In the meantime, there is this very small portion of human reality called DIY music. For most musicians in this DIY world, the stereotype of “struggling artist” is both comically and tragically more real than ever. Thats okay though. It is nice to do what you like and not be working for “the man”. And while the survival tactics of your DIY musician may not be exactly the same ones that we’ll need when we’re all hunting wooly mammoths again, there is a certain spirit of bravery going on here that shines a light of love we will always need in this world.

Universal Studios Florida (aka USF) currently face one of these moments where they must shine their light and see if it is strong enough. Long time XXJFG will remember these guys for Orb-like brand of chillwave that they were doing long before that silly word existed. At the moment though, they can hardly make a sound. Sadly, all their gear was stolen from their practice space. But they got strategies, a love lamp, and that caveman spirit. They are raising money for new gear by selling two songs from their forthcoming album The Spray via bandcamp. If you got $2, maybe form a clan with them and help out? Either way, they are also sharing a 3rd new song for free.

Universal Studios Florida – Branss

Another form of DIY bravery is no shining light of love. It is more like a thorny seed pod that lays on the forest floor fending off hungry critters to make sure a new tree is born. A tree with thorns all over its trunk, with leaves that scream in the wind, “Fuck you! Trees can be punk too!” Considering that the spirit of rebellion, the well needed voice of dissent (esp in this evil world of corporate interest wars and hate-driven local politics), is often mocked by the very people it aids, it takes a lot of bravery to do the right thing. So, to all those people that like to act offended by the name AIDS Wolf, you can eat my thorny pod. Meanwhile, I’ll be letting the comforting sounds of chaos wash over my body while sitting back on the tropical shores of Fuck It. In other words, since when is art not the safe place to confront dangerous ideas? Oh well, at least it is nice to know that some bands can still actually be punk even in the age of Hot Topic.

AIDS Wolf – Teaching to Suffer

from the forthcoming album March To The Sea.

Gavin Russom is Black Meteoric Star, and Black Meteoric Star is the sound of gamma rays raping every single termination of our nervous system as we cruise empty worlds in an inverted monolyth of chrome and titanium named after a Joseph Conrad novel, destination nova. It all kicks off with Death Tunnel, a chugging piece of Synthetic Body Music to soundtrack declarations of war against whole universes, it looks like a Panther, moves like a panther, bites like a panther too. Dystopian tech album of the year, no shit kids.

Black Meteoric Star- Death Tunnel

Returning home can feel a bit weird when you find the neighbourhoods of the city where you used to live resting derelict under the green tinted shades of millennial trees, herds of laser-eyed deer grazing on the grass that rises through the cracks in the pavement, taking the wrong turn in the unpredictable tides of the K-Tract will lead you to this kind of situation. Not that this scenery isn’t devoid of a haunted beauty, conspicuous beeping & tooting replaced by the screeching of exuberant birds, the brush of leaves dancing their sedate little dance, and a sun larger than you remember shining at an exotic angle through a tattered atmosphere. You are a stranger in a strange land now, so you better get used to it.

Universal Studios Florida sounds like an exhilarating struggle across the shrubbery of a post-apocalyptic utopia, and the eventual arrival at a clearing where a lonely skyscraper rises into the sky, a pristine waterfall caressing its smooth glass face with tinkling fingers.

Universal Studios Florida- Frozen Bayous (featuring Alaskas)