NETWORK.

[cacophonish]

Who: Jeff Calhoun
Username: freakscene
Warnings: None yet.

hey does anyone play any instruments? i finally got a guitar so it'd be cool to jam sometime

[ maybe start a band... maybe cast a whole lot of spells on audiences in whatever passes for Gloucester's nightlife... ]

hey! while i'm here! you guys should totally check out this app thing these other guys showed me
its called spotify
its really fucking cool i can't BELEIVE how much musics on their
like holy shit the butthole surfers new album is fucking amazing!!

[ And by 'new album' he means Electriclarryland, released in, uh... 1996. ]

ive got 25 yrs of music to catch up on so can you guys rec some bands or albums from after 1995? maybe even after 2000
i swear this is work related

Comments

[cacophonish]

[ Music is ALWAYS IMPORTANT, Stephen!

Jeff does a search for OK Computer, getting about halfway through the album before he responds. ]

jesus this is like a fucking revelation compared to their 1st album

i mean Pablo Honey wasnt bad or anything but its kind of conventional you know?
this is on another level
i cant beleive im just 2 yrs out from this album coming out

[sorser]

[On a sliding scale, where one has to take into account the problem of being supplanted into a new world, now connected to an entity that feeds on fear, one might consider music a 3 out of 10 in priority. Maybe a 4 if we’re feeling generous.

But here they are, and here he is, having this discussion regardless. He supposes he can indulge in some sense of normalcy, afforded to him rarely enough.]

There’s a reason some consider it the greatest album ever released. Probably an exaggeration, but there’s no denying that it was a cornerstone in the alt rock genre. Still is.

[Anyway.]

What does this have to do with your work?

[cacophonish]

theres so much in the compositions man. this is definately gonna be a repeat listen

what other big cornerstones did i miss?

[ This is like audio porn for a time displaced bard. TELL HIM EVERYTHING. As for 'work'... ]

im a musician so its kind of proffessional curiousity

and i figure i should try to blend in with people my age here
which i cant do if i dont know what the hell their talking about and only know the same music as their middle aged dads...

[sorser]

[Oh boy. Why did you ask him this question. His brain supplies a shortlist and his less-than-swift fingers struggle to keep up and type them.]

A few of these aren’t bands, exactly, but it’s required listening.

Odelay, Beck. 1996.
Time Out of Mind, Bob Dylan. 1997.
Life After Death, The Notorious B.I.G. 1997.
Mezzanine, Massive Attack. 1998.
Kid A, Radiohead. 2000. (Yes, again.)
The Black Album, Jay-Z, 2003.
Elephant, The White Stripes, 2003.
FutureSex/Lovesounds, Justin Timberlake, 2006.

That should be enough to add to any other recommendations you’ve already gotten.

Other than that, I won’t be much help. I don’t play piano anymore and I may be out of your age bracket for “jamming”.

[cacophonish]

wow dude thanks :-)
now i know what im gonna be doing for the next 8 hrs

[ You're officially his favorite person now, Strange. ENJOY. ]

youd be surprised
my drivers liscense says im actually 47

[ Which means his license is totally useless and he can't buy booze or cigarettes WOE IS JEFF. Time travel sucks. ]

why dont you play anymore?

[sorser]

You probably want to reconsider using that license, then. Null and void being in another world altogether.

I have nerve damage in my hands, so it makes it hard to form a chord, much less play a whole piece. But it’s fine; I’m content to leave music to those with more talent than me.

[cacophonish]

yeah i tried to use it a couple times and everyone just thinks i got ripped off on a bad fake id or stole my dads expired liscense
i finally turn 21 and NOW i have to get a fake. fucking ironic

[ Like that soon-to-be hit song that hasn't come out yet! ]

oh. sorry. i mean i know you said its fine but
sorry

[ If something happened to his fingers, and he could never strum a guitar again, he doesn't even know what he'd do. Being young and melodramatic (and a bard, which means his baseline levels of dramatic are already pretty high), his first thought is: would it even be worth living? ]

so what do you do now?

[sorser]

[Isn’t it ironic. And a little funny. But he doesn’t linger on the topic, because surely it is a matter of woe for someone who’s only 21.]

Music wasn’t my calling. It really is fine.

[It had been medicine; and the loss of the fine motor functions of his hands had put him down a similar, desperate path. It isn’t just a matter of being dramatic.]

It’s a long and complicated story, with details that aren’t very relevant to this world, but the long and short of it is: I’m a sorcerer.

[cacophonish]

[ He's about to ask about that calling; he's about to ask all about the long and complicated story, but then Stephen went and said the magic word, and suddenly Jeff can only fixate on the one thing: ]

wait
really??

me too! i mean we dont call ourselves sorcerers back home but its all the same right? i'm a bard!!!

[sorser]

[A beat before a reply. This isn’t inherently surprising, given that they all hail from other worlds, and that he was advised against using his magic upon arrival — easy enough to deduct that there would therefore be other magic users about.

Even so, he sorts through the list of questions that line up in his head, now replacing any musical recommendations that had been placed there previously.]

I don’t think it’s completely the same. I’m tired of being called a wizard, for example.

Does being a bard mean your magic and music are connected?

[cacophonish]

Yeah. its the way we work together
me and magic i mean
but its different for everyone. like my mom casts by painting

is there a difference between a sorcerer and a wizard?

[sorser]

[Someone from his universe would probably make a quip about a pointy hat.]

Those schooled as I’ve been, in eldritch magic, are known as sorcerers. It’s as simple as that. There are no wizards of the mystic arts.

So what does your magic do, exactly?

[cacophonish]

[ Where's Sam when you need him? ]

i guess that makes sense
they mostly just call us "Gifted" back home but we really go by anything
wizard, sorcerer, witch, magician, whatever, you know?

thats a big question...
in theory i guess i could do pretty much anything i wanted
but its a lot of work you know, trial and error and esoteric bullshit. not like we've got books of spells to tell us what to do

i like to stick to the flashy stuff. moving things, starting fires, making things out of pretty lights. comes in handy during a show :-)

[ Of course, he's leaving out all the mental mind fucks he likes to cause with magic, but pffth, DETAILS. ]

what about you?

[sorser]

[Mental mind fucks seem kind of like a big one, Jeff.]

Magical pyrotechnics. Practical, frivolous, or a little bit of both?

[He’s joking, mostly.]

My magic draws on the energy inherent in the universe to do a number of things. Create weapons, shields, transmutations, astral projection, portals to more easily move from point A to point B. A lot more. But I had to study; countless hours of it, from an endless amount of books.

If you don’t have those, then that means you learn… instinctively?