People are dressed up as memes, Kevin Spacey was accused of sexual assault, Paul Manafort was indicted. Things are getting really, really spooky. Sure, 2017 has been pretty ominous in the political and pop-culture world, but add in dead trees, pumpkins, and cold weather and…I’m just plain scared.

This Rock Don’t Walk is dedicated to spooky jams that are going to make your Halloween…feel like Season 6 of American Horror Story; a little to real.

Here is a playlist to fully immerse you in the scary world that we currently live in.

“Escape” – Kyle Dixon

So yes, this is from the Stranger Things Season two soundtrack. I love the heavy synth, definitely remnicent of Daft Punk’s “TRON Legacy” Album. They embodied the 80’s perfectly and also give us an eerie start to the playlist.

“John Wayne Gacy, Jr.” – Sufjan Stevens

This song is terrifying. Flat out terrifying. This is about John Wayne Gacy, from the perspective (or so I assume), of his son, John Wayne Gacy, Jr. It’s frighteningly morbid, and there’s breathing at the end along with slow taps on the piano keys that really leave you thinking about the song long after it’s finished.

“This is Halloween” – The Citizens of Halloween

Alright you might be laughing that I transitioned to this ridiculously goofy song but I’ll be honest in saying I sing this all year long. I don’t know why, something about my messed up childhood, but it rings in my ears throughout the seasons.

“Little Dreamer” – Future Islands

The dissonance in the guitar chords that this song first brings on to the listener in its melody already creates a repetitive, synchronised pattern that draws you in.

Like the waxing scar where my lonely heart
Once bloomed before I met you

“Psycho Killer” – The Talking Heads

fa-fa-fa-faaaaar better. Sure, the topic is Psycho Killer, so it’s spooky in it’s title. But it’s also got flare through the rest of the song that can put you off. Bryne’s voice seems to kind of mutter in this song compared to the other Talking Head’s hits. He’s shaky, and it sets that theme for the rest of the music. The base is stagnant through the song, and that keeps the jaunt of the song moving forwards

“Five Minutes” – Her

The electric guitar clearly sets the mood for what kind of dissonant and strange song this is going to be, but the chorus “All I need is five minutes” actually dissolves into a kind of dream-like sequence. This song is intoxicating and off-putting – two of my favorite things.

“Stranger Things” – Kyle Dixon

you know what they say, start with a stranger thing, end with a stranger thing.

Have a happy hallows eve everyone!

The post Rock Dont Walk: It’s getting spooky. appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Have you ever woken up five minutes before your alarm went off and choose to lay in bed rather than getting up and starting your day? The lull of the soft warm blankets accompanied by the whispers of your dreams too tempting to resist? The cold air threatening enough to chill you to the bone and dispel the air out of your lungs? The soft glow of the sun and the murmurs of the birds all too relaxing for you to just ignore?

You choose to roll over in your bed, pulling the blankets up higher and relaxing deeper into the soft mattress, when a thought suddenly conjures itself to the front of your mind, disrupting your pleasantries and thinking, “My life fucking sucks.”

If you haven’t, then pat yourself on the back, and consider you and I mortal enemies.

My life, or my joke as I like to call it, is a collection of these unfortunate moments that the universe believes to be comical enough to drop them on my shoulders and see how I manage.

It’s as if I’m running down a dark corridor away from some malevolent being, my life, and with every step I take, corner I turn, and plea I shout, somehow turns itself around and knocks me down, only to get caught by that malevolent being in the end. However, right before the malevolent being grabs me, I somehow always manage to slip away and make a quick escape; surviving to fight another day. It’s quite an adventure but an interesting one nevertheless.

Which is why I think back and wonder who said college is a time for exploration, finding yourself, and having fun, because whoever said that, lied through their teeth and obviously never enrolled in an accredited university.

So far I have yet to explore without screaming bloody murder, I have yet to find myself in a pleasant situation and only unimaginable ones, and if you haven’t guessed by now, I am not having fun. I am helplessly running around trying to adult but failing horribly at it every step of the way.

