Florida Government Awards $500M In Grant Money To Research Cargo Shorts That Keep Balls From Sticking To Leg

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Legislature announced the passing of a bill securing $500 million in grant money to develop a special cargo short that would prevent the scrotum from sticking to the leg in humid conditions, excited sources confirmed.

“Our great state has its issues: prescription drug abuse, hurricanes, rising tides, school textbooks, barbed wire tattoos, you name it. But this is the issue I hear about the most in our district by an overwhelming margin. Men are spending thousands of dollars extra on proper bottom wear each year and I think the people as a whole are fed up,” said Florida Senator Sonny McDermot. “So we were quick to get this pushed through the legislature; you’ll notice this spending bill was bipartisan and unanimous. The Florida government really works for the people.”

Scientists from state universities were quick to support the spending initiative with their research.

“Our study concluded that the average Florida man spends 13% of his day unsticking his balls from his hairy thigh,” reported Florida State University post-doctoral Fellow Dylan Keith. “Go outside in any town and you’ll no doubt see two or three guys doing that funny walk thing to free their scrotum. We call that the Florida Three Step. Now, this grant allows us to answer the question: what if that time was spent elsewhere? What could we accomplish? Think about 13% more jetski time, or more doing bath salts in the swamp time. Think about the implications of that.”

Many local residents like Braden Daniels expressed a reignited faith in civics after the passing of the spending bill.

“I just think it’s ridiculous that there’s this one issue that only affects dudes, and we’re penalized for it. If this experience has taught me anything, it’s that apparently writing to your Senator really does work,” said Daniels. “All it takes is one letter. I’d urge everyone who wants something to change to take the time to handwrite a note and mail it to the government. Then boom, equity happens. I’m proud of the government for taking a step towards gender equality.”

Press representatives from the Florida government confirmed that, once developed, the cargo shorts would be fully covered under all health insurance plans, with funding being redirected from the school system.

Opinion: I Sure Hope I Don’t Get Murdered at This Dinner Party Full of Colorful Eccentrics

What an incredible dinner party this is! I’ve never been in such a gorgeous yet oddly period non-specific mansion before, and definitely not one in such an isolated location where not even the police could reach anyone for hours.

Plus, I’ve never been surrounded by so many colorful eccentrics and devices that, while seeming innocuous, could potentially be used as a murder weapon. I sure hope none of them are used to murder me!

Now, it feels like it would be pretty unusual for someone to get killed at a dinner party, even if Commodore Cinnabar over there is staring way too intensely over me while weighing a sharp-edged Whiskey Decanter in his hand. But it could be that the horrible sights he has seen in his years in whatever undefined military he belongs to have just made him need a drink. I know I would!

Really, I have to get over the idea that someone would murder me at a dinner party of color-coded individuals who each seem to have professions that are easy to illustrate using broad caricatures. After all, why would someone kill me? Let alone Dr. Vermillion, currently toying with a heavy Butter Dish or Madame Eggshell-White, making jabbing motions at me with the Carving Fork.

My therapist says I need to work on these intrusive thoughts.

It’s just like that time I went to the will reading of my great-great-grand-uncle from Transylvania that I never knew I had and was worried that I might have to spend a night in some kind of castle, potentially a haunted one. What a silly worry that was!

However, it is odd that no one but me seems to be eating. After all, the almost entirely unseen staff of this mansion that we were all invited to via anonymous letters that promised to reveal a very important secret once we had dessert and cheese worked hard on this meal. It really would be a shame to let this goose in aspic go to waste!

Oh great, now we’re retiring to the parlor. I bet everything goes well in there. Things almost always do in parlors, in my experience.

Now, all we have to do is wait for our mysterious host to get here! Then I’m going to stab the fuck out of him.

Boy Caught Playing Bass After Lying to Mom About Being Out With Friends Doing Drugs

DARBY, Penn. — Local punk mother Janelle Zander was mortified to discover her son, whom she believed was out partying with friends, was actually diligently practicing bass, ashamed sources confirmed.

