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Tag: Manga

  • Bri Earned the Power of Self Respect by Brianna Carmel

    Bri Earned the Power of Self Respect by Brianna Carmel

    Album: Bri Earned the Power of Self Respect

    Artist: Brianna Carmel

    Released: May 24, 2024; Self Release

    Brianna Carmel is one of the hardest working people in DIY that you might not have heard of.  I think that is a shame. Their roots lay deep in the Sacramento DIY scene and they are a member of the bands “Blooming Heads” and “Little Tiny Knife” as well as having their own solo project. So with the release of their new EP I hope you take a moment to get acquainted with their work.

    This EP is pure Ukulele driven indie rock with a little bit of chiptune and a punk attitude sprinkled in as a treat. It’s a fun listen even if the lyrics get a little heavy at times. The name “Bri Earned the Power of Self-Respect” is a reference to Scott Pilgrim vs the World and it is very fitting for the namesake song as well as the album as a whole. In honor of this, and if y’all will indulge me, I am now going to review every song in this EP as if it were the chapter of a Manga because aside from giving off Scott Pilgrim vibes, the EP tells a story that lends itself well to this style of review.

    Chapter 1- My True Self (Stupid, A Mess, Etc.)

    The story begins and we find our hero full of self doubt, fear and worry. They worry that they might not have what it takes to truly thrive. Things are starting out pretty low for our hero

    Chapter 2- Fool Me Once

    I am not going to sugar coat this one folks, things are looking pretty bleak for our hero. They just ran into a pair of absolute villains who I’ll call the 2 evil dudes and it did not go well. Despite this, our hero did learn some things about themself that will likely come in handy later.

    Chapter 3- Bri Earned the Power of Self Respect.

    This is definitely our hero’s plus ultra moment. They have finally leveled up got the power they need to get control of their life and become the person they always wanted to be.

    Epilogue- One Year Later/Born Again

    Turns out even with a superpower, life is still hard, but now our hero has the confidence and tools they need to work through that struggle. They know that eventually everything is going to be okay. Someday.

    Oh, if you were wondering, my favorite song is the title track. Turns out my praise can be bought with a chiptune, engaging vocal performance, and an empowering message. Honorable mention also goes to “One Year Later/Born Again”. I think it is all too easy and very common especially for the sake of telling a complete and finished story to fall into the trap of pretending that all anyone needs is that one moment of standing up for themselves. After that everything automagically fixes itself. This song manages to avoid that trap by clearly stating the reality that working towards your best life will always be hard. Yet it still ends beautifully on an extremely hopeful note.

    Everything about this EP is top notch! The emotionally raw storytelling of this EP really makes it stand out. It is definitely one of those EPs that you must listen to from beginning to end to really soak it in completely. It is very self reflective and sometimes brutally honest. Definitely the sincerest EP I’ve listened to so far this year.

    This review was originally posted on May 30, 2024 on the former LFDH substack.

  • Mutiny by Mutiny

    Mutiny by Mutiny

    Album: Mutiny

    Artist: Mutiny

    Released: February 20, 2024- Ska Punk International

    Spotify

    Mutiny is a band that is the end result of a whole host of musicians from existing bands voltroning together to form a Skacore super band; the like of which the world has never seen before. Mutiny, the album, is the prologue of a science fiction story that spans both bilingual musical performance and print media via a manga. The initial tie-in manga was included in the first pressing of the vinyl album. That sold out almost instantly, so if you didn’t get it, you missed out. This is great for collectability, but ultimately caused me some concern for two reasons. 1) I didn’t get one and 2) having only 300 copies of something is extremely bad for media preservation. Luckily my concerns were put to rest when plans were announced to make the tie-in manga available digitally. This was the most glorious news. Also, I should mention here that the tie-in manga is a prologue for a traditional manga that will release independently of any future music releases.  So, keep an eye out for that.

    The album itself is high energy ska with trashing guitars and sometimes manic, but always killer horn lines. The album opens up with “This Is A Eulogy”. It is clearly an important character beat in the story. Frankly put, killing people’s loved ones through the means of indiscriminate war always makes more people hellbent on fighting you.  The narrator in the song experiences just that. The music and lyrics work to together to make this song an aggressive call to action. It makes me want to grab my laser rifle and comically oversized sword and join the fight. It sets the tone for the rest of the album in an emotionally engaging way. “What A Difference A Year Makes” is the “Seasons Of Love” of the album if the cast of Rent had giant mechs and were extremely pissed at getting bamboozled into fighting a pointless war. The horns go hard, the guitar is fast, the lyrics are gritty and everything comes together with this indignant kind of energy. It is by far my favorite song on the album. The last song on the album is “Theseus” and it is the most theatric of the songs. Throughout the song, each part of the ship calls out as if to announce their support. The culmination of this is the captain declaring that he is the mutineer. This gives heavy “you have my axe” vibes and I think it’s fantastic. A perfect end to this beginning.

    One last thing:  there is Japanese voice over towards the end of “Theseus”. In the Japanese version of the song, it is still in Japanese. My Dora the Explorer addled brain kind of expected it to be in English. Nonetheless, the Japanese half of the album is equally as good as the English half. While it is the same songs performed in Japanese, the vocals are performed by Japanese musicians and recorded in Japan. This adds an additional level of intricacy that makes their inclusion on the album worth it.

    Mutiny is an extremely ambitious project that delivers an amazing musical experience that seamlessly melds Skacore with the story and esthetics of a space opera. If they can deliver an interesting manga, and can put together a mildly theatric stage show, they will have pulled off an epic hat trick. Mutiny has the talent. They have the support of an amazing label in Ska Punk International and the backing of a manga studio in Japan. They have set themselves up for success and I, for one, cannot wait to see how this plays out.

    This review was originally post on March 8, 2024 on the former LFDH substack.