car seat headrest – The Bookish Mutant

My 5 Favorite Songs of 2018 (so far)

Posted on September 18, 2018September 18, 2018 by Madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Hi, everyone! I hope you’re all having a good Monday! (Well, as good as a Monday can get. Hopefully that’s better than my standards for Mondays.)

Let me just start off by saying that boy, this has been a pretty fantastic year for music.

I’ve already reviewed two albums that came out this year (See Twin Fantasy Re-Release and Lush), but now, there’s even more awesomeness out there to listen to! Also, I did end up seeing BOTH of the artists whose albums I’ve reviewed this year (Snail Mail and Car Seat Headrest. Best nights of my life. I met Lindsey Jordan, who was incredibly sweet, and Will Toledo said that we were the best crowd he’d seen on this tour 😭), which has further increased my appreciation for those bands. Some of my opinions have stayed the same, but others have grown on me since I first listened to them. But I’ll get to that later; here are my five favorite songs so far!

1. “Bodys”, Car Seat Headrest

Nobody can match Will’s moves. Really.

My original rating for this song was about a 7/10. But it has grown on my a significant amount, not only from increased listening, but from this performance as well. That, and the fact that I found out that the “need-to-know-basis” thing at the end was Andrew Katz. Hysterical.

This is my go to feel good song, one that you can bop to no matter what mood you’re in. And I won’t deny that when Car Seat Headrest played this when I saw them, I danced so much that I feared that my new glasses would fall right of my nose and plummet from the balcony. I sang myself hoarse, too. But it was totally, 100% worth it. ❤

2. “Heat Wave”, Snail Mail

After watching this video, there’s basically no need for an explanation. 10/10. Five stars. ALWAYS YES. Also, this was the first song that they played when I saw them, and THEY ABSOLUTELY NAILED IT. I WAS SO HAPPY!!!

3. “Everybody Thinks They Know (But No One Really Knows)”, Naked Giants

(The video’s just as weird and fun as the song. Trust me.)

I first got introduced to Naked Giants through Car Seat Headrest. They opened about an hour before CSH, and they were INSANELY TALENTED. Spectacular job.

We bought a few of their songs a few weeks after that performance, and this is the one I fell in love with the most. The perfect balance between light, dancey pop and alt-rock, that isn’t so cringey that you immediately switch the station. (Also, I’ll admit to listening to it on repeat in the first week of high school to remind myself that the other freshmen were just as confused as I was.)

4. “No Going Back”, Yuno

(Cute little video as well. Simple, but somehow perfect for the song.)

I first heard this song through Sirius XMU, and even though the DJ made a terrible pun about the artist in question, I couldn’t get the song out of my head. Kind of like #3, where it struck the perfect balance between pop and rock. A bit like the child of Tame Impala and…something I can’t quite place. Either way, such a fantastic little song. 🙂

5. “Valley of the Dolls”, Santigold

I swear, Santigold has become the ultimate “blast-this-song-out-the-car-window-at-full-volume” artist. No matter what, her music has the uncanny ability to make you dance, no matter what mood you’re in. (Or, at the very least, nod your head or tap your foot.) “Valley of the Dolls” was no exception. Out of I Don’t Want: The Gold Fire Sessions, this was my favorite. The perfect balance, the goldilocks. Also, it just brings back this funny memory of my family talking about a completely different, really depressing album (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, if you’re dying to know 👌), and this happened to be playing in the background.

Well, I hope I exposed you to some new music through this post! Enjoy the rest of your day, and stay tuned for the next BRT tomorrow!

Art, Books, Geeky Stuff, Movies, Music

Again, I’m out of clever ways to say that I’ve got a bunch more fan arts

Posted on June 20, 2018June 20, 2018 by Madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Ah! I forgot to mention in my last post…

Despite my lack of a Book Review Tuesday this week, I do have LOADS of fan arts for you guys! I’m so happy to share them all with you, and I hope you enjoy…as well as survive the tidal wave of nerdiness, of course.

