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Alex G Releases Video for New Song ‘Blessing’

Alex G has released a new song called ‘Blessing’. The single, which he co-produced with Jacob Portrait, arrives alongside a  Zev Magasis-directed music video. Check it out below, and scroll down for Alex G’s just-announced tour dates.

Talking about the track with Hanuman Welch on Apple Music 1, Alex G said: “So, I was up pretty early one morning because I couldn’t sleep and I started playing guitar and wrote this song really quickly. I guess something special about it is… once I demo’d it out and showed it to my band we all recorded it together at this studio in Upstate New York. We had never done that before. Everything at once in the room together. The song is chopped up. The instrumentals were all done live, which is kinda unique I guess. To be honest, I wrote it so quick. Maybe lack of sleep helped write it.”

Alex G recently released his soundtrack for We’re All Going to the World’s Fair. The Philadelphia musician’s latest studio album, House of Sugar, came out in 2019.

Alex G 2022 Tour Dates:

Jun 1 Cincinnati, OH – Andrew J Brady Music Center *
Jun 2 Richmond, VA – Brown’s Island *
Jun 3 Asbury Park, NJ – Stone Pony Summerstage *
Jun 4 New Haven, CT – College Street Music Hall*
Jun 5 Lafayette, NY – Beak and Skiff Apple Orchards*
Oct 6 Saxapahaw, NC – Haw River Ballroom ~
Oct 7 Asheville, NC – The Orange Peel ~
Oct 8 Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse ~
Oct 9 Nashville, TN – Brooklyn Bowl ~
Oct 10 St. Louis, MO – Off Broadway ~
Oct 12 Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre ~
Oct 14 Salt Lake City, UT – Soundwell ~
10-16 Seattle, WA – The Showbox ~
Oct 17 Portland, OR – Crystal Ballroom ~
Oct 19 San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore ^
Oct 21 Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern ^
Oct 22 San Diego, CA – The Observatory North Park ^
Oct 24 Phoenix, AZ – Rebel Lounge ^
Oct 26 Austin, TX – Emo’s ^
Oct 27 Fort Worth, TX – Tulips ^
Oct 29 Las Vegas, NV – When We Were Young
Nov 1 Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue ^
Nov 2 Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall ^
Nov 3 Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall ^
Nov 4 Detroit, MI – The Majestic Theatre ^
Nov 5 Toronto, ON – Danforth Music Hall ^
Nov 6 Montreal, QC – Le Studio TD ^
Nov 8 Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club ^
Nov 9 Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club ^
Nov 11 Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel ^
Nov 12 Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel ^
Nov 17 Washington, DC – 9:30 Club ^
Nov 18 Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer ^
Nov 19 Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer @

* supporting Bright Eyes
~ Barrie opening
^ Hatchie opening
@ Sadurn opening

Why Are Online Casinos a Good Choice for Having Fun?

The popularity of online casinos is hard to overestimate. This entertainment has many fans worldwide, and the number of people who want to try it is growing every day. However, some people do not want to trust their money to online casinos for many reasons. These can be stories about the negative experience of other players or news about scams on the Internet…

It’s worth noting that online casinos are still one of the best ways to get some entertainment and positive emotions online. 

Each user should conduct a detailed analysis of all the advantages of playing in a modern gaming hall and choose the best site to begin. For instance, each player can enjoy an exciting casino bonus, which can make the gambling experience even more exciting.

Why Are So Many People Interested in Playing at Online Casinos?

Due to the development of modern technologies, gambling has become more accessible for each person. Nowadays, there is no need to leave home and attend a land-based online gaming club since it’s enough to visit the selected casino site and get the following:

  • a wide selection of online gambling games and pokies for each player;
  • possibility to play from any device since most online casinos offer a mobile version;
  • the chance to contact the support service if a player needs any help or has questions;
  • the possibility to claim bonus offers;
  • replenishing the account and withdrawing funds in a few clicks.

More and more people become gambling site members to have fun or even earn some cash. Moreover, numerous casinos provide a demo mode, allowing to play for free without investing a cent. This is a great option for newcomers who have never tried any gambling activities before.

