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I love rock bands with women on the vocals. I like Dead Sara, The Pretty Reckless, Halestorm, The Beaches, The Warning, In This Moment, Metric, The Interrupters, Larkin Poe. Lots more but that's a good sample.
What other bands/artists might I like?
Edit: thank you everyone for the recommendations! I have so much new stuff to listen to!
Have you tried venturing more towards the metal side like...
The Pretty Reckless
That's the one fronted by Cindy Lou Who, right?
Haha yes, although it feels a bit weird thinking of her that way considering most fans of the band have seen her boobs at this point lol
Ok, I’m old and my tastes might be different to yours 😜
Amyl & the sniffers is my fav
Well, you're in luck because we are living in basically the platinum age of women fronting cool rock bands.
Just off the top of my head:
Bones UK, Sniffany and the Nits, Cable Ties, Amyl and the Sniffers, Mod Con, Waax, Gutter Girls, Flagipanis, Panic Shack, Tiger Pussy, The Hellfreaks, The Darts, The Creepshow, The Spookshow, Zombina and the Skeletones, Bat Fangs, La Butcherettes, The Death Valley Girls, Sleater Kinney, The Veleteers, The Julie Ruin, The Bobby Lees, The Coathangers, The Regrettes, The Pink Slips, The Blushes, Bratmobile, LA Machina, Scrunchies, Skating Polly, and The Nova Twins.
I could dig up more if I start scrolling through my playlists, but there are tons of women out there right now making great music. Seems like every time I turn around there's some cool new thing.
I like time-loop movies, groundhog Day being there most notable. My favorite is probably Triangle. I've seen Timecrimes, Happy Death Day (& 2U), Edge of tomorrow,
The Netflix show Russian Doll might be up your alley
I'll check it out!
Give it a couple of episodes to see if you like it. The first episode spends a lot of time setting things up, but the main character doesn't come across as very likeable at first IMO. Once you get into the next couple of episodes, and she starts actually using her brain to try and understand what's happening to her, she becomes a lot more likeable as a character.
Obvious choice: Primer
There's also a decent tng episode that has this exact premise.
It seems this is an entire genre though, so Wikipedia does have a list of time loop movies. Maybe check if any of those short descriptions seem to fit your tastes?
Bloody great TNG episode, unsurprising that it was written by the director of the new Cosmos series
Looper was a pretty good concept IMO.
Try Coherence, and Time Lapse. Two pretty cool, underrated, low budget movies that I rewatched many times.
Try looper and if you're ready to think a lot, Primer.
Edge of tomorrow is so fuckin good.
Give the Netflix show "Dark" a try. Incredibly well written, everything fits together at the end, and it touches on this topic in an interesting and unique way!
Seconded (and thirded and fourthed). Dark is superb. Watch in German with English subs though, not dubbed.
Did you try time-loop games yet? Outer Wilds is fantastic. Majora's Mask, The Forgotten City and The Sexy Brutale are also pretty cool.
Try Predestination.
If I love “unreliable shifting cities” narratives, like Dark City, Fallen London and the City of Saints and Madmen books, what similar kinds of settings might I like?
I'm not familiar with those, so this might be a bad suggestion, but the short description makes me think this may still fit, have you read The City & the City by China Miéville?
It's set in two overlapping cities, whose inhabitants diligently disregard the other city's until they formally cross the borders, and it's a crime to do otherwise. It's a pretty compelling read imo!
Dark City is amazing, I recommend that movie whenever I get the chance.
Hell yes. Man, the 90s even into the early 2000s we had some freakin great wierd movies. 1999 might be the best year ever for movies.
I don't think we will ever see an era like that again.
If an unreliable shifting house would work, House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski. The writing is very much love it or hate it for a lot of people, but the idea fits.
Edit: Oh! And House of Windows by John Langan. No relation despite the similar titles.
I'm really into sci-fi. Constantly craving new content. Internet searches filled with if you like this sci-fi show, here are others you might like.
Farscape kept getting recommended. Muppets in space, how could I take that seriously?
Finally gave it a shot. Thank you, internet, for suggesting it repeatedly, awesome show.
If you read or listen to sci-fi books i highly highly recommend the latest book from Andy Weir. It's called project hail Mary and it's fucking amazing. The main character never swears when stuff goes wrong, which is kinda weird at first until you learn that he was a school teacher, but that is the biggest criticism I have of the book. It isn't even a real criticism either. It's an amazing book imo.
The expanse as well. Listening to it on audiobook (sans book 4 which I'm slogging through because the reader changed and he's terrible).