Without further ado, behold…fan arts.

Sally Hawkins. I was inspired to draw this after a wonderful dream I had about meeting her in a bookstore.

Will Toledo. I apologize for my inability to draw guitars.

The Vision, my personal favorite Avenger. 😭 (Avengers: Infinity War)

Batgirl of Burnside.

Will Toledo(s?). The quote is a line from “Bodys”.

Enfys Nest (Solo: A Star Wars Story)

Courtney Crumrin. I almost cosplayed her at Comic Con last Friday, but I didn’t have time to throw together a good cosplay, much less dye my hair blonde.

David Bowie (from the 1973 “Life On Mars?” music video).

Toothless (How to Train Your Dragon)

Lindsey Jordan (Snail Mail).

Hermione Granger (Harry Potter)

Johann Krauss (B.P.R.D.). I barely managed to draw him from memory. He’s really fun to doodle.

Baz Grimm-Pitch (Carry On). I drew this last night after re-reading “Carry On”.

Well, that’s it for this batch of fan arts! This summer holds endless possibilities, and I hope to fill my sketchbook up with more and more art! Until next time!

Art, Books, Geeky Stuff, Music

RELEASE THE FAN ARTS! Maniacal Laughter

Posted on March 31, 2018March 31, 2018 by Madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Spring Break (and the brief time before) has been fairly productive as far as fan arts go. I’ve filled up a sketchbook and have already begun filling up another one that I got for Christmas. (So far, there’s three drawings in that one.) Hope you enjoy! *more maniacal laughter ensues*

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Baz Grimm-Pitch (Carry On)

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Okoye (Black Panther)

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Eva Nine (The Battle for WondLa)

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Gen Pryde (dunno which one…) (A Hero for WondLa)

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The Amphibian Man (The Shape of Water)

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Elisa Esposito (The Shape of Water)

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David Bowie

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Will Toledo

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Liz Sherman (Hellboy, B.P.R.D.)

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Eva Nine, Hailey Turner, Eva Eight, Rovender, Nadeau, and Huxley (A Hero for WondLa)

Welp, I hope you enjoyed (or should I say tolerated?) all of my fan arts! See you soon!

Art, Books, Geeky Stuff, Movies

“I’m not a baby, I’m a Fan Art!”

Posted on February 28, 2018 by Madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Ten hypothetical points for awesomeness if you got my (incredibly weird) reference. 😏

Yep, that’s right, I GOT MORE FAN ARTS! I’ve been fairly productive, since I’ve had to stay home for a while because of my cold. Don’t worry, I touched on some very important events when doing so..

Without further ado, FAN ARTS!

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A late night doodle of David Bowie in the “Life On Mars?” music video, 1973.

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Johann Krauss. This is the first time I’ve drawn him how he is in the B.P.R.D. comics, which I started reading fairly recently. I’d say I’m pretty close to falling in love.

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Dr. Kate Corrigan (B.P.R.D.)

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Fitz Vacker, a.k.a. the closest thing I have to a fictional crush in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series. This was drawn for Keeper Day, on February 12.

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Prince Nuada. (Hellboy II)

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Abe Sapien and Princess Nuala 😍. Nuala is holding a copy of a collection of Alfred Lord Tennyson poems, from which she reads a passage of “In Memoriam” in Hellboy II. *single tear rolls down cheek*

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The wonderful Millie Bobby Brown, who turned 14 on February 19.

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Princess Shuri (Black Panther)

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Nakia (Black Panther)

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Will Toledo. I did this in honor of the fact that I’M GONNA SEE CAR SEAT HEADREST IN JULY!!!! SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

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*SWOONS*

Well, I hope you enjoyed my fan arts! See you next Tuesday, or if not, very soonish!

Music

Twin Fantasy (2018 Re-release) album review

Posted on February 17, 2018 by Madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Yep, that’s right, everyone! Here is your promised Car Seat Headrest album review!