“It’s supremely cliche to say, but, you know, it’s not that I’m mad…I’m just deeply disappointed. As a parent, you try and try to raise someone of substance and worth, and here I am screwing up and raising an, ugh, upstanding citizen,” said Zander, as she received a stick-and-poke that read ‘MOTHER (I’M REFERRING TO MYSELF)’. “The worst part is, I know Matthew was lying about the ‘friends’ part of his alibi too now. There’s no bass player I’ve ever heard of who has any social circle whatsoever. Soon I suppose I’ll be finding out that he’s moved on to fretless or, I can’t even bring myself to say it…upright. Why oh why couldn’t he have taken to the acid-taking aspect of Flea’s personality and not the BASS-playing one?”

Zander’s teenage son says this is all a giant misunderstanding.

“It-it wasn’t mine! I was just slapping and popping it for a friend, so the strings wouldn’t get stiff, honest! I didn’t even like the sound! I thought it was a guitar, it’s not my fault they look so similar!” said the 13-year-old, while half-heartedly attempting to sound high. “I was going to go out and do some drugs right after, I promise! All sorts of drugs, like the ones they taught us in D.A.R.E…but, uh, they didn’t teach me! I wasn’t even paying attention, so I’m still going to do lots of them! In fact that’s how I got the instrument, I was just looking to freebase, but ended up with a free bass! Yeah, you can see why things got mixed up! So, can I have it back?”

Hector Schirripa, a guidance counselor at Penn Wood Middle, expressed his concern that Zander’s path could be a rocky one.

“Well, it goes without saying that we here at his school will be recommending suspension, that’s for sure. Although, between you and me, that usually affords the little delinquents more free time to explore the seedy depths of the low-end, so I don’t foresee that being a solution in the long run,” said a mournful Schirripa. “I tell you, how these things are still legal I’ll never understand. Teaching is often rewarding, but one downside is you see more than your fair share of youth get corrupted by the likes of your Claypools and Bootsy Collins’. There’s only so much guidance you can give a kid once they’ve bought their first Jaco Pastorious LP. After that, all you can do is just hope and pray it doesn’t lead to a jam band.”

At press time, Zander was heard trying to convince his mother the Bass Player magazines under his bed were just “oddly-themed issues of Hustler.”

Six Songs We’re Listening To This Week That Are Probably Too Woke For Noel Gallagher

Well, it’s been another terrifying week but you’ve made it through with your heart, brain, and most of your fingers intact. Oh, we almost forgot about your ears. If the ringing has stopped from your neighbor’s marathon fireworks show, you’ll probably want to warm them back up with some new tunes. We’ve got just the thing for you. Here are six new songs to help ease your physical and metaphysical woes.

The Voidz ‘Overture’

For the first time in nearly six years, The Voidz are releasing a new album entitled ‘Like All Before You.’ In contrast to the vibe of the album title and in typical Voidz fashion, the lead single ‘Overture’ is an ominous and brooding synth instrumental that definitely isn’t making us scared for the full album at all. It’s hard to say how much more we’ll get to hear before the whole thing drops, but we’re drafting our wills now just in case.

Honeyglaze ‘Cold Caller’

Someone on the internet recently said we don’t listen to enough UK bands. First off, we don’t care what that person thinks of us. Secondly, it really bothers us that they said that. Especially when considering how hyped we are Honeyglaze’s new LP. The latest single, ‘Cold Caller,’ is a dizzying indie ode to feeling so lonely that you’d willingly chat with telemarketers or, in our case, that jerk in our comment section.

Show Me the Body ‘It Burns’

It wasn’t the holiday that made us slow to respond to your emails. We just blacked out for a full 48 hours after hearing Show Me the Body’s new single ‘It Burns.’ Good god, it’s heavy. Maybe learn from our mistakes and make sure you are in a spot with a lot of padding before the synth bass drops in. It’s a doozy and dangerously close to brown-noting you out of your favorite pair of jorts.