HP Lovecraft's way of conveying old and decrepit settings, threaded with veins of natural beauty that encompass the horrors lurking within them. He had a particular knack for inspiring imagery that is both vividly moving and unsettling. For a specific example, scope out the first few paragraphs of A Color Out of Space
The first couple of paragraphs of The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath serves as a testiment to the sense of majesty he could impart to the reader, but it was also (in my opinion) the last of his older, flowery, and overly-poetic style of writing before he hit a home run and found a new rhythm with A Colour Out of Space and everything thereafter. I personally was not a huge fan of The Dream Quest, but he certainly knew how to describe a triumphant city.
NOTE: I recently watched the new Color Out of Space film immediately after finishing the short story, and in my opinion the short story is infinitely better. It's more subtle, much creepier, far more detailed, and takes place 150 years earlier (1880s). It has an entirely different vibe that I found to be far more isolating and less obnoxious than the film.
I think China Mieville is the closest I've read, though obviously not 1:1.
Have you seen Glorious (2022)? Its a movie that you might enjoy that has very lovecraftian vibes.
My favorite bands are queens of the stone age, sea wolf, M.Ward, big thief, califone, jam2go, iron & wine, and the white stripes. What else should I try? I really struggle getting into new music.
I think it's become a bit of a meme, but I'd recommend King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. They make music from all kinds of genres.
Having being obsessed with QOTSA for half a year or so, I moved too some of Josh Homme's other project: Them Crooked Vultures, and Desert Sessions.
Other artists I would recommend are Wolfmother, Death From Above 1979, and Royal Blood.
If you want something thats a bit more rythmicly and melodically playful, I would highly recommend most albums by the Psychedelic Porn Crumpets. Their two most recent releases I haven't enjoyed so much, but the rest is golden. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard is good of you find the right albums. Personally I really like Nonagon Infinity, PetroDragonic Apocalypse, as well as their microtonal series of albums: Flying Microtonal Banana, KG, and LW.
Kyuss was an American rock band, formed in Palm Desert, California,[5] in 1987. The band disbanded in 1995,[6][7][8] and since then, members of Kyuss have gone on to form or play in several notable bands including Queens of the Stone Age, Screaming Trees, Fu Manchu, Dwarves, Eagles of Death Metal, Mondo Generator, Hermano, Unida, Slo Burn and Them Crooked Vultures.
😎
Oooh, this is great!
I love Hilda. The Netflix series. It has this feeling of adventure, an ubiquitous optimism and (and this is where it really gets difficult) combines this with a mixture of fast and slow pacing and (almost) traditional 2d animation. I haven't found anything similar. Friends recommended gravity falls and adventure time, but I didn't really like the faster pacing and American slapstick humour. The only thing that really ever came close was the ghibli adaptation of Ronja, which had this off-putting uncanny 3d cell shaded look of the characters but which I still enjoyed due to the writing (but which has disappeared from streaming services in Europe since).
Hilda is kind of like star trek tng, with episodes being not too connected and the protagonists mastering their challenges without antagonising their adversaries or resorting to violence as the solution (the final movie being the exception here, which was really weird imho).
And ideas?
1) Hybrid visual novels (ie visual novels with some gameplay element, be it some basic adventure/exploration/mystery mechanics like the Ace Attorney series, RPG or Tactical RPG elements, management, deckbuilding or whatever) that have very good writing (think something like Roadwarden or Citizen Sleeper) and/or a loveable cast of characters (like Ace Attorney).
2) Sci-fi and/or fantasy books that have good writing (by which I mean not that hollow, mass-produced, repetitive, overly simple YA-style prose —don't want to offend YA lovers, I'm just tired of it). Bonus points if they have some elements of social criticism, and even more bonus points if they have very compelling worldbuilding and characters. I'm thinking of stuff like Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed, The Left Hand of Darkness and Rocannon's World, Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Ted Chiang's short story "Story of Your Life", most of Jorge Luis Borges' short stories, Angélica Gorodischer's Kalpa Imperial, Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice, Dino Buzzati's short story "The Seven Messengers", Ursula Vernon's webcomic Digger, Winston Rowntree's webcomic Watching, Italo Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, etc.
3) Logical puzzle games that have the same quality of atmosphere and setting as Return of the Obra Dinn.