Let me just start this off by saying…

There is not a single bad song on this album.

Okay, that’s probably a teensy bit biased, but that’s what I’ve truly come to believe. I had bought a few songs off the original album, and they blew me away, but this re-release truly blew it out of the water. Don’t believe me? Here’s my review!

TRACK 1: “My Boy (Twin Fantasy)”-8/10

Though it’s only around two and a half minutes long, this song is a beautiful mix of simultaneous hope and poignancy, with consistancy and slowy building vocals and instrumentals. *sad smile* Aww, Will…

TRACK 2: “Beach Life-In-Death”-7.5/10

Normally, my patience for songs runs out at about eight minutes. “Beach Life-In-Death” clocks in at about thirteen. But the good thing about this song is that it’s like three different songs. The first five minutes or so have lyrics that reflect a sense of boredom and redundancy. Then, it changes to melancholy and regret, then slowly transitions back into fast-paced instruments similar to the first third of the song. Me gusta.

TRACK 3: “Stop Smoking (We Love You)”-8.5/10

This was one of the songs I initially bought off the original version of the album. A beautiful, pleading melody with a great message to top it all off. This new version backs up the instrumentals in the background a lot, making the song almost more powerful and meaningful, in some strange way.

TRACK 4: “Sober to Death”-10/10

This was the second song I bought off the original album. And OH MY GOD, Car Seat Headrest blew it out of the water EVEN MORE with the new version of this song! I loved the original the second I heard it, but this version makes me want to jump out of my chair and scream, cry, and dance. It really stirs up my soul and makes it want to burst at the very seams with pure joy. I swear I’m not overexaggerating-THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST SONGS IN RECORDED HISTORY. PERIOD.

TRACK 5: “Nervous Young Inhumans”-9/10

(This is the greatest music video ever. I gotta learn Will Toledo’s little dance.)

This song was the other one that I bought off the original album. Though I miss Will Toledo’s little rant about galvanism and Frankenstein and whatnot, I loooooooove the new version of this song. The lyrics (slightly changed) are easier to understand now, and their cleverness and wit truly shines through with this track.

TRACK 6: “Bodys”-7/10

Not the best track on the album, but a fun, catchy, and at times a bit hilarious song.

Okay, I’ll admit, the first time I heard Will Toledo say “Is it the chorus yet?
No. It’s just a building of the verse…” I cracked up. No joke. It’s almost like he wanted the song to end…God, I love Will so much.

TRACK 7: “Cute Thing”-9/10

Aaaaaah! Lovelovelovelove! Such a beautiful, quirky, song-something about it feels like a sort of anthem. An Indie-Rock love anthem. Also, kudos for the They Might Be Giants references.

TRACK 8: “High to Death”-7/10

This song moves about like a lazy river, foggy and misty, almost like a kind of wistful dream. Almost beautifully melancholy, and in the slightest sense, almost dirge-like. The lyrics of “Stop Smoking (We Love You)” are hidden in there too, but they’ve been twisted a bit, which I thought was interesting. I didn’t like the random samples and looped vocals for the last two or so minutes of the song.

TRACK 9: “Famous Prophets (Stars)”-7/10

Like the track prior, “Famous Prophets (Stars)” has a dream-like quality, albeit a 16-minute long dream. It’s a pretty song, but after about around ten minutes, you kind of get the feeling like, “Jesus CHRIST, is this song ever going to end?” Like “High to Death”, there were some odd samples, and more lyrics from other songs (this time, slowed down lyrics to “My Boy (Twin Fantasy)”.

TRACK 10-“Twin Fantasy (Those Boys)”-7/10

With some lyrics borrowed from one of their older songs (“Sunburned Shirts”), more looped vocals, more brief Will Toledo musings, and an air of melancholy, regret, and almost jealousy, “Twin Fantasy (Those Boys)” makes for an interesting track. I like it about the same as I did “Bodys”. A sweet, wistful kind of song.

