UniversalBasicJustice

🌍🧑‍🚀🔫🧑‍🚀🌚

I am a metalhead and you will pry “Out of the hall, normie” from my cold, dead hands.

Lorna Shore and APC next to Peter Gabriel and Santigold; respect mixed with concern.

This weekend was heavy in the Black Metal.

White Ward (False Light) and Labyrinthus Stellarum (Vortex of the Worlds) are both excellent Ukrainian BM bands.

Wolves in the Throne Room (Black Cascade), Wayfarer (American Gothic) and Vukari (Divinations) for some American BM representation.

Austria’s Summoning (Minas Morgul) to top it all off. Their music contributed heavily to the invention of Dungeon Synth as a genre. They’re also an exemplar of (if not the progenitors of) “Black Metal fans are all Tolkien nerds.”

Shoutout to Caladan Brood (Caladan Brood) for their Summoning worship and introducing me to a story worthy of naming a band after; Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen.

>metal

Counterpoint: Death Metal involves a lot of death.

Get you a man that can do it all. Get you Marty Friedman.

My pleasure, friend. I’m a major guitar nerd and Tosin is one of the most skilled and creative modern guitarists I know of and I love to sing his and AaL’s praises.

The Brain Dance is another excellent, more recent and much softer song of theirs. I’d also recommend you check out Tosin’s live playthrough of Wave of Babies on the EMG YT channel.

Regardless, if you or another reader is interested in guitar-centric instrumental rock give these a listen. Unlike AaL, I wouldn’t call any of these bands heavy FWIW;

Covet

Chon

Scale the Summit (stick to old stuff)

Intervals (new stuff)

Polyphia

Just to follow-up on this in a bit more detail for you and other readers; Animals as Leaders is a three piece instrumental band with Toxin, another guitarist Javier Rayes* and a drummer, Matt Gartska. The band lacks a bassist for a nifty reason.

Whereas the typical guitar has 6 strings, Tosin and Javier both play 8-string guitars. Those two extra strings are tuned lower and allow a guitar to play the same low notes as a bass. These two dudes dont swap roles so much as accompany themselves, though. They’re both incredibly talented and create music with rhythmic complexity and depth.

Physical Education is catchy and bouncy and the music video is silly. They dont take themselves very seriously, but they do take their music and performance seriously. All three are extremely skilled musicians.

*: Javier’s solo project Mestís is also amazing. Softer than AaL and heavily inspired by Spanish rhythms and melodies.

Physical Education!

ESPECIALLY IF YOU HAVE ADHD LIKE ME

I was gonna be telling but I’m glad you beat me to it.

Instead, I will VERY LOUDLY EMPHASIZE THAT TOSIN ABASI IS ONE OF THE BEST MODERN GUITARISTS AND EVERYONE SHOULD LISTEN TO HIS BAND ANIMALS AS LEADERS

Anarchist.nexus is more or less the PieFed equivalent of db0 to my understanding. The flotilla concept was one of ‘shared governance’ and anarchist solidarity or something. Quokk.au was in discussions to join but wanted to maintain it’s own de-fed list; IIRC Hexbear was the point of contention. An agreement was reached that admitted Quokk with certain caveats that just sounded like a hierarchy with extra steps.

I’ve had hexbear (and ml, and grad I think) blocked since early days and upon discovering db0 was not only federated with them but willing to gatekeep to remain so I jumped ship. I’m no anarchist nor particularly well-versed in their theory but I thought the whole point was to dismantle hierarchies? The “new membership tier” or whatever just reeked of incongruence and disingenuousness. Frankly its late and I find myself violently disinterested such that I’m unwilling to refresh my memory.

Tl;Dr c ya nerds

Yeah, I scrolled through the modlogs after seeing the de-fed post and realized how far the instance had strayed from their original message. Seeing half a dozen new communities pop up concerning AIPAC funding was just weird.

Also, the “Anarchist Flotilla” seemed kinda…lame? Not necessarily the concept; a novel method of organizing around a new structure like federated social media makes sense. Implementation, however…inventing a new ‘tier of membership’ for quokk.au seemed odd. I dunno, maybe I just haven’t ‘read enough theory.’

db0 was my home instance for over a year. I had all the genAI stuff blocked and hardly interacted with the home instance. I popped over to quokk.au a couple weeks ago to check out PieFed. I saw the discussion post for this de-federation and honestly felt disgusted. A day or so later I started seeing c/[Country]AIPAC or similar bullshit communities popping up. I’m anti-Zionist but the rabidness was a major red flag. Quokka might not be it either, yet, but the vibe over at db0 has grown toxic.