It’s a constant game of trial and error, and well, I haven’t quite got the hang of it yet. The only thing I have managed to get the hang of is learning from my trails and errors by applying them to my future trials and tribulations in some mere hope that maybe, just maybe, I can dodge that malevolent being and one-up it for once in my life.

This, by some chance, now leaves me to say that if you somehow randomly stumbled upon this column, for unknown apparent reasons, to seek advice on how to adult, I’m sorry to admit, but I’m not the girl you’re looking for. I can barely adult myself so me trying to help you is like the blind leading the blind. We will get absolutely nowhere anytime soon. I’m sorry I can’t adult right, but I can share my experiences with you in hope that you can learn from my experiences and apply them to your own life in some form or fashion.

May God be with us all.

For daily updates on my catastrophes, follow me on:

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Walk In My Shoes is a bi-weekly column about a college student who doesn’t know what she wants to do after graduation but write award winning novels all while stumbling around helplessly in the world.

The post Walk In My Shoes: Pilot appeared first on KRUI Radio.

From auditioning on the famous television series, The Voice, to releasing her new album Cry Baby, Melanie Martinez is well on the road to musical success. I first discovered Melanie’s talent by stumbling upon her viral cover of “Toxic” by Britney Spears, where she is seen playing the guitar while hitting a tambourine between her feet. From there, she continued on season three of The Voice and is certainly making her voice known today in the alternative music industry.

According to Artist Direct, Melanie states this album is a reflection of her childhood. She identifies with the Cry Baby character because as a kid, she claims she took things very personally and that led to the nickname that stuck. This album, according to this interview, was about Melanie coming to terms with this imperfect side to herself; hence the ongoing theme of infancy and child-like toys/activities present in the album.

The track listing for the album includes 13 tracks for the standard edition and 3 more bonus songs for the deluxe edition (digital only), all released by Atlantic Records/Warner Music. The album is a follow up for her EP released in 2014 called Dollhouse, as well as the tracks Pity Party, Soap, and Sippy Cup released more closely to the album drop. Another huge milestone to Mel’s success would be her track, also featured on the album, called Carousel. With its haunting music undertone and Melanie’s incredible voice to match, it is no wonder it was featured in the FX hit show American Horror Story: Freak Show. Because of this, her music career took off and helped with the success of Cry Baby.

The first track on the album is called Cry Baby, fitting for the album that is called just that. It perfectly sets the mood for the rest of the songs while being a fun opener with an upbeat tempo and eerie sound (which she nails so well). The next preceding songs include, as previously mentioned, Dollhouse, which was the first music video she ever produced.

Track number three on the album called Sippy Cup slows down the tempo and keeps a calming mood to the ghostly theme of the song. This is seen in songs Mrs. Potato Head and Training Wheels as well, which seamlessly glides along with the rest of the album. Melanie Martinez also does an excellent job of boldly experimenting with different drops and beats. Her song Soap demonstrates this perfectly and if you listen to it, I guarantee you have not heard anything like this before.

Melanie’s music has a theme of hostility along with the eerie sound she is known for. If you are looking for a song to run to in the gym to get over a boy/girl, her songs Alphabet Boy, Milk and Cookies, and Pacify Her are a must. These tracks are basically a big “fuck you” to anyone who makes Miss Martinez feel small and for that Melanie, we thank you.

I wanted to save my two favorite songs on the album for last: Tag, You’re It and Mad Hatter. Admittedly, these two songs are probably the creepiest of the album but the concepts and beats are pure genius. Tag, You’re It is the tale of a little girl being abducted by a man in a van. Yeah. Creepy. But that’s what is making her music so alluring… no one else is doing what she is doing! And lastly, as an avid “Alice in Wonderland” fan, of course Mad Hatter is a personal favorite. It is a great track because Melanie admits and embraces her weird (and arguably insane) mind. If you listen to anything from this album, this would be the track I’d recommend.

Don’t miss out! Check out Melanie Martinez’s album Cry Baby today!

Melanie Martinez- Cry Baby

Melanie Martinez- Instagram

Melanie Martinez- Soundcloud

Melanie Martinez- YouTube Channel

The post Album Review: “Cry Baby” by Melanie Martinez appeared first on KRUI Radio.