The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die ‘Kersed (Ceremony Cover)’

We’ll have to make this brief since the band name has taken up nearly half of our allotted word count, but holy fucking shit, TWIABP’s cover of Ceremony’s ‘Kersed’ is a thing of beauty. While a hardcore bent has never not been inferred within even the softest of TWIABP’s sonic output, it really is something to hear it laid out so blatantly and with such vigor. The old adage is true, even sad boys know how to open up that pit.

Los Campesinos! ‘kms’

It’s been three years shy of a decade since indie-pop legends Los Campesinos! released a record, and they are set to end that silent streak in just a few weeks with a new album, ‘All Hell.’ The final lead single ‘kms’ features keyboardist Kim Paisey taking the majority of the lead vocal duties, adding a soft touch to the suburban-emo malaise. It’s the kind of track that will inspire multiple entries in the diary you refuse to admit you have.

Mechanical Canine ‘Mechanical Canine Saves Emo’

You’re right to look at this song title with suspicion, but the Philly based DIY punks known as Mechanical Canine might actually do it. The lead single from their forthcoming third LP, ‘To My Chagrin,’ is a total fucking blast. It’s an earworm track that demands repeat listens – especially if you want to drown in that beautiful outro on the bandcamp version. Thanks for being the emo saviors that no one asked for but totally needed, Mechanical Canine.

We know six songs isn’t enough to fill the void, so we’ve compiled these and probably too many more into a massive and disorienting playlist. Click here to like, follow, and never be left alone with your thoughts again.

I Didn’t Get The Sex Talk But I Was Left Unsupervised At Spencer’s Gifts

Growing up as a millennial was tough. The internet came along and changed the world, and our parents were too self-absorbed and lead-poisoned to ever show any real interest in our development. My dad never sat me down to tell me about the birds and the bees, but he would drop me off at the mall by myself when I was 11 so he could go drink at Walter’s Pub on the weekends. My sex education came from the novelty items lining the shelves at Spencer’s, and it’s served me well.

One thing I kept hearing about during my teenage years was “safe sex.” Gotta be safe. Gotta use protection. I remembered Spencer’s had condoms. But I have no idea what flavors are good. How do you choose a flavor? I was never brave enough to ask the cute goth girl working the cash register for a sample. Do you ask your partner beforehand what flavor they want? And how do you find a size? I’d only see comically small and comically large, and unfortunately I was with endowed with a unit that is comically average. This crippling condom anxiety prevented me from having sexual relations well into my 30s. Man, I wish they covered that in school.

Also, apparently you graduate from underwear? I’ve had a few girlfriends and I keep asking them when they will be wearing that candy underwear. They tell me that it’s a joke, a gag, that if they actually wore that they would get a terrible infection. But Spencer’s would never sell something that isn’t safe. Their fart detector was one of the best gadgets I ever purchased. I’ve been wearing leather underwear from Spencer’s for years, and yeah, it caused a few rashes at first, but once my skin callused over I was in good shape. Maybe I should buy one of those rad leather harnesses. That’ll for sure attract the ladies.

Spencer’s also had a lot of sex games which I’ll often bring on first dates. The game “Lick, Suck, or Swallow” acts as a subtle icebreaker and gives me a good idea of what sort of lover my date might be. Or I suggest we play Twister. Nothing sets the mood more than a game of Twister. But nothing beats the sex dice. That way, if I don’t know what I’m doing, it’s all on the dice. I’ll look like an idiot without the sex dice.

Without Spencer’s I wouldn’t be the man I am today. I was lucky enough to memorize at least 15 pages from the book about sex positions and someday I plan on trying each one of those. To date, I’ve tried two, I just need to find the right woman who also had negligent parents.

“Emergency” Cigarette Pack Empty for Fifth Time This Week

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Local “occasional” smoker Samantha Terrett recently realized her secret pack of cigarettes reserved for emergencies was empty for the fifth time this week, coughing sources confirmed.