Large Selection of Slots and Other Gambling Games

Modern online casinos can offer enormous opportunities for the fans of slot machines and other gaming solutions. Software providers constantly release new products, allowing gaming clubs to please their players with something new. The most common games types include:

  • slots;
  • table games;
  • lotteries;
  • scratch cards;
  • live dealer games.

Even if a user has no experience in playing online casinos, they will sort everything out quickly. Online gambling sites usually have a section with featured games. They are usually formed according to the users’ preferences.

Opportunity to Play for Free

One of the most common myths that can be heard about online casinos is that everything is done to make money from users. On one hand, the gambling industry is a huge business, which should make profits. But in fact, each player can enjoy free gaming without any deposits and have fun. In this case, the games selection is not limited, allowing one to try the best options in a risk-free mode.

As a rule, a quick registration procedure is necessary. Most casinos require potential players to add their name, email, phone number, billing address, and password. These details allow them to become a gaming club member and enjoy all its benefits in a few clicks.

Incredible Bonus Offers for New Players Online

The most pleasant thing that awaits each new user in an online casino is bonuses. Promotions are an excellent opportunity to get extra cash or bonus spins to have fun in top games and slots without additional investment. Many users consider it a deception, allowing them to attract more clients to the site and get more profits. However, all bonuses are real and players can easily claim them.

It’s important to check the wagering requirements before claiming any promotion in a gambling club. They imply the rules and conditions of the offer usage, which should be met by casino members. If a player cannot meet these requirements, they will most likely never withdraw cash in case of winning. This is the reason why it’s critical to check everything in advance.

Online Casino Support Customer Care Service

Each reliable online casino provides the possibility to contact the technical support service for users for help. Their working hours may vary depending on the selected gaming club. On many sites, the support team is available round the clock and is always ready to answer users’ questions. This option seems insignificant, but players sometimes face problematic issues that can be easily solved by casino administration.

More Comfort with Mobile Gaming

One of the most critical features that create comfort while playing in an online casino is using a smartphone or tablet. Thanks to this option, a user can start the gaming process at any moment wherever they are, and explore all the advantages of a gaming club on their smartphones or even smartwatches. The technologies are quickly developing, and online casinos implement innovations in their activities. So, nowadays, it’s simple to feel the atmosphere of a real land-based gambling hall without leaving home.

Oliver Sim Announces Debut Album ‘Hideous Bastard’, Releases New Song ‘Hideous’

The xx’s Oliver Sim has announced his debut solo album: Hideous Bastard arrives on September 9 via Young. On its first single, ‘Hideous’, the 32-year-old reveals that he’s been living with HIV since he was 17. The song was produced by Jamie xx (who also produced the rest of the LP) and features guest vocals from Bronski Beat’s Jimmy Somerville, who Sim calls his “guardian angel.” It’s accompanied by a video from director Yann Gonzalez, which debuted yesterday at the Semaine de la Critique at the Cannes Film Festival. Watch and listen below.

In a statemet about the album, Sim wrote:

Early on in the making of my record, Hideous Bastard, I realised that I was writing a lot about fear and shame.

I imagine that might paint a picture of a dark, “woe is me” sounding album, but in recent years I’ve become a firm believer that the best antidote to these feelings can be bringing them to the surface and shedding some light on them.

I haven’t written the record to dwell, but rather to free myself of some of the shame and fear that I’ve felt for a long time. So, I hear a lot of the music as joyous, because the experience of writing and recording it has been the complete opposite of what fear and shame have been for me.

Two thirds in, having a good idea of what the record was about, I realised I’d been circling around one of the things that has probably caused me the most fear and shame. My HIV status. I’ve been living with HIV since I was 17 and it’s played with how I’ve felt towards myself, and how I’ve assumed others have felt towards me, from that age and into my adult life.

So, quite impulsively, I wrote about it on a song called “Hideous.” I thought I could release it into the world and be done with it. After playing the song to my mum, being the protective and wise mum that she is, she gave me some of the best advice I’ve ever received. She suggested that I spend some time having conversations with people in my life first. Either people I hadn’t told yet, or people I had told but hadn’t wanted to talk much further on it with. Since writing Hideous, I’ve spent the past two years having those conversations, which was difficult and uncomfortable to start with, but has allowed me to feel a lot freer and has only strengthened my relationship with myself and with the people in my life.

