My Aimee Mann Liner Notes

November 1, 2017

The first time I heard the sound of Aimee Mann’s voice was on the television. It was on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The episode titled "Sleeper" featured Aimee as a guest musician at the famed, fictional hangout The Bronze. Buffy was famous for bringing in real, sometimes established musicians to play on the show. Aimee, however, had a speaking role too. She played the songs "This is How it Goes" and "Pavlov’s Bell" from her 2002 album Lost In Space. Her line? "Man, I hate playing vampire towns."

The Spookiness & Nostalgia of Loreena McKennitt & Halloween

October 31, 2017

On a brisk December evening in the early 90s, my aunt took me and two of my cousins to stand in a stranger’s yard in rural Maryland and sing to a dead tree.

A Witchy Music Playlist to Motivate You

September 26, 2017

Joanna C. Valente is the author of Sirs & Madams, The Gods Are Dead, Marys of the Sea, Xenos, and the editor of A Shadow Map: An Anthology by Survivors of Sexual Assault.

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Depeche Mode Gets Political

September 14, 2017

Depeche Mode really get it. With their latest, and 14th studio album Spirit, they go back to their goth punk roots and get political. This comes at a time where we need to be political, both with what we say and definitely with how we act. The album is a clear reaction to Trump and Brexit, especially with their song "Where's the Revolution?"

3 Poems by Alexandra Naughton — My Posey Taste Like: The Paradise Lost Edition

July 27, 2017

ALEXANDRA NAUGHTON

Alexandra Naughton's My Posey Taste Like: The Paradise Lost Edition (Bottlecap Press, 2017) includes poems from the original, highly-acclaimed collection My Posey Taste Like (Bottlecap Press, 2015) plus ten new poems. Watch this video.

maybe i don’t deserve it but i’m tired. i would like to just stop. i don’t really know what that means and i also feel the exact opposite. like i would just like to go. because maybe i don’t deserve it. so i go any where. i like feeling night time on my skin wandering but going some where it doesn’t matter why any thing can be an adventure when you let it and i let it, and it pulls me forward by invisible strings keeping the radio perfect to keep the momentum just right and i’m not even thinking any more just being part of an other body an other calling an other way to worship. and then when it feels right to stop. and then curling up to rest.

peeing in your shower when you’re not looking and drowning in self importance. later you’re underlining how little I mean to you, tracing fingers back and forth in the carpeting for emphasis. i’m propped up on pillows and yawning like i’ve waited for this moment all weekend. our similarities can only go so far, sing so much harmony. the difference between a poem and just something you wrote is just not saying something completely fucking ordinary, it’s how you say it too.

my posey taste like soiled tablecloths in a hamper heap. paradise lost or a parasite, lost. let the puppy lick your hand and quit being such a killjoy. touching myself in the mirror like this is the best i can do. i’m not wasting time, i’m not looking for any thing except what i can devour. straddling you on an apartment building rooftop watching the sun go down and drinking from cold glasses. i will take apart your face to find the morsels i like most, taking big bites from the sides like a dad with his kid’s ice cream cone because it’s melting. this is what love is, you say, peeling back my sweaty spousebeater to scream into my skin, my stains. every thing you do i just absorb you. staying so damn quit it makes you madder and i just take you in.

Alexandra Naughton is editor in chief of @baipress in California. Her first novel, American Mary, was published by Civil Coping Mechanisms in March 2016 . She’s a Libra. Follow her on twitter: @thetsaritsa

Overcoats’ YOUNG and Turning Inward Toward Your Stories

July 19, 2017

There is something enthralling about a song that deceives you. A first listen can prompt upbeat head-bobbing in the car or prancing around your room, but on a second or third reflection, you detect a sadness, fear, or anxiety in the lyrics that wasn’t apparent at first. This was my experience listening to YOUNG, Overcoats’ debut album.

Jams and Fashion: Music Videos from the Summer of '97

June 26, 2017

The summer of 1997 was immense for women in R&B and Hip-Hop...

The Ultimate List of '80s Music Rarities You Should Know

June 9, 2017

I love all music, but if I'd have to choose a favorite decade in the music scene, it would undoubtedly be the 80s—a time I wish I was transported to right now. My heart just skips a beat whenever a new wave song comes on the radio, my whole body boils with passion and energy when I hear an 80s album remixed beautifully. And so, I created a listicle—albeit abridged—of some of my beloved musical artists with lesser known songs that are nonetheless deliciously tuneful and timeless, with a bit of a background on my favorite genres—gothic rock and new wave.

10 Songs You Will Love If You're a Lana Del Rey Fan (That Aren't By LDR)

June 8, 2017

Nadia Gerassimenko is the assistant editor at Luna Luna Magazine by day, a moonchild and poet by night. Nadia self-published her first poetry collection "Moonchild Dreams" (2015) and hopes to republish it traditionally. She's currently working on her second chapbook, "at the water's edge." Visit her at tepidautumn.net or tweet her at @tepidautumn.

PHOTO CREDIT: Synesthesia Music Collective

A Visual Diary of Iranian-Dutch Singer-Songwriter & Multi-Mediaist, Sevdaliza

April 13, 2017

I immediately became engrossed with her trip-hop and R&B sound that is reminiscent of artists like Tricky, Massive Attack, and Portishead. The visually surreal magic of her videos is dark, ethereal, melancholy, evocative, and seductive. One can’t help think of Björk when watching the filmic narrative of the songs on screen with Sevdaliza’s opulent and Giger-esque biomechanical body in “Marilyn Monroe” or the erotic centauress in “Human.”

A Mixtape for When the World Overwhelms You

March 14, 2017

When it seems that nothing's going right and the world is just too heavy just too much, this mixtape may be the answer and the gateway for your escapade. And when you feel the enchantment of the ambience and the other-worldliness, feel this world closing in and opening a portal to another dimension, feel it calling and echoing for you, to escape...even just for a little bit.

This Dreamy Retro Playlist Is Everything You Need Right Now

February 22, 2017

We could all stand to surround ourselves with love more. There's really no better time to foster the relationships with the people around you than during times of strife and turmoil, both personal and political (and isn't the political always personal?). To get you in the mood, here's a playlist full of some of the best love songs around.

A Dark & Moody Playlist to Get Your Creativity Flowing

February 15, 2017

I often write to music. I find music helps set a tone and atmosphere that is hard to do on my own, especially if I'm in a public space like a coffee shop (and I often am). Here's a playlist that helps get me in the mood to write/make art:

Interview with Kallie Van Tassel, the Lead Singer of Punk Band Gland

January 16, 2017

If you don't know who Gland is, you should. They're an awesome punk band from New Orleans, and they're music is about to make you care EVEN MORE about the state of the world right now. and that’s all I know about them. Their music rages against structural racism, sexism, and capitalism in a way I haven't seen lately.

Melancholic Mondays: Elliott Smith's 'Miss Misery' And Where We Go When We Die

December 5, 2016

This week's Melancholic Mondays delves into the tragic, beautiful work of Elliott Smith.