“I quit smoking sometime around two years ago,” Terrett said, while smoking. “But I’ll admit it, I always kept a sneaky little pack around for emergencies. What can I say, I’m only human. But recently I’ve realized that I might be having more emergencies than normal. Like sure, I had a cigarette a few weeks back when my roommate said she couldn’t pay rent this month and I thought we were going to get evicted. Then I had another one when I had to go grocery shopping while hungover. And then just found myself lighting up after a hard day working from home, but five days in a row. Now I’m replacing the pack daily because every minor inconvenience requires a cigarette.”

Terrett’s therapist June Chaey explained that she sees this behavior often when treating addictions.

“Samantha is doing exactly what any addict does–trying her best to justify her debilitating chemical need for the drug of her choice,” Chaey said from her office filled with ‘90s anti-smoking PSA posters. “She’s on the verge of realizing that her so-called ‘emergency pack’ is literally just her regular pack of cigarettes that she’s decided is somehow allowed. It’s not. She just keeps it in her bedroom drawer with her sex toys like some kind of weird secret. But once she crosses this mental threshold, she has two choices: either she’ll quit for good out of embarrassment, or she’ll accept the fact that she never quit in the first place and continue chain-smoking her 20s away like the rest of us did.”

Marty McClain, a lobbyist and representative for several companies within the “Big Tobacco” umbrella, thinks differently about the “emergency pack” conundrum.

“Don’t listen to a word of psychobabble that so-called therapist tells you,” said McClain while puffing on a comically oversized cigar. “It’s in her best interest to get more sessions with these kids who think they have some sorta mental problem. They don’t, they’re just regular working people who need to relax and unwind now and then. And frankly, we as businessmen in this particular industry rely on their consistent and unbreakable relapses. Nothing is more reliable than a smoker who doesn’t carry the shame of being called a ‘smoker,’ because in their head, they’re just having a moment of need. We need them to crank through a pack a day and still be under the impression that they’re doing well in order to maintain our profit margins.”

As of press time, Terrett was seen buying disposable vapes in bulk.

Limp Bizkit’s ‘Significant Other’ at 25: Perhaps It’s Time To Stop Telling People You Lost Your Virginity to This Album

Limp Bizkit’s ‘Significant Other’ has hit the quarter-century mark this year and so does the anniversary of you losing your virginity. Unfortunately, the two are not mutually exclusive. The album that gifted the world with the timeless poetry of “Nookie” and the existential musings of “Break Stuff” is intrinsically tied to the awkward and brief encounter you had with your high school sweetheart. But perhaps now is a good time to reconsider how we share this personal anecdote tied to this iconic piece of nu-metal history.

Let’s set the scene: You’re at a party, the conversation is flowing, and someone, perhaps out of nostalgic irony, throws “9 Teen 90 Nine” on the speakers. I think the time has passed for you to tell everyone, “Holy shit, I lost my virginity to this album.” There’s a certain charm in owning your past, but maybe, just maybe, it’s time to retire that particular tale. What twenty years ago was a source of pride and ten years ago became a self-deprecating tale of youthful ignorance. Now it is just kind of tactless. No one knows what to do with that information and it makes any interaction really uncomfortable.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Limp Bizkit’s Significant Other was a cultural phenomenon, that hit #1 in Canada. It was the soundtrack to countless adolescent rebellions, poorly thought-out fashion choices, and questionable haircuts. But there’s a certain social currency in how we frame our coming-of-age stories, and as much as we might hold this album dear, it’s not exactly the romantic serenade that gets the hearts fluttering.

Like, we get the irony of Fred Durst’s crooning “Nookie” as you fumbled through the ineptitude of your teenage sexual awakening, but it doesn’t make for good storytelling. It’s more like a chaotic montage of baggy jeans, your parent’s basement, the breakup anthem ‘Re-Arranged’ coming on at the worst possible time, and ultimate disappointment for both partners. Romantic, right?