Just like I did with MASSEDUCTION, I averaged all of my scores for each song, and came out with a solid 8. Overall, pretty dang close to a masterpiece as far as albums go. An amalgam of melancholy, angst, hope, and poignancy that I doubt I’ll get tired of in the near future.

I hope you enjoyed my album review, and have a great rest of your day!

Book Review Tuesday

Book Review Tuesday (2/6/18)-Kat and Meg Conquer the World

Posted on February 7, 2018 by Madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

Hey, everyone, and welcome to the first BRT of February 2018!

Pretty much the most boring month of the year. There’s Valentine’s Day, but that’s pretty much all that goes on. Plus, Valentine’s Day is basically for stuffing yourself with overly sweet chocolates and insincere, fill in the blank cards.

*Will Toledo voice* “I’m so sick of…fill in the blank…”

Aaaaaaanyway…

PLOT TWIST-I got the following book from an internship I had at my local bookstore. I got to pick out seven Advanced Reader Copies in exchange for a review of all of them. (The best part? If I didn’t like the book, all I had to write was “Would Not Recommend”!)

It seemed that this ARC had been in there a little while, as it came out last November, I believe. But anyway, it was the first really fantastic one that I came across. Enjoy my review!

Kat and Meg Conquer the World

Though Kat and Meg are both freshmen in the same high school, they couldn’t be more different. Kat just moved, and she’s introverted and suffers from an anxiety disorder. Meg is far more extroverted, but she has ADHD and her parents just divorced. But when they’re partnered for a science fair project, they discover that they have so much more in common than they thought-in particular, their shared love of the video game Legends of the Stone, and a YouTube star who plays it. Soon, they become immersed in their LotS-oriented project, but it soon takes them down roads they’ve both never traveled before-be it a LotS convention, boyfriends, and even the YouTube star himself.

Squee! Even if you’re not a gamer, you’ll have no trouble understanding or (thoroughly) enjoying this book. Very realistic, diverse characters, fast-paced and well written, and all around fun! (Also, the back of the book said that it’s perfect for “fans of Nicola Yoon’s ‘Everything, Everything’, which I adored, so that’s a plus.)

Thanks so much for reading, and have a great evening!

Art

GUESS WHO’S BAAAAAACK? (This is Me from Now On)

Posted on January 25, 2018 by Madeline @ The Bookish Mutant

That’s right, the octopus girl I mentioned a few months earlier has RETURNED! (See I Know You’re Sick of my Weird Mermaid-Like Things By Now, But…)

Oh, and did I mention, she has a name?

Pearl.

So anyway, I’m assuming you guys really want an explanation as to why the heck Neon Cheetah has been replaced as the header image.

As time went on since I first adopted the name and character, I started to realize that Neon Cheetah didn’t really…fit. I’m rather salty, introverted, and a bit reserved, and somehow, an anthropomorphized cheetah with rainbow spots and dyed hair didn’t quite match up. And I had started having more and more fun drawing Pearl in her various forms, that I thought that she might be better for me anyway.

So Neon Cheetah isn’t dead or anything, don’t worry. I just feel that I needed a bit of a change.

Also, the rainbow, leopard print background on here kinda hurt my eyes after a while. Yeesh. You couldn’t even see the home button.

So now, here are a few Pearl portraits I’ve done since her last blog appearance.

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Currently on my bulletin board. This is pretty much where she first had clearly visible gills.

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The lyrics here are from Car Seat Headrest’s “America (Never Been)”. Beautiful song, if you haven’t heard it already.

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I might’ve been a little heavy-handed on the tilt shift on this one, but heck, I’m still proud of it.

I also ended up making a Christmas ornament of Pearl, as well as a bookmark with her on it, along with the Betty Smith quote, “The world was hers for the reading.” She’s also involved in another project I’m working on currently. That’s all I’ll disclose for the time being.

Until next time, everyone!