One of the most special relationships I’ve gained from this has been with Mr. Jimmy Somerville. I knew for Hideous I wanted a guardian angel to appear in the song and sing to me the words I needed to hear. Not only has Jimmy been such a powerful voice around HIV and AIDS for decades, but the man quite literally sounds like an angel. I reached out to him as a complete fan boy, but now consider him a real good friend. He encouraged me to do the song for myself. He taught me “glamour” is a Scottish word. And, most importantly, he reminded me to not take myself too seriously, no good comes from that!

“Am I Hideous?” feels far less like a question I’m asking the world now. I know the answer. As scary as it still feels, I’m excited to share this music with you, and I hope you enjoy it. Lots of love, Oliver xx

Hideous Bastard will include the previously unveiled tracks ‘Romance With A Memory’ and ‘Fruit’.

Hideous Bastard Cover Artwork:

Hideous Bastard Tracklist:

1. Hideous
2. Romance with a Memory
3. Sensitive Child
4. Never Here
5. Unreliable Narrator
6. Saccharine
7. Confident Man
8. GMT
9. Fruit
10. Run The Credits

Caribou Shares New Daphni Single ‘Cherry’

Dan Snaith, aka Caribou, has shared a new track under the moniker Daphni. ‘Cherry’ marks Daphni’s first release since the 2019 EP Sizzling. Check out Damien Roach‘s visual for ‘Cherry’ below.

“Nothing says love like an endlessly spiralling polyrhythm on an FM synth,” Snaith said of the song in a statement. “Making this track was just a matter of getting the snake to eat its own tail.”

This Week’s Best New Songs: Rina Sawayama, Angel Olsen, IAN SWEET, and More

Throughout the week, we update our Best New Songs playlist with the new releases that caught our attention the most, be it a single leading up to the release of an album or a newly unveiled deep cut. And each Monday, we round up the best new songs released over the past week (the eligibility period begins on Monday and ends Sunday night) in this best new music segment.

On this week’s list, we have Rina Sawyama’s country-inspired pop panger ‘This Hell’, the first single from her upcoming album; Harry Styles’ ‘Matilda’, a heartfelt highlight from his new LP; Sudan Archives’ infectious new track ‘Selfish Soul’; ‘Through the Fires’, the gorgeous new single off Angel Olsen’s upcoming record; Soccer Mommy’s heart-wrenching ‘Bones’, another incredible single from Sometimes, Forever; Special Interest’s propulsive, liberating new single ‘(Herman’s) House’, the New Orleans group’s first material for Rough Trade; IAN SWEET’s ’FIGHT’, a dreamy track that reflects on a pandemic relationship that didn’t work out; ‘Toll’, the subtly captivating third single from Naima Bock’s forthcoming debut; and ‘You Have Got to Be Kidding Me’, the confident title track that closes out fanclubwallet’s debut LP.

Best New Songs: May 23, 2022

Rina Sawyama, ‘This Hell’

Harry Styles, ‘Matilda’

Song of the Week: Angel Olsen, ‘Through the Fires’

Soccer Mommy, ‘Bones’

Sudan Archives, ‘Selfish Soul’

Special Interest, ‘(Herman’s) House’

IAN SWEET, ‘FIGHT’

Naima Bock, ‘Toll’

fanclubwallet, ‘You Have Got to Be Kidding Me’

Watch Japanese Breakfast Perform ‘Be Sweet’ and ‘Paprika’ on ‘SNL’

Japanese Breakfast was the musical guest on this week’s Natasha Lyonne-hosted episode of Saturday Night Live, performing the tracks ‘Be Sweet’ and ‘Paprika’. She also made an appearance during the sketch ‘Women’s Commercial’, where she sang a song about a hair product known as “gray adult pigtails.” Watch it below.