Moreover, please consider the poor souls who have to listen to this confession. Imagine their expressions as you recount the night Wes Borland’s guitar work provided the soundtrack to your most intimate moments. Instead of evoking feelings of nostalgia, you’re more likely to inspire confusion, discomfort, and secondhand embarrassment. They might politely nod, but inside, they’re desperately searching for a way to change the subject to something, anything, less cringe-inducing.

So, as we celebrate Significant Other turning 25, let’s do so with a nod to the past but also a recognition of how far we’ve come. Blast “Nobody Like You” in your car with the windows down, scream along to “Break Stuff” when you’re having a bad day, and wear your faded red baseball cap. But maybe, just maybe, keep the story of how you lost your virginity to this album in the vault of youthful indiscretions.

Punk Refuses to Uncross Arms and Assume Crash Position as Plane Free Falls

GARY, Ind. — Chicago-bound United passenger Colin Jenkins refused to uncross his arms and assume the crash position despite the plane being in an irreversible freefall, panicked passengers confirmed.

“I was fine in the back of the plane with my arms crossed even though the flight was a snooze fest. But now the second the engines blow and it gets interesting, and these fascists are telling me to kiss my own ass goodbye?” said Jenkins. “If this is how I go, it’s going to be how I lived: arms crossed, frowning, and not looking like an idiot bootlicker in the process. This would be a lot more tolerable if everyone stopped screaming already so I can finish listening to this ‘Disgraceland’ podcast episode.”

Despite Jenkins’ unwavering pushback, flight attendants still attempted to get him to comply with safety regulations.

“I can’t believe I’m going to die while trying to make this asshole increase his odds of survival, just for him to cross his arms harder and roll his eyes at me. I knew he was going to be a problem when he was loudly telling other passengers about Reagan firing all the air traffic controllers in the ‘80s and everyone hired since then is a scab,” said attendant Regina Glass, clinging to her seat. “I guess he does look cool, but if he gets decapitated, that’s on him. I just wish he’d stop ranting at frightened passengers about how he’s been to Negative Approach shows more intense than this.”

FAA crash experts weighed in on Jenkins’ refusal to adhere to safety regulations.

“No matter how dire an aviation incident may be, there’s always one asshole who’s going to ignore the safety cards, with punks being the primary offenders. They just hate every arm of the government, so I guess it’s their way of saying ‘screw you,’” said Oliver Glass. “We’ve gone over thousands of black box recordings of crashes where they’ve refused to wear the airflow masks unless the attendants confirmed the oxygen was vegan, or the time one of them used the inflatable slide parachute to start a mosh pit, it ruined a water landing. But they’re still not as terrible as families traveling to Disney World.”

After searching through the wreckage, first responders found that Jenkins was the only survivor after his arms took the brunt of the impact, and requested EMS transport him to the show in Chicago he was flying in to see.

Ten Underrated Razor & Tie Records Albums That Would Make the Perfect Father’s Day Gift If You Actually Still Talked to Your Dad

Razor & Tie Records might not be currently active, but it will always cut our life into pieces. The violent-only-in-its-name label (they’re a bunch of sweeties) put out huge releases for Starset, The Pretty Reckless, All That Remains, and various other bands, so it deserves a long slow clap. Still, this piece is NOT about those acts though as we attempt to rank the top ten most underrated R&T LPs in alphabetical order below. Some of these bands are favorites from the peanut gallery known as life, but the specific studio albums referenced just didn’t take off for one reason or 666 others. Go outside and yell at the black hole, not red rising sun; won’t ya come?

Chiodos “Devil” (2014)

From East to Andrew West, it’s a Gitter of a good time listening to Chiodos’ comeback record with formerly ousted vocalist/“Autobiography” superfan! “Devil” is a pretty no frills effort that successfully spits out the fat from previous releases but seemingly fell on deaf ears upon release. Perhaps it was because it was yet another shift in the band’s sound from Brandon Bolmer’s lone and also underrated LP “Illuminaudio” or perhaps Warped Tour fans moved onto more traditional metalcore acts like We Came As Romans and I Left With Greeks. Whatever, and ever, a man, man? Ole fishlips is dead now? But Craigery is back! Maybe they’re alive under your pillow? All’s well that ends well! Regardless, you’re looking for a tornado, and it’s an extremely expensive conversation involving Behvis the Butt-Head, and a Bullock not named Sandra. We’re talking about practice?