4) Turn-based videogames (they can be RPGs, roguelites, management games, visual novels, text adventures or whatever else as long as it's not action-focused, based on reflexes or time-sensitive without pause) that have very strong setting, atmosphere and writing (if they don't have a traditional story, at least good writing in the occasional dialogue lines). Some preferred settings are:
Decadent worlds (like Darkest Dungeon, Dredge, Fallen London, Sunless Sea, Cultist Simulator, Book of Hours, The Shrouded Isle)
18th to 20th century history/alternate history (like The Great Ace Attorney, The Lion's Song, The Last Door, Amnesia: Rebirth, Return of the Obra Dinn)
Sci-fi in general —can be cyberpunk but not necessary— (like Citizen Sleeper, Tacoma, Soma, The Talos Principle, The Red Strings Club, Chrono Trigger, 2064: Read Only Memories, Subnautica, Stellaris)
Very current (as in 2020s or close) focused settings (like Unpacking, Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You, one night hot springs, missed messages., What Remains of Edith Finch)
Traditional and/or generic fantasy but well written (like Roadwarden, Wildermyth, Final Fantasy Tactics, Legend of Mana, The Banner Saga, Suikoden II, Terranigma, Grandia, Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, Alundra... many of these I played young so their writing might not be as good as I remember)
Other historical/alternate history settings previous to 18th century as long as they're well written (like King of Dragon Pass, Landnama)
But I'm also open to anything I'm not used to in videogames as long as it has those elements (strong writing, setting, atmosphere), like urban fantasy/new weird/fantastic realism type of stuff like Disco Elysium, whimsical settings a la Undertale/Deltarune or ambiguous mindscapes like in Celeste and Gris.
5) Mechanically speaking, something that reaches the same heights as Slay the Spire. I don't know what it is, I've played many other deckbuilding roguelites and/or roguelites with a tree-style map chasing that same high. And some were better than others (I guess shout-out to Monster Train, FTL, Pirates Outlaws, Griftlands, Roguebook, Iris and the Giant, Dicey Dungeons, Star Renegades). But none have absorbed me like it did despite it having uninteresting (to me) writing and visuals. Maybe it was just because it was my first with those ideas.
6) I was exposed to a lot of anime/manga when I was a teen and even if I never feel like I want to watch/read most of them these years, I still have some lingering weakness for some of its tropes and aesthetics when applied to videogames. I'm talking about trainwreck-style games that are awful and strangely compelling at the same time, like Danganronpa and Zero Escape. Or, to speak of one that feels much higher quality while still having some puzzling choices, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. It's hard to describe this vibe (maybe "anime aesthetics, very ambitious in some ways but messy and still beholden to certain clichés, occasionally managing to be deep but usually just coasting on pseudo-philosophical anime bullshit") and I really never feel like actually playing these games but once a year or so when there comes a day I just don't feel like doing anything I don't mind laying in my bed watching full no-commentary gameplays of these kinds of games. So if you know of something similar to those I'd like to bookmark that for the future.
The discworkd series
William Gibson's books
Neal Stephenson's books (except Anathem, too looong)
Bartimaeus series by Jonathan Stroud
Dan Simmons books
The Atrocity archives by Charles Stross (just discovered this one, a must read!)
The master and Margarita
Kunderna (the old ones)
Umberto Eco (especially Baudolino)
So basically sci-fi or fantasy in a plausible heavy setting I guess :-D
Edit: forgot the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy OFC!
My mind got jogged so I'll add Catch 22 by Joseph Heller to the list too. IMO definitely a good read if you liked the HHGTTG.
Discworld is sometimes compared to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. That's to say they're both heavily tongue-in-cheek, not "hard" scifi/fantasy. HGTTG is "hard" scifi in the same way Rincewind is Gandalf - ie not at all. They're running more on Rule of Funny, and it works pretty well. Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams were both English, of course, and have quite a bit of overlap in their humor, commentary and writing style.
Plausible, heavy setting - Discworld 🤔
Regarding the first, have you tried the Robin Hobb books?
I don’t know many that are similar to discworld though. Maybe Good Omens by Sir Terry Pratchet and Neil Gaimen
I loved to play uncharted (for pc, I don't have a ps) and I am searching for similar games. I still have not played the second part of the "master of thieves collection" on steam.
Any recommendations? Lara croft is fun, but not as mysterious and does not have such a fun story imo.
And also I loved all of the broken sword games. I can highly recommend them! Any alternatives I could try?
Hmmmm... Adventurous third person action game with a sense of mystery and strong scripting? Is that it?
Horizon: zero dawn or forbidden west? That's more on the open world side of things though.
What about God of war or maybe shadow of the colossus?
A little shorter and not so much on the adventure side but very mysterious and very intense: hellblade - senua's sacrifice. That's quite dark though, missing some of those feelgood indy vibes.