In this segment, Sarah and Tiffany review individual tracks to upcoming albums given to us and pair it up with a tea, coffee, or alcohol while we talk about upcoming events the bands may be doing. Okay, we’ll mostly be pairing these with alcoholic drinks due to our nature where we grew up.
First we sampled was another song from Slighter on Bandcamp titled Complicit. It took us back to the dark corners of the 90s Batman universe and to the good ol’ days of laser tag. It was fun. It was sexy. It has class. Those drums bringing reminiscing the drums from closing ceremonies of The Renaissance Faires but also reminding us Klingsons exist with those drums being made of steel.
We paired Slighter‘s song this with a cotton candy martini
1.5 oz vodka
1 oz Midori
4 oz cranberry juice
1 tsp lemon juice
handful cotton candy
We got the pleasure to sample a song off of Doors in the Labyrinth‘s new album Shadows of the Monolith which will be released March 15th on Bandcamp. The song is called Something Wicked It’s very traditional when you think of goth. It talks about a carnival you might see in the sweltering summer while being affected by the the heat or mushrooms you may have taken. It took me a moment but it really grew on me.
The drink we came up with was a black coffee drink with a hint of orange. After talking to Josh (who is Doors in the Labyrinth) We decided to booze it up. So this is what we came up with-
Shivar sent us an EP to listen to. On the Five Faced God EP, we listened to Away from Fading. Shivar has a pleasant H.I.M. sound. Tiffany was reminded of “the best bad decisions” and road trips with friends. One of those best bad decisions was us with a bunch of friends during a bachelorette party. (Weirdly I think that’s when we first met too… Thank you lovely editor of mine getting married.) During that party we went to a famous bar called the Safehouse. Someone decided to order a fish bowl & when it started to get lower, Tiffany had the brilliant idea to see if everyone wanted to mix their drinks together in the bowl. Being the slightly intoxicated party that we were, most of us obliged.
In conclusion, she paired this with the special party flask filled with your favorite booze. I paired this with a sparkling wine because this kind of music reminds me of early summer.
This is 2 bands in one EP. The 2 bands are Fact Pattern and Dread Risks. The Ep opens with Fact Patterns 2 songs and ending with Dread Risks doing 2 songs
Clinically Proven by Fact Pattern reminds me of the summers back in the day going to concerts or festivals. For Tiffany, it reminded her of a friend who loves Japanese Rock and Chai iced tea.
So in this case, we give Clinically Proven by Fact Pattern a Chai Iced tea and a Berry Ale. Berry Ale is just a good summer festival drink.
Places You Fear Most by Dread Risks gave us the dancing in the dark club vibe. We’re loving the sweet dark vibe it gives. We give this an absinthe slushy died black. Dangerous & yummy.
Normoria recently gave us music to listen to but since it’s an album (and we’re doing singles and EPs in this article), we reviewed their music video .
This Swedish band reminds us of the younger days of being over 18 and younger than 21 and going to a club event in Chicago called Nocturna. If you were lucky, you could grab a cd sampler of bands lying around the club. This band very much reminds us of the type of band on that cd you caught yourself jamming (or stomping) to.
Tiffany paired this up with Herbal Wellness tea and I thought more of a London fog type of tea. A London Fog is typically Earl Grey tea with milk. I usually use unsweetened vanilla almond milk and maybe a sweetener (if I don’t feel sweet enough). You could fancy it up with vanilla extract but no need if you don’t want to.
Next we’re surfing on some waves and dragging down on Main Street with our low ridder car to Guitarmy of One. Guitarmy is Scott Helland from Frenchy and the Punk.
A little Blues Brothers meets Pulp Fiction. So what do you with that sitting on your brain? You make the best damn Pistachio milkshake… It might not be worth five dollars but it’ll be a fucking good milkshake.
Personally, I feel like I need to be chilling at a tiki bar and drinking a zombie with this kind of music. I’m too lazy and don’t have the room to make this drink by hand so the Bacardi mix will do.
Amaranth gave us a brilliant single as well. It’s about calling out men having and them being held accountable for harassment and other awful things “fuck boys” do.
The riffs are easy to dance or head-bang to. The message is great; hold everyone accountable for their actions. Tiffany went on a weird but amusing turn with this. When she heard “fuck boy” in the lyrics, she immediately thought of an oldie, Beauty and the Beast‘s Gaston. along with a traditional whiskey sour. Gaston made me laugh but she has a good point about a classic whiskey sour. The classic needs an egg and if you were to order that at a bar, you could potentially get looks from it (due to eggs not being much of a thing in most cocktails and apparently Gaston would eat four dozen eggs as a lad to get large.. There is Tiffany logic for you)
For nonalcoholic, we went with a lemonade. It’s delicious and semi sour.
Traditional Whiskey Sour Ingredients:
- 2 ounces bourbon whiskey
- 1 ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 3/4 ounce simple syrup
- 1 egg white from a small to medium egg
- Ice for the shaker
- Mix in a shaker
- Pour and drink (ice doesn’t need to be in the glass unless you want it)
Our last artist we reviewed is a trap-hop artist from South Africa named Jaey Price on SoundCloud. The beats and piano were easy to dance to. It reminded me of a blue collar bar that I briefly worked at. There, everyone ordered long islands during happy hour. So, I am sticking with a traditional happy hour long island. I say happy hour long island because it’s mostly pre-mix and rail alcohols. (Rail means bottom shelf.) It just reminds me of the people at that bar and what they normally drank.
To make a long island it’s all equal parts alcohol and a splash of soda to give it the tea color. The booze used in a long island is
- Gin
- Rum
- Vodka
- Tequila
- Triple sec
Tiffany went with a fancier drink than me. She was thinking gin and rose water. It’s something she normally wouldn’t drink but rosewater makes it fancy. Weirdly enough we found a recipe that used roses as simple syrup.
- 1 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 1 oz rose water simple syrup (see how to make below)
- 2 oz gin
- splash club soda
This is just a sample of what’s to come. Please check out all the artists and show them some love. They all work hard on their music. We’re trying to see if we can maybe turn this into a podcast or video.
Victorian, Gothic and Steampunk Magazine 