Failure Anthem “First World Problems” (2016)

You’re more than a failure anthem for our dying day because you, and only you, are responsible for this non-first world problem not taking flight into the aggressive music world and bombing bushes. Greensboro, North Carolina is mostly known for being difficult to pronounce but Failure Anthem isn’t, and they even shout out a Georgia city that allows public alcohol consumption; Savannah is a freaking weird spot. We wish that the fools at active rock radio took a leap of faith and promoted FA, but sadly their songs were relegated to random dweebs’ “college” radio shows that aired at 3 a.m. for NO ONE, not even the DJ’s best lack of friends. Maybe the album didn’t take off because the band’s lead singer spelled his first name as “Kile.”

Finch “Back To Oblivion” (2014)

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Finch’s LP “What It Is To Burn” is one of the better singing and yelling records from this century, and you’re stupid if you disagree. Anyway, its follow up full-length studio effort “Say Hello To Sunshine” was truly rad in its own special and helpful way, but it was a tad too weird and meandering for the mainstream. However, had “Back To Oblivion,” the band’s back to basics third record, been their sophomore LP instead of Sunshine we can affirm that the band would’ve been on a different path to, uh, stray from.

Red Sun Rising “THREAD” (2018)

Red Sun Rising doesn’t exist anymore, and we think that you, yes you, should frown for the rest of this uncapitalized thread. The Violent, the band’s follow up, uh, band is still around, but do yourself a favor, and blast “THREAD” till you’re no longer red (sun rising), sick in da head, playing dead, and petting Benny Two Dogs. Also, props to the band for forming in 2007, and for lasting approximately thirteen years for the Bar Mitzvah boy character on SNL’s “Weekend Update”; l’chaim, friends. The band released an EP after “THREAD” and then disbanded. Hopefully they return after Trump wins again. Evil like you? Left for dead!

Saves The Day “Daybreak” (2011)

Even though this extremely underrated STD album, even amongst their hard and softcore fanbase, should have been called “Saves The Daybreak,” we won’t fault the sexually transmitted diseases of the day, hey hey, come out and play, or the day. Command: Listen to the band’s “Paranoid Android”-esque title/opening track right now! Do it. See? Let it all go, live WITH love, stay together for the kids, hold on (can you hold on?), and put your shoulder to the wheel! We hope that the band puts out another record in this vein stat! Yeah! In the meantime, check out the band on tour later this year for their best album “Through Being Cool”! 25 years since this album graced our scene? Whoa. By the way/in closing, “Daybreak”’s “Chameleon” is the band’s most underrated song.

Sons Of Texas “Baptized In The Rio Grande” (2015)

If you like Pantera without the confederate flag but still repping TX in some way, shape or form, Sons of, wait for it, wait for it, is for you! The band mixed southern rock with dung dung dung dung heaviness, Sevendust-esque structures, a literal and/or figurative baptism, and certainly deserves your attention, namely with their debut full-length studio release, “Baptized In The Rio Grande.” Sadly the band only released one more LP and two EPs after this effort, and split up a few years ago. We hope that they bury the hatchet; aggressive rock needs a band like the offspring of Oklahoma. Fun fact: WWE announcer to end all announcers, Michael Cole, was reared, rather born and raised, from the same locale as Sons Of Texas, McAllen, Texas, a city so radical it has two capital letters in its title… Pull it and fire! Blameshift.

