to the next tour!

Thomas Sanders

Back in late December when I was gushing about MALINDA, I mentioned that the prince in her music video “Don’t Make Me” is played by Thomas Sanders, “who’s also awesome and should probably get a post of his own at some point.” Well, it took four months to come back around to that little promise, but here we are!

Thomas Sanders is an adorkable YouTube creator (and also formerly Vine, RIP) with an eclectic repertoire of content. I can’t recall which particular song introduced me to his work, but it was definitely his music I found first. That facet of his art is a mix between parodies and mash-ups, like the incredible Friends On The Other Side – Disney Villains Mash-Up, and original songs, my favorite of which is probably Recipe For Me.

Granted, there are a few other songs that would be contenders for that title if they weren’t part of a different talking point: Sanders Sides, an ongoing series featuring… well, Thomas talking to himself, if we’re being honest. But that’s an oversimplification — what Thomas has done is taken different aspects of his personality and turned them into distinctive characters of their own, namely Logic, Morality, the Prince (who represents Creativity), and Anxiety. These characters and Thomas himself then debate various topics together. For instance, A New Year of Lying To Myself has the whole gang questioning the practicality of New Year’s resolutions… in song! If you’re looking for a sampler, that’s the episode you want– it’s got all five of them, and it’s early enough to avoid spoilers, since Sanders Sides has actual inter-episode continuity and dynamic character arcs over the course of the series. (Fair warning, the comments sections are a minefield of spoilers, so you might want to avoid them on the first watch.) You can also, obviously, just start at the beginning of the playlist, which I’ll link to here. Make sure to stick around for the end cards!

I think Sanders Sides is intriguing in large part because it’s a brilliant balance of goofy, quippy fun and meaningful messages. Among other things, several episodes provide tips for managing anxiety, there’s an entire video dedicated to dealing with intrusive thoughts (which is understandably darker than the others, just a warning), and others with discourse on everything from originality as a creator to the balance between the mind and the heart. It’s touching and thought-provoking, but with the right amount of humor to still be lighthearted, and a pace that somehow blends the two perfectly.

MALINDA

If you haven’t heard of Malinda Kathleen Reese, then you, my friend, are missing out. Who is she? Well…

Malinda runs two YouTube channels, one of which is MALINDA (hence why the post’s title is in all caps). This channel has a wide range of fantastic music, all of which I’d highly recommend (even the stuff I haven’t heard yet; I’m sure it’s great) but there are a few in particular that stand out as examples. First, there’s how I was introduced to her content: “Don’t Make Me,” a music video with excellent acting and choreography about a newly-wedded princess whose prince betrays her. The prince is played by Thomas Sanders, who’s also awesome and should probably get a post of his own at some point.

A more solemn selection is the song she wrote about quarantine, featuring her likewise talented parents, or, for something light and fun, you could check out “The Song of the Puffin.” In addition to a hilariously random song about puffins, this video includes some of the process of creating the song, which I found fascinating. It was a group effort with her fans, so an unorthodox means of songwriting for sure, but lots of fun to follow along with through the first 5 or 6 minutes of the video. (If you just want to listen to the song part, well, your loss, but the time signature for that is 6:07.)

And then there’s Malinda’s other channel, Twisted Translations (formerly known as Translator Fails), where she runs the script for the video through Google Translate too many times and presents the resulting madness. A good one is the Google Translate Explains How To Vote video from this September. The election may be over, but the translator fails will never cease to be amusing. She also does Google Translate songs, like “You’re Welcome” from Moana, which can lead to some interesting alternate lyrics. You’ll see what I mean.

While those translations are the meat of the channel’s content, what really sells it is her performance, with Google Translate Malinda’s over-the-top confidence in the nonsense being articulated while Real Malinda listens, providing a series of confused and downright exasperated reactions that resonate with my soul.

I could fangirl further about how awesome Malinda is, but, honestly, just– just go watch her videos, people; her work needs no further pitch than that.

The Secret of My Success — the Musical

It should be noted that I rarely write about books, shows or movies, specifically because I find it difficult to properly express my appreciation of the works without spoiling anything. However, this musical was phenomenal, and I feel it warrants a post. Not about the plot, just a little bit of why I appreciate it. I will, as always, try to avoid spoilers.

I should start by saying that The Secret of My Success is new, and it shows. While the musical is based on a film (which I haven’t seen, so I can’t really compare the two), the casual use of (light) swearing and more traditionally “inappropriate” humor (nothing too crude, and if your children understand it’s not the musical’s fault) mark it as a modern work. So do some of its references — both Barack Obama and Prince Harry were mentioned.

One of the keys to this show is the humor. They make fun of themselves (“Is he singing at me?”) and have plenty of in-character comedic moments, so even though the story actually has a lot of deep, serious messages, you spend the whole performance laughing.

I can’t say much about the serious themes of this show, what made it so clearly modern, or the details I appreciated, because that’s spoiler territory, but I will say that I appreciated how intelligent the kid in this story is. Ernie is eight, which, it seems to me, is an age often written with linguistic difficulties and a lack of situational comprehension. Possibly because I was a precocious child, or just because I was close enough to that age to be interacting with real, live eight year-olds semi-regularly, this portrayal always bothered me. In contrast, Ernie is an intelligent, articulate young man, who, while he still (rightly) acts like a kid, is also aware of what’s going on around him. I can’t begin to pick favorite lines from this show, but Ernie definitely had some good ones.

