Tag: music
Deep thoughts on shallow music
I don't know about you, but lately finding good music that really changes things for me has been increasingly difficult. I now tend to go directly to music from my teenage years or I simply let the For you algorithm go nuts, which almost always ends up playing music from my teenage years. Some new bangers here and there—mostly from the same bands—but I'm usually listening to the same thing every day. It doesn't help that these days I honestly don't have the time and energy to spent looking for n...
Missing Brand Music Video Ads
According to a May 27, 2026 report in Marketing Brew by Katie Hicks titled Why so many brands are releasing music videos, " it seems brand-created music videos are making a comeback as marketers are increasingly feeling pressure to create organic, original content to break through on social, particularly with younger audiences." This was news...
Pretty Lethal
C4? I mean, I see at least 16. If you know anything about Pretty Lethal going in, you know that it's bound to be an absurd film. It knows that and is gleeful in its execution. A ballerina troupe is set to perform at an event in Budapest. Their flight is diverted, their bus breaks down and they trek to a hotel in — as far as they can tell — the middle of nowhere. Innocent, if irritating, protagonists meet a stereotype of eastern Europe. Pretty Lethal has the visual tone and palette of the John Wick franchise with none of the franchise's seriousness. What kind of ballerina doesn’t know how to make themselves throw up? Everyone's got a first name, a pair of ballet flats and the chemistry one might expect in an ensemble. Bones is the fearless leader, Princess is as spoiled as her name implies, Grace is preachy and high, while Zoe and Chloe are a pair of sisters with irritatingly similar names. The employees at the hotel seem hospitable until the son of a local crime boss shoots their teacher in the head. Why? She was there, mostly. Iris Apatow (as Zoe) has some expressions that are eerily like those of her mother, Leslie Mann. Chaos ensues. Fight scenes incorporate ballet; Bones ends up with a razor blade embedded in the toe of her flats (novel and effective) and numerous unnamed goons die. Because films like this are never, ever, in any way subtle, the hotel owner (played by Uma Thurman) was, in a past life, a ballerina. She lost her leg to the local crime boss and prepares for one last dance. The enemy of your enemy is your friend and this friend handles your enemy in a single, massive explosion. The best part? The girls make it to Budapest on mopeds conveniently left outside the hotel and nail their performance — toe blades, gore and all. First position!
Playlist of the month: Ouch
I'm still in my recovery period - I'm not allowed to lift anything for another three weeks - but I am going to post a few, short blog posts again to get myself used to typing again. So, here's this month's playlist, which should give you an idea about how my recovery is going. Here's...
Alternative for the Masses
I'm nostalgic for the 90s and alternative music but I wasn't there for any of it. I was 4 and a half years old when Nevermind was released and was introduced to Nirvana by my dad playing MTV Unplugged in New York on repeat in the tape deck of his manual, hatchback Honda Civic. I wasn't a part of it, but I was alive during it and hold dear memories of that time. The music remains core to my memories of that time despite the fact that I really became invested in it as I got older. Alternative for the Masses isn't an author driven narrative about the the music or the time. There's a clear demarcation between topics and everything is covered in detail, driven by interviews with countless musicians, producers and pioneers in the genre. There's an art to guiding conversations, at length, with this many different people and weaving parts of those interviews into a coherent narrative. This sits nicely alongside books like Our Band Could Be Your Life and Corporate Rock Sucks , populated with vignettes from luminaries like Fred Armisen, Lou Barlow, Mike Watt and on and on. It's not a definitive discussion of the genre, nor does one exist. It was too expansive and too import to too many people to ever allow for that. But it's a nice addition to the historical discussion of it.
Malachite v0.4.4 — Apple Music & YouTube Music Support
Adding import support for Apple Music and YouTube Music, and updating branding.
BLOOD INCANTATION - All Gates Open: In Search of Absolute Elsewhere
I don't really watch making of the album or behind the scenes sort of stuff but I made an exception here. Blood Incantation are one of my favorite modern death metal bands and Absolute Elsewhere is destined to be a classic. You get to see the band in Germany geeking out over gear, record stores and special guests while talking through and playing the music. For an album like this, I enjoyed getting to hear the band's perspective on what they're recording and what that process looks like. It doesn't stand on its own, nor does it need to — it's a nice to have for fans (of which I am one). It's pretty rad seeing basically everyone in this thing wear a Morbid Angel shirt at some point too.
Tourmaline: analysis moves to web worker
Moved the entire analysis pipeline from server-side POST to a browser web worker, fixing Vercel body size limits for large scrobble histories
Tourmaline v0.4.0 — tabs, sessions, story recap, date ranges, phases
Profile redesign with tabbed layout, listening sessions, on this day, story-mode recap, date range filtering, and listening evolution phases
Tourmaline wrapped insights
Minutes listened, music evolution, remarkable days, discovery, and yearly wrapped card with scroll-reveal animations
Tourmaline new profile cards
Listening clock, listening stats, and service origins
Tourmaline personality card redesign
Added genre bars, mood indicators, stat badges, and dynamic SVG layout to the personality card
Tourmaline analysis algorithm improvements
Era analysis, time-of-day mood weighting, genre blending, Gini-based loyalty, full-artist genre profile
tourmaline v0.1.0 — AT Protocol scrobble analyser with share-to-Bluesky
First release of tourmaline — personality archetypes, genre profiles, mood mapping, and share-to-Bluesky for Teal.fm scrobbles.
Bandcamp Friday Recommendations - May 1st, 2026
Welcome back to ULTRAVIOLET-VISIONS, now with a new home! Previously, our blogs were hosted through Tumblr but it's been a while and now there are more blogging tools available than ever. I chose pckt.blog since it's free to use, highly customizable, and connects directly through our Bluesky account through AT protocol. Ideally in the long term we'll have our own website built to host all of our blog posts as well as the UVF music catalog, but in the meantime this is the place to be! While I'll ...
England's Dreaming
I like the Sex Pistols ’ music but was only vaguely aware of their history, so England’s Dreaming made for an interesting and, at times, conflicting read. I find it easy to get caught up in an ideal of punk I manufacture in my head based on the lyrics and stances of bands I appreciate. I’m conflicted after having read this. A lot of what you’ve heard of the Pistols and their penchant for self-destruction is backed up in these pages. Their existence was dark, transgressive and rebellious, but the genesis of the whole thing is something I find troubling. I was unaware of the degree to which Malcom McLaren was involved in the band’s choices and direction. Which, yes, I know managers are heavily involved in most successful musical endeavors but this felt exceptional. The band asked for McLaren’s involvement, but that involvement went from input, guidance and influence to control. The evolution of the band paralleled changes to the clothing shop owned by McLaren and Vivienne Westwood. McLaren was involved in lineup decisions, the name, the aesthetic, the lyrics. As the band courted controversy, there came the adoption of personas, confrontations with fans, authorities and labels, fights over money and even a movie that McLaren was deeply invested in. Every band, every artist has a story. This left me feeling as though the Pistols were more manufactured than authentic. They helped establish an attitude and imagery but the history described here makes them look like more of a stage managed product than an authentic institution.
which side are you on?
New Bilmuri's album is bruuutal
Holy guacamole! I've been waiting for this release since he started teasing a new album and it's just so worth it. The first song starts the show with a banger. It's just a super chuggy breakdown with a freaking eagle passing you by, only to tie up the start the second song that follows with a super catchy and pop-infused verse. Doesn't make sense at all but it's great. If you need a visual representation of the lines above, let me show you the video for the second single of the album, ALWAYS LE...