The Sword “Apocryphon” (2012)

Fans of Mastodon, Protest The Hero, comic books that have more than 2012 pages, and general and non-general nerds who shower way too much or way too little, may protest our heroic publication for including this successful band here, but no one can argue The Sword’s LP “Apocryphon” has both a weird title and should be heard by so many more plebs and creeps. Also, The Sword shares a lot of commonalities with some classic rock and old school metal whilst making a sound of their own that just cuts, bro. “Apocrython” was the now defunct band’s first release for Razor & Tie and was co-produced by the band and scene icon to end all scene icons, J. Robbins of both Jawbox and Burning Airlines, but not Jawbreaker and Jets To Brazil, American idiots. Seven sisters, hawks, serpents, and freaking execrators excreting must rejoice!

Wilson “Right To Rise” (2015)

Easily consisting of the best album art on this list and of all time, Wilson’s sophomore studio record “Right To Rise” should make East Lansing, Michigan proud in between Michigan State University riots that happen both when their sportsing sportsers win OR lose, at least all of your enemies think so; SAD. Also, if you’re feeling really frisky, extremely risky, soaking wet and like Jeff Goldblum, Google Wilson and marvel at their debut album’s title. Then go on I-496 and party hard with your windows down whilst satisfying both you AND me. Honestly and basically Wilson truly rocked harder than most hard rock bands in a hard way, but only lasted for one, wait for it, wait for it, more hard full-length; shut up, Beavis, huh huh. Are you guilty or already dead? Please let us know, RISE, and hang with the devil! What the hell is a Lascu anyway?

WOUNDS “Die Young” (2014)

We won’t last till we’re old as this full-length studio album is the only release on WOUNDS’ DSPs, and said Spotify page indicates that they have only 179 monthly listeners as of press time. To put things in perspective, even your cousin Debbie’s pink but not that pink Greygoose cover band has 213 monthly listeners and no label would EVER sign them; Scottsdale’s music scene sucks. WOUNDS is thankfully not from Scottsdale but may as well been from a non-1% region as far more than 1% of Warped Tour bands reached greater heights. Is this what we get? You can bet your bippy and walk a lonely/dead road! Ireland put out “The Banshees of Inisherin,” released both Becky Lynch and Finn Balor, is a dry liquor country, and birthed WOUNDS. So binge, and get in trouble for the sake of it!

Yellowcard “Lift A Sail” (2014)

Way away away from here I’ll be.

Famous Authors Ranked by Their Ability to Front a Successful Metal Band

It’s often hard to define the metal genre, it’s vast, with hundreds, if not thousands of sub-genres of which nerds debate about for hours. And that’s the dirty secret about metal, at its core it’s a genre for nerds by nerds. Often the lyrics are pulled directly from fantasy novels, or in the case of grindcore bands, medical journals. Today we rank famous authors by how good they would be fronting a metal band.

32. Bret Easton Ellis

The worst goregrind ever committed to tape.

31. Charles Dickens

Look, Dickens is the greatest novelist of the 19th century, no contest, we admit it. But there’s just no way. Even his most grim novels are full of whimsy and pluck, traits that only have a place in power metal (ew) and Dickens was way too busy coming up with weirdly apt names for his antagonists and diving Scrooge McDuck-style into that sweet sweet serialization and lecture circuit money to be bothered with tour planning or recording sessions. He’s got to make sure little Nell dies in the most absurdly melodramatic way possible at the end of “The Old Curiosity Shop,” there’s no time for this “heavy metal” nonsense.

30. John Milton

Milton can’t front a metal band; he’s too busy writing political tracts, shilling for Puritanism, and then narrowly avoiding being killed by the restored King Charles II for that whole thing where he had been an enthusiastic supporter of beheading Charles’ dad back in the 1640s. It’s too bad, because “Paradise Lost” is maybe the most metal book ever written. However, Milton does not want us to listen to metal. Milton wants us to think about sin and feel bad.

29. Jonathan Franzen

Franzen sometimes listens to folk black metal while he birdwatches, and his general “damn kids these days” view of the world is definitely compatible with elder metal performers like Gene Simmons and Glen Benton, but he’s really more of a post-punk guy, and his funeral doom bandmates are going to be really confused when he has them rehearse a song that sounds like Interpol.

28. John Bunyan

Wrote all of his best-known work in prison and was a hardline culture warrior, so the comparisons with Burzum are inevitable and will haunt his band until they break up and/or murder each other.

