#wish defense

[dustedmagazine]

FACS — Wish Defense (Trouble in Mind)

FACS lurches and spasms, finding an irregular way forward amid clanging, pick-clawed bass notes and guitar harmonics that ping against the void. Words come in bursts, then subside into quiet, a hollowed out, discontinuous poetry. This is the Chicago punk band’s sixth full-length album and first since original guitarist Jonathan von Herik returned to play bass, replacing erstwhile bass player Aliana Kalaba, and it is desolate, powerful stuff.

It begins in clanking dissonance as von Herik lays in slithering menace while drummer Noah Leger’s beat alternatingly bunches and elongates, like a slinky coiling down the stares. Brian Case, as always, finds space in the echo-laced mix, letting the white space between phrases stretch to abyss-like lacunae. “Love…this weapon is absolute…the safety of custom…and history…you can’t refuse.” Periodically the guitar turns lighter and more lyrical, providing a lift in the music that’s like light streaming in through the skylight of a dark place. But overall, the vibe is dank and glowering, alienated and inscrutable.

There is often quite a lot of negative space in FACS’ impacted, complicated grooves, but “Ordinary Voices” starts uncharacteristically in a blurring firehose of tone. Guitar notes bleed into each other in radiating bursts, while sticks on cymbals slur and slash in continual agitation. The song resolves, as FACS cuts often do, in a slouching ritual beat, the drums making a slow heartbeat rhythm, bum-ba-dum, bum-ba-dum. The music pulses and seethes, finding a doom-y propulsion.  

Case says that Wish Defense is concerned with the duality of man—the disconnect between the way we are and the way we’re perceived—and the title track puts this thesis forward most directly. “Enter the mirror / Double walker / An intimate / Wish defense / Is it real? / You beside me / The detail / Terrifying / Abject self / Your grief / A public / Performance,” he chants, against a lumbering riff that pulls up short, like the light just turned to red. And then, more agitatedly, he shouts, “I’m not here” and “Are you real?” repeatedly, in a frenzy of existential inquiry. Musically, too, the song butts and rears against invisible constraints; it’s not comfortable with itself. No, this is a desperate dance self-preservation, limned in bass and guitar and drums, boxy like the Ex or certain iterations of the band E.

You may have heard that FACS was the last band to record with Steve Albini, and this album captures their prickly agitation with remarkable clarity. After Albini passed away, between recording sessions, they finished with John Congleton, and if there’s a difference between the sound and aura of the two sets of tracks, I, personally, am unable to hear it.  

What I do hear, however, is a precise and focused form of musical anarchy, an assault that is tightly disciplined but unfettered by guardrails. FACS has been a monster band for a while. Wish Defense may be their best so far.

Jennifer Kelly

[zexal-club]

Whenever someone says Wish is the worst Disney movie ever, I'm gonna remind them of Chicken Little, Mars Needs Moms, and the fact Pocahontas is a whitewashed, glorified, and romanticised version of real historical events.

Don't get me wrong, you're allowed to not like Wish, but it is not the worst thing Disney has produced.

[gritsandbrits]

Unpopular Opinion: King Magnifico did nothing wrong. He had every right to perceive the star suddenly appearing out of nowhere as a potential threat from a rival sorcerer, especially since he lost his entire family to attackers as a child and created the Rosas kingdom as a Safe Space/Utopian Mecca where nobody has to fear being attacked/raided/enslaved. He busted his ass to create the kingdom and protect his people.

Also Asha and Amaya are ungrateful bitches. That is all.

Y'all are fishing for reasons to hate on this movie that i no longer care but I'm roasting you anyways.

By your logic, Ariel is ungrateful for leaving her family,Jasmine and Elsa are ungrateful for running away and Raya is horrible for having trust issues.

And by your logic, Goliath and Angela from Gargoyles are bitches for not putting up with Demona's crap.

Magnifico is a perfect example of "hurt people hurt people." He only granted wishes based on what made HIMSELF look good. Amaya had every right not to fuck with him anymore after he launched a campaign of terror on her own kingdom, and assaulted her. That Asha wanted Magnifico to give people back their wishes if he couldn't grant them is they can pursue a different path without relying on a higher power. That's not being selfish.

Now I don't know what about this specific movie that brings out the absolute worst in you hoes but enough is enough. I am sick and tired of yall using this movie's flaws to shit on anyone and everyone who likes it or even tries to defend asha and amaya - the freaking HEROES - all so you can trash for the sake of trashing it.

I dare say its because the internet&fandoms has a weird grudge towards heroes, insisting they MUST be selfish, must be ungrateful and must be the REAL AWFUL PEOPLE because they don't take the villains crap lying down (even if they are sympathetic at times).

And i am so DAMN TIRED of yall justifying hate because a movie is written badly/Meddled With or not ground-breaking enough. And lets be honest, Amaya could've been an actual villain and yall still would've bitched about "Le Twist villains."