In short, I really, really loved this musical, and I’d highly encourage you to check it out!

Rhett And Link

Who? Rhett and Link are YouTubers. They’re best known for the daily talk show, Good Mythical Morning, where they either learn about, or, more often, try different things, mostly food. They frequently try foods blindfolded or just without being told what they’re eating and then have to guess what it is. Some examples are Whole Foods vs. 99 Cent Store, Blind Fast Food Sub Sandwich Taste Test, The Blind Chicken Nugget Taste Test, and, one of my favorites, The Ultimate Water Taste Test.

They do “International” taste tests (International BBQ Taste Test here) where they taste something from one of the countries highlighted on their map, and then not only have to guess where it’s from, but throw a dart at that place on the map. The darts are scored on how close they are to the correct answer, and the player with the lowest score wins (like golf).

Other times, they’re testing assorted “Hacks” (Crazy Airplane Cocktail Hacks). Sometimes they have guests on the show, such as Feel & Squeal Challenge ft. Hank Green, The What If? Game ft. Daniel Radcliffe, Duo or Don’t-O ft. SMOSH, and Christmas Song Challenge ft. Jack Black.

Not only do they have a talk show, they also do skits and music videos! Some skits are The Puzzle, BFF’s, and Campin’. Their music videos include My OCD, the Graduation Song, BFF (not to be confused with the skit BFF‘s), Tough Decisions (A Whale Is Gonna Die), and Just Being Honest, just to name a few. They’ve also started a thing called SongBiscuits where they write a song with a fellow musician and then perform it. One of my favorites of these is the Cat’s 9 Lives Song. You can find the video where they write and perform it here and the animated song here.

As great as their talk show is, I prefer their music, mostly for timing, since their show is usually somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes, whereas their songs seem to cap at 5. But whichever you’re watching, they’re still light-hearted and silly.

HISHE

In the world of obsessive fandom (where I have been stranded for years), sometimes we like to write our own endings for films. Sometimes, it’s because we think that our ending makes more sense, and sometimes it’s just plain funny. HISHE (How It Should Have Ended) uses a combination of both in their videos. I don’t think I need to say this, but I will anyways: these videos contain spoilers, so don’t watch them if you don’t want to know how the film ends.

I first ran into HISHE years ago, when my mother showed me the Frozen HISHE. Since then, I’ve scrolled through on my own, watching as many videos as I could. They’ve created two new places, the Super Café and the Villain Pub. At the end of the video, if the good guys win, they frequently hang out at the Super Café with Superman and Batman. If the villain wins, they can be seen bragging about it to the others at the Villain Pub. Each of these settings also has their own little compilation of videos, grouping together all of the clips from the previous videos (Super Café 1, Super Café 2, Villain Pub.)

When they’re not busy rewriting stories and pulling running gags (“Because I’m Batman!”), HISHE also does musical parodies. There’s the Sound of Violence (Batman, compilation), Here Comes My Arrow (Yondu, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2) which is actually the extended version of the one that played in the video, Not Worthy (Thor, compilation), and The 12 Days of Christmas (Villains in Villain Pub, assorted films).

You may have noticed that the videos I linked to have different styles of HISHE logos before them. So far, my favorite is the one that appears in Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 and Spider-Man Homecoming.

Wicked (Minimal Spoilers)

Today, we rode the train into the city to go to my first ever showing of Wicked! I had been listening to the soundtrack in my mother’s car for years, but I had never actually seen the show itself. Before we went to the actual performance, we went to this great all-you-can-eat sushi place a few blocks away. It was delicious!

But back to the show: I was ecstatic to be finally seeing it! I knew a lot of the plot from inferences that I made based off of the music, but there were still plenty of surprises throughout! The performers did a great job, and the way they did everything from Glinda’s bubble to the flying monkeys were extraordinary.

But the shining star of the day was the plot line itself. The intricate, twisted plot is interwoven with the traditional Wizard of Oz, and the connecting points shed more light on the original character while introducing a few more. The best part for me, however, was the drastic character development that took place throughout the story. The best example of this was probably Fiyero, who also happens to be my favorite character.

I tried to make sure not to include any spoilers in this post, but I extend my apologies if I did spoil anything. I thought that this production went above and beyond my expectations, and hope that you look into it!

History is a Song

I’m going to say ahead of time, this post is a little off topic. I, however, felt the need to mention this group, who I have been listening to a lot.

History in music is something I was first introduced to through my cousin and uncle. Sabaton is a group of musicians that write songs about historic battles and warriors. We like to play their music while playing World of Warships (see previous post).

My favorite of their songs is The Lost Battalion, a World War I song about a group of Americans trapped by the Germans in the Argonne Forest. I have a project at my school where we’re studying the 1910’s-1920’s in Language Arts and making an Animoto video of it. I got special permission from my teacher and my partner to use this song as part of my project, since my friend and I chose World War I as our topic.

My second favorite song is Resist and Bite. Resist and Bite is a World War II song about the Belgian blitzkrieg, where forty men stepped to arms to hold off the Germans. They succeeded for a total of 18 days. Again, I love this group and suggest their music to those interested.

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