‘Be Sweet’ and ‘Paprika are taken from Jubilee, Japanese Breakfast’s third album, which came out in June 2021. In recent months, Michelle Zauner has played songs from the LP on Ellen, The Late Late Show, and Kelly Clarkson. Earlier this week, she was a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where she explained the origins of her song ‘Jimmy Fallon Big’.

Watch Sharon Van Etten Perform ‘Mistakes’ on ‘Colbert’

Sharon Van Etten stopped by The Late Show With Stephen Colbert last night (May 20) to deliver a performance of ‘Mistakes’, a highlight from her new album We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong. Watch it below.

‘Mistakes’, one of our Songs of the Week, received a video shortly after the album’s release in May. Sharon Van Etten announced the project a month before, but didn’t preview it with any advance singles. Earlier this year, she shared the non-album tracks ‘Porta’ and ‘Used to It’. We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong follows Van Etten’s 2019 LP Remind Me Tomorrow.

Artist Spotlight: fanclubwallet

fanclubwallet is the project of Ottawa-based singer-songwriter Hannah Judge, who first picked up the guitar and ukulele in school but didn’t consider becoming a musician until she went to university in Montreal. There, she started volunteering at a music venue and began making lo-fi electronic music in her dorm room, gaining traction during the pandemic with the single ‘Car Crash in G Major’. Three days after releasing the track, however, Judge – who is also a visual artist – suffered a Crohn’s disease flare-up that left her bedridden in her childhood home for almost a year. She chronicled that experience on her debut EP, Hurt Is Boring, which she crafted between hospital visits with close friend and collaborator Michael Watson, who also helped produced her just-released debut full-length, You Have Got To Be Kidding Me.

When the 22-year-old started writing songs for the album two years ago, she had just gone through a break-up, dropped out of college, and moved back in with her parents. Judge deals with these personal experiences with an emotional directness that suits her introspective style of songwriting, but the record is also equal parts idiosyncratic, blissful, and playfully self-aware, delivering raw confessions with a winking sense of humour: “I deserve to be/With someone that hurts me/ So I’ll just spend/ All of my time with myself,” she sings on ‘Gr8! Timing’. As much as she keeps her songs understated, the production often bursts with colour, while her lyrics sometimes veer into abstract poeticism. You can only grow when things get hard, they suggest – and as aimless and excruciating as the process might feel, the music of fanclubwallet is no doubt a vibrant place to be.

We caught up with Hannah Judge for this edition of our Artist Spotlight interview series to talk about her earliest musical memories, the making of her debut album, and more.


Are you happy with the response to the singles so far?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I’ve read some really cool press stuff so far, which is awesome. I think what makes me the most excited is if my friends like it, especially my friends that don’t usually listen to the kind of music I make. If they’re like, “Oh, this one’s really up my alley,” I’m like, “Wow, that’s so cool. You liked it, and not just because we’re friends.”

Are you waiting for everyone to hear the album upon its release or have you shared it with any of your friends?

Yeah, I’ve sent it to a couple of friends. I’m so weird with that, I’ll send it to people and then I’ll be like, “They probably never listened to it.” And that’s okay. I’m like, “They probably hate me, but it’s fine.” [laughs] And then, my friend the other day was like, “I listen to your album all the time.” I was like, “Oh, that’s awesome.” But generally I’m kind of waiting on everyone else to hear it. I’ve only sent it to like two people.

Would that be people who are also in music?

I send it to my old band, usually. The first band I was in, Gullet. They’re like my best friends, so I trust their opinion. I’ll always send it to my friend from that band, too, because she’s also making music and I trust her opinion with my life.

How do you look back on that time when you first started playing music with them? Does it make you feel nostalgic?

Yeah, definitely. I think we’re all kind of nostalgic about it. We’re working on like one last song ever, one last Gullet song. But it was like my first time playing music and writing music with other people, and there was really no pressure. I feel like I wasn’t worried at all about, like, if my songwriting was bad or anything. I feel like I kind of knew some of it was sort of bad, but I was like, it’s cool anyways. And it’s really great being able to write with friends, too, to have a full band that you can bounce ideas off of. I definitely miss doing that.

Do you mind sharing some early memories that you have of enjoying music?