27. David Foster Wallace

Wallace was famously socially anxious. I mean, he went on an all-expenses-paid cruise and barely left his cabin. So definitely a bedroom recording project. It’ll start out sounding like 2nd wave black metal, because of course Wallace can basically reproduce the core sound of De Mysteriis dom Sathanas after just listening to it for an hour or two, but once that starts to feel too evil (hideous, even), he’ll shift to post-metal soundscapes. His insistence that anyone who listens to his demo must also read his heavily-footnoted artist’s statement was scorned by everyone except the members of Liturgy.

26. William Shakespeare

Shakespeare wrote a roughly equal number of comedies and tragedies, which means he’s willing to shift on a dime from the existential horrors of “Macbeth” or “King Lear” to the freewheeling zaniness of “As You Like It” or “A Midsummer’s Night Dream.” In other words, he’s a Cannibal Corpse fan, and although he can’t do a decent hair-whip to save his life, he’s gonna start his band any day now.

25. Emily Brontë

Her band is really hoping the debut album’s moody cover art of misty moors and tortured lovers makes up for the narrative mess of the story, sorry, I mean music.

24. Jhumpa Lahiri

Lahiri’s characters are mostly neurotic strivers who drink good wine, go to Ivy League schools, read Gogol and Tolstoy for fun, and attend the opera. Their idea of rebelling usually involves listening to the Doors while drinking Budweiser poured over ice. Lahiri knows how to develop a dynamic character like no one’s business, but she also considers Metallica’s Black Album “too intense” and would basically be the worst metal frontwoman imaginable.

23. William Wycherley

Wycherley doesn’t take anything seriously. His most famous work, “The Country Wife,” is basically a five-act joke about impotence and adultery. Even when a character threatens to carve up his own wife’s face, it’s somehow played for laughs. Wycherley will record a demo that most reviewers will diplomatically say sounds more like hard rock than metal, then try to pivot into a stand-up comedy career, which will also go badly.

22. Ann M. Martin

Once “The Babysitters Club” became so successful that she could rest on her laurels and hire ghostwriters to crank out more installments about a group of middle school entrepreneurs in an impossibly utopian Connecticut suburb, she figured “why NOT start a thrash band?” She is still trying to learn the riff to “Hangar 18” and is starting to regret dropping five grand on a custom-made Jackson that she affectionately calls “The BSC Bruiser.”

21. John Keats

He likes to say it’s post-hardcore, but anyone who listens knows this is straight-up emo. The lyrics are impeccably written from a technical standpoint, but so self-pitying that even the guy from Dashboard Confessional thought they were “a bit much.”

20. Tom Clancy

An ungodly hybrid of the worst aspects (i.e. all aspects) of Five Finger Death Punch and Insane Clown Posse. Unsettling number of lyrical references to sniper scopes.

19. Samuel Richardson

First of all, he insists that every release has to be a quintuple LP concept album. Second, all the lyrics are from the perspective of teenage girls writing letters to each other, and then later from the perspective of a 20-something dude writing letters to his friend about how he wants to seduce one of them. The musicianship is sublime, but the lyrics are straight ick.

18. Alexander Pope

As established in his poem “An Essay on Criticism,” Pope believed that practice and finely-honed skill, not just an emotional sensibility, were the keys to good poetry, so he’s obviously now in a tech-death band that plays in time signatures no one’s ever heard of. He’s waiting to hear back from Colin Marston any day now about his band Vengeful Sylphs opening for Krallice.

17. Judy Blume

The protagonists from books like “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing” and “Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret” clearly have a lot of adolescent angst to work out. Unfortunately, the most obvious go-to for this sort of thing is Linkin Park or Slipknot style nu-metal. Judy’s band is a JNCO-clad trainwreck that sounds like a time capsule from 2001, but she’s got this kid named Farley Drexel who absolutely wrecks ass behind the drum kit, and that honestly elevates the whole project a little.