I feel like ever since I was super young, my favourite thing ever to do was to make people mix CDs. And I would do it for people I  barely knew – I remember I made one for this girl in my math class just because she took the same bus as me. We had like two conversations ever. I asked her “What’s your favourite song?” and she told me and I made her a CD based off of that. And then we never talked again. Not for any reason, but I just loved giving like everyone I knew a CD. I just always thought that was a really great thing to do. I would sometimes make CDs, too, and I would leave them places, leave a tracklist. I’d be like, “You found this CD. Make your own mix CD and put it in this place.” It was very cheesy. Sometimes I’d make art for the CDs, and nothing felt better than showing up to school and my best friend being like, “Hey, I loved the mix CD you made me. I made you one, here you go.” And then I’d have to wait all day to get home and listen to it.

For you, was it more about the connection and trying to curate the mix depending on the person, or was it the challenge of making the art and choosing the songs based on a single one?

I think all of it’s great, but I definitely think that music is such an amazing way for people to connect. You can hear a song by an artist and relate to it so much, but you’ve never met the artist. It was definitely a good way for me to sort of get out of my shell, too. I was kind of shy, so I could be like, “Hey, I made you a mix CD. Want to be friends with me?”

When you think about yourself as a teenager, do you feel like there’s a part of yourself that has stayed more or less the same? Or do you feel like a completely different person?

I think a lot of me has definitely stayed the same. [laughs] I’m excited about a lot of the same things. I think I try to honour the stuff that I was really excited about doing and really proud of doing, still. I also make comics, and I find when I’m drawing in my sketchbook – I was thinking about this the other day – it’s the same kind of stuff that would come out when I was drawing in high school. I’m still being very angsty in my sketchbook and it’s kind of nice to be like, I’m just this giant child. I’m just a grown-up kid. But I think younger me would be super stoked to see that I’m in the music scene and still really excited about other people’s projects and helping out everyone and trying to get the music scene to connect. That’s really important to me, and it was definitely important to me as a teenager.

Do you think it’s a similar thing with the music you make now, or is there a bigger difference compared to your comics?

When I was younger, I wasn’t really writing anything that had lyrics. I used to make weird ambient electronic music. It was not very good. But I think the vibe still comes through a couple of times on the album. We even have an ambient track. Making that was kind of cool because I was like, this is kind of stuff that I used to make in high school. So definitely some of the more instrumental elements reflect stuff that I made when I was younger.

When you formed this project and started writing on your own more, was there something that you discovered about songwriting that hadn’t necessarily been an important part of the process for you before?

I used to be really worried about writing song lyrics. I thought you had to be like really straightforward in music, and I kind of realized now that you don’t have to be. When I make comics, they’re also a little bit vague as well. And I was like, I can just also do this in songwriting. Or I can be funny in a song, which is something I didn’t think about before.

I think the album is still kind of direct and straightforward in a way, but there’s also that humour and some more abstract moments.

I definitely think there are some songs that are a little more straightforward than others. And then there are some that I don’t even know what I’m talking about.

Do you have one in mind? I was thinking about ‘Toasted’.

I know what ‘Toasted’ means, but on ‘Fell Through’, that one is super vague. Who knows what I was thinking.

On the opening track, ‘Solid Ground’, you sing, “Sometimes the music’s different when you listen to it in your old bedroom.” Do you ever do that with your old music?

Yeah, sometimes I’ll listen to old stuff. I can’t actually listen to any of my music in my old high school bedroom because we don’t live there anymore. Which is sad, I wish I did. But I think I wrote that after I had been staying at different places. I was living with a friend and I was in Montreal, and I was kind of all over the place. I think I was in bed when I wrote that at my mom’s place. And I was just thinking about how it feels good to be at home, in a familiar place.

I think the idea of home and even the word “house” comes up quite a bit in your music.

For a lot of the songs too, I was stuck at home for so long, so many people were during the pandemic. But being stuck in my bedroom and being sick, you’re just thinking a lot about the room you’re in and the space that you’re in. I always tell people that my songs are either about a personal experience I’ve had with someone else or they’re just like about a house or a place that I’ve lived. I always find myself writing weird love songs about different houses I’ve lived in.

When you started working on the album, was it more that you felt ready for a bigger project, or was it a matter of being stuck at home and having more time?

That’s a good question. I was just writing songs, it was just happening. I think I wrote about five or six songs before I was like, “Oh, this sounds like an album. We should make the album now.” I went back to Montreal for the summer last summer and wrote ‘That I Won’t Do’ there. And I think as soon as ‘That I Won’t Do’ was done, I was like, “I’m ready. This is the vibe for me.”

You mentioned some of the things that were rattling around in your mind at the time, like places you’re in and relationships with other people. Were you surprised by any of the feelings that came up during the process?

Yeah, I was surprised to find that I was tackling my relationship with myself a lot. A lot more than I thought I was going to be. After putting myself out there for the first time in over a year, just being like, How do I seem to other people? How do I treat people? How do I treat myself? Do I like myself? Who am I? Just asking myself a lot of questions, having a lot of self-doubt.

Besides music and visual art, do you feel like you need another outlet, like journaling or writing, to process these feelings or explore these questions?

I think it mostly goes to music and art. I’d like to be the kind of person that journals and I did a little bit this year, but I’m pretty garbage at doing that stuff. I tend to like start that and then I’m like, I don’t know. [laughs] I can’t start any new hobbies or anything. My attention span is not good.

You mentioned ‘That I Won’t Do’, and I wanted to ask you about the vocal effects and production in the chorus of that song. Is there a story behind it?

I was listening to the song ‘Haunt Me’ by Teen Suicide. I loved that song in high school and I had just remembered that it existed and I listened to that whole album. I was, like, down bad, and so I was just listening to that over and over. And I was like, “I want to make a song that sounds like this.” Like, “I feel like this song feels right now, so I want to try to make something like that.” That song was made super all at once, too. I think it came out in like one day.

You recorded the album at Port William Sound in Ontario. How did being in a remote space affect how you went about tracking and refining the songs? Did being there make you see them in a new light?

I think that recording at Port William was the most positive part of the whole album journey. I was depressed for like the first half of making it, and then once we got Port William Sound, I felt very solidified that like, Whoa, I made this album, and this place we’re at is beautiful, and I feel like I can go back and track things on the songs and edit them. And maybe just add more positive elements that I wouldn’t have thought of before. We didn’t do a lot of new stuff there, but the title track for the album was made there. And that felt like really cathartic. It was like, “Okay, I’m done with this feeling. This is the last song for this album, it’s the title track.” And I got all my friends to call and leave me voicemails for the end of that song. And that just felt really nice, to have community on this song. Like, “Okay, it’s done.”

It’s funny that you say that, because I was wondering if some of the more relaxed or upbeat qualities of the album took shape during that time, even if it’s not a very specific thing that you can point to. I read that you’ve known your collaborator, Michael Watson, since third grade. How has your relationship evolved, especially in the past few years of working together through the pandemic? Do you feel like it’s changed at all?

That’s a good question. I think about the first song we made together versus the most recent song we made together, and I think a lot of the changes come from myself and my confidence and knowing what I want to do. At the beginning, I think it was a lot of me being like, “Here’s a song. It’s just  guitar and vocals now, you do whatever you think is good with it.” And now it’s a lot of me being kind of bossy. I never have anything but positive things to say about working with Michael. They just make it so easy, to the point where I feel like I don’t even need to think about it. It’s like, we sit down and we make a song. I guess I don’t do a lot of thinking about how things have changed because it just feels super natural.

Maybe that’s another thing that makes the album sound more comforting, in addition to the physical space that you were in.

We’re like attached at the hip. I see them like every single day.

Could you talk about the story behind the album cover?

Yeah, my friend Meredith Smallwood made it. I actually went to high school with them. Meredith was in grade 12 when I was in grade nine. I just remember being in high school and being like, “Wow, their art is amazing.” I was super obsessed with it. And then when it came time to get album artwork made, one of the first things I thought of was, I bet Meredith would make the coolest thing ever. We went to the same school, our art had similar enough vibes that it would definitely work really well with the project. I didn’t really have much of an idea for what I wanted, I kind of just gave them the album title. And they immediately just totally knocked it out of the park. I didn’t even have to do any back and forth. What they sent me, immediately I was like, “This is perfect.”

You were talking before about how the way your collaborative relationship has changed is more about how you yourself have changed. When you look back on the making of the album, what’s something you’re proud of yourself for achieving?

I think I’m proud of myself for pulling myself out of that ridiculously bad depression spiral that I was in. I think I’m just really proud that I was able to end the album on a positive note and make something that I’m happy with. I’m proud that I was able to make something that felt really true to myself.


This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

fanclubwallet’s You Have Got To Be Kidding Me is out now via AWAL.

16 Best Quotes from The Grand Budapest Hotel

Inspired by Austrian novelist Stefan Zweig’s Beware of Pity, The Grand Budapest Hotel is an energetic film with a quirky sense of humor and a distinct color palette. The bright interiors of the titular hotel are the setting for much drama between concierge Gustave H (Ralph Fiennes), his lobby boy, Zero (Tony Revolori), and the hotel’s other staff and patrons. The plot thickens when Gustave H is accused of murdering an elderly dowager (Tilda Swinton), leading him to flee across the (fictional) country of Zubrowka with Zero. Amid the action, moments of lighthearted humor, budding friendship, and first love between Zero and Agatha (Saoirse Ronan).

The script is memorable for its tongue-in-cheek dialogue and deadpan humor, as well as shreds of philosophical wisdom. Penned by Wes Anderson and Hugo Guinness, the screenplay won numerous awards, including a BAFTA, and was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards. Here are sixteen great quotes from The Grand Budapest Hotel.

  1. Mr. Moustafa: [Monsieur Gustave H] was, by the way, the most liberally perfumed man I had ever encountered. The scent announced his approach from a great distance and lingered for many minutes after he was gone.
  2. Mr. Moustafa: I began to realize that many of the hotel’s most valued and distinguished guests came for him. It seemed to be an essential part of his duties… But I believe it was also his pleasure. The requirements were always the same. They had to be rich, old, insecure, vain, superficial, blonde, needy.
    Author: Why blonde?
    Mr. Moustafa: Because they all were.
  3. M. Gustave: Experience?
    Zero: Hotel Kinsky, Kitchen Boy: six months. Hotel Berlitz, Mop and Broom Boy: three months. Before that I was a skillet scrubber.
    M. Gustave: Experience – zero … Education?
    Zero: I studied reading and spelling. I started primary school – I almost finished–
    M. Gustave: Education – zero … Family?
    Zero: Zero.
  4. M. Gustave: Dear God, what have you done to your nails? … This diabolical varnish; the color is completely wrong!
    Madam D: Oh, really? Don’t you like it?
    M. Gustave: It’s not that I don’t like it; I am physically repulsed.
  5. M. Gustave: How fast can you pack?
    Zero: Five minutes.
    M. Gustave: Do it, and bring a bottle of the Pouilly-Jouvet ‘26 in an ice bucket with two glasses, so we don’t have to drink the cat piss they serve in the dining car.
  6. M. Gustave: You see, there are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity. Indeed, that’s what we provide in our own modest, humble, insignificant … Oh, f*ck it.
  7. M. Gustave: You’re looking so well, darling, you really are. They’ve done a marvelous job. I don’t know what sort of cream they’ve put on you down at the morgue but I want some. Honestly, you look better than you have in years. You look like you’re alive.
  8. Kovacs: Did he just throw my cat out the window?
  9. M. Gustave: Give me a few squirts of L’air de Panache, please, will you? Can I not get a squirt, even?
    Zero: I forgot the L’air de Panache
    M. Gustave: Honestly, you forgot the L’air de Panache? I don’t believe it. How could you? I’ve been in jail, Zero! Do you understand how humiliating this is?
  10. M. Gustave: How is our darling Agatha?
    Zero: “Twas first light when I saw her face upon the heath; and hence did I return, day by day, entranced: tho’ vinegar did brine my heart, never…”
    M. Gustave: Very good. I’m going to stop you there because the alarm has sounded but remember where we left off because I insist you finish later.
  11. M. Gustave: Rudeness is merely an expression of fear. People fear they won’t get what they want. The most dreadful and unattractive person only needs to be loved, and they will open up like a flower.
  12. M. Gustave: Serge X, missing. Deputy Kovacs, also missing. Madame D, dead. Boy With Apple, stolen. By us. Dmitri and Jopling, ruthless, cold-blooded savages. Gustave H, at large. What else?
    Zero: Zero, confused.
    M. Gustave: Zero, confused, indeed. The plot thickens, as they say. Why, by the way? Is it a soup metaphor?
  13. M. Gustave: What is a lobby boy? A lobby boy is completely invisible, yet always in sight. A lobby boy remembers what people hate. A lobby boy anticipates the client’s needs before the needs are needed. A lobby boy is, above all, discreet to a fault. Our guests know that their deepest secrets, some of which are frankly rather unseemly, will go with us to our graves. So keep your mouth shut, Zero.
  14. M. Gustave: There’s really no point in doing anything in life because it’s all over in the blink of an eye, and the next thing you know, rigor mortis sets in.
  15. M. Gustave: Well, Hello there, chaps.
    Soldier: Documents, please.
    M. Gustave: With pleasure … It’s not a very flattering portrait, I’m afraid. I was once considered a great beauty.
  16. M. Gustave: You can’t arrest him simply because he’s a bloody immigrant; he hasn’t done anything wrong! Stop it! Stop, damn you! … You filthy, goddamn, pockmarked, fascist a**holes! Take your hands off my lobby boy!

Why Gaming Is on the Rise

It goes without saying that people just love to play! It’s human nature to enjoy playing a game or two and if there is someone who doesn’t like to have fun, then it’s time to question their mental or emotional state. With that said and a well-accepted fact that fun contributes to a healthy lifestyle, let’s look at some of the reasons why gaming is on the rise.

Let’s Get the Pandemic Out of the Way!

After the past few years, the first thought that probably comes to mind would be the pandemic. Most people had no other way to socialise other than online. Social media became boring, and it was the same old complaints being posted day after day, week after week. All those necessary restrictions began to wear us down. In an effort to find some way to have a bit of fun we turned to online gaming. Here we could either play as a single-player or enter multi-player games to address both fun and that much-needed socialisation. There, now that the pandemic is out of the way as a reason for gaming being on the rise, let’s look at a few more reasons.

Explosive Availability of Online Gaming Venues

For those gamers who like to play more traditional casino-style games online, there are online casinos to play a quick game of Texas Hold’em or perhaps try their luck with a spin of the slot wheels. In fact, there are also several gaming review sites like www.maplecasino.ca/reviews/ that make it easier to find the games you really enjoy most. Improved search technology is one of the most important advances that has led to gaming being on the rise.

Advances in Technology

Perhaps the single-most prominent factor leading to the rise in gaming would be the amazing advances in technology within the past few years. It probably isn’t necessary to go into the exact ways in which technology has advanced but rather to name those advances many you are probably using even as you are reading this! They include such things as:

  • Cloud-based games.
  • Beyond believable VR.
  • Technology to create your own image.
  • Wearable gaming technology.

Perhaps the lower advancements need a bit of explaining. Not only can gamers create their own avatar but with advances in facial and voice recognition technology and 3D scanning, you can create your own character that is the VR version of you! It’s true and gamers are using this technology more and more often. Perhaps the best example of wearable gaming technology would also fit within the VR category. Those VR glasses needed to play those games are technology that is worn but also enables players to step into virtual reality scenes and games.

Mobile Gaming Takes Us Full Circle to Post-Pandemic Days

Literally, every advancement mentioned above can also be enjoyed on a mobile device. Once the pandemic is another chapter in history gamers will be playing their favourite games while getting out and about in a world that had been largely closed to them for the previous few years. Advances in mobile technology may just be the biggest factor leading to gaming being exponentially on the rise.

As a final note, if you doubt just how much gaming is rising, take a look at global gaming revenue from 2021 and you will have all the proof you need.