MarsKid just kinda popped in my head. I thought something like UranusBoy might be a bit sketchy  –MarsKid, 7/23/2017

Greetings fellow users! As some of you are aware, I’ve started a little user review competition in which the winner receives an automatic feature, as well as a “user spotlight” session. It basically consists of an informal chat in which I ask some personal questions as well as some silly ones.  This week’s winner was MarsKid, who reviewed Bloodclot’s “Up In Arms”.  Without further ado, please read on below as I sat down with him to discuss everything from zakalwe to Linkin Park.

I’ll start you off with an easy one: Would you rather spend the rest of your life as Ed Sheeran’s sound-checker (and you’re forced to be present to the end of every concert as well), or a stage dancer for Meghan Trainor?

Oh shit, this gets deeper than I thought.

I feel like being a stage dancer would honestly be a pretty nice gig. Get to shake it off in front of big crowds. Bitches like the male dancers. Having to stick to Ed Sheeran like glue would probably be like having to babysit Futures for a lifetime, so I’ll definitely pass.

Maybe I could teach him math operations though, that’d be fun.

Dancer takes the cake tho

Sound logic that I honestly can’t argue with.  But let’s step back from those two hells for one second to talk about you.  It’s obligatory, but I have to ask.  Where did the name MarsKid come from?

The first time I ever used it was for making a Minecraft Classic account actually. I just wanted to make something that sounded cool and MarsKid just kinda popped in my head. I thought something like UranusBoy might be a bit sketchy, and all the other planets don’t quite have the same ring.

I’m not really known for interesting usernames. The first big one I remember was from the old Lego Message Boards, the_vertical_man. Then my XBOX Live account was TheBlueBerry500, because I liked the show Psych and apparently there had been 499 other blueberries before me

The worst was back when I worked on some wiki as SnipaRifa or something like that. RIP my credibility

Haha well I can see where UranusBoy might draw an undesirable crowd (like, most of Sputnik).  Speaking of which, what made you join the site?  Like, did someone hold a gun to your head or was it by choice?

Well I either joined the site or Doofus promised he’d kidnap me and lock me in some cabin and play Bon Iver on loop.

Sounds like a daydream

In all seriousness, I have always loved music and liked looking into other opinions on what I was checking. Reviews were interesting to read. Sput happened to pop up more than once in search results and when I saw the relative ease of posting a user review, I thought it’d be a good opportunity to share my writing

But then real life happened (and laziness I suppose) so I’ve got only 13 reviews thus far and a bunch of comments that are either praising obscure core music or insulting Sinternet tbh

I like it here though

Re: Insulting Sinternet – none of us can resist that.  Do you remember the first review/thing you read on the site, or perhaps what drew you here?  Mine was Chan’s review of The Devil and God, but every user seems to have a uniquely interesting story in that regard.

Not exactly sure, but I know one close to that was this old review of Wolverine’s Communication Lost. It’s one of the hidden boss bad write-ups if you’ve never seen it. The opening line is hilarious: “”Wolverine” is a good band, so are many other bands. The implications of this are tremendous; Is it that “Communication Lost” says “no!” to crazy diversity or mad-hatter ideas?”

I loved the album and after reading that it got me inspired. Like, this review was so terrible I felt like I could replace it and do the release some more justice. It was the second review I did but that funny lil original write-up was a big initial inspiration

Worth checking out that if you’ve got the chance, the guy who wrote it is long gone so you can’t even feel shame in bashing it lol

*Does a quick search*: Looks like you have J2e2c to thank, at least in part, for you Sputnik journey.  He was last active in ’09 so I don’t think he will come back to fight you any time soon.  Let’s throw a quick fun one in there, it’s kind of tradition.  Open up whatever media player you use and put your entire playlist on shuffle.  Give us the first 5 tracks that come up.  Be 100% honest, no matter how embarrassing (for instance, I just did it and I got a 3 Doors Down Song, and not even the cool kind from their early albums).  Shoot:

Will do in a moment. Streaming Samsara Blues’ first album on bandcamp but I’ll bring up the Spotify

Here we go:

1. Deliver – Lupe Fiasco
2. Low Feels Blvd – Dillinger Esc Plan
3. Harder to Breathe – Maroon 5
4. Death is my Holiday – Eleventh He Reaches London
5. The Stranger – Billy Joel

Don’t wanna hear shit on Maroon 5 because their debut is actually fire

I was just about to give you shit for it but you’re actually kind of right; I also didn’t mind It Won’t Be Soon Before Long — that had some killer tunes as well.  For me they didn’t really start hitting the dumpster hard until Hands All Over, then by Overexposed they were long done.

Moves Like Jagger was the death toll to end all other death tolls

Unless you’re a Wintersun fan I guess

Forest Seasons is a helluva death toll

Agreed.  I had it on my “do not play” list as my wedding and they fucking went ahead and played it anyway.  I listened to Wintersun once (sorry had to consult my iTunes: it was “Time I”) and I remember it being decent but nothing that would draw me back into the metal genre.  The peak of my metal days were during Agalloch’s “The Mantle”, which to this day is one of my all-time favorites.

Well I never figured you for a metal listener, Yellowcard is about as hardcore as you get

No riff can match aggression ounce for ounce with the violin solo on “Believe”

Now I hate to bring it up but this is coming from the guy standing by a 3.7 for One More Light unironically

5 Good News for People Who Love Bad News and we’ll move on with our lives eh

Turning the tables, are we?  I thought I was conducting this interview!  The 3.7 is wholly genuine; I understand its shortcomings but strictly as a pop album I feel it accomplishes what it sets out to.  The melodies are quite catchy, and the lyrics on a handful of tracks (especially ‘One More Light’ and ‘Halfway Right’) resonated with me long before the passing of Bennington.  It’s actually interesting to see so many people re-evaluating the record in light of recent events…I feel like lately there has been a rash of musician deaths that almost immediately raise the perceived value of their art (Bowie comes to mind immediately, but it seems like it has been a constant theme since 2016 began).  What do you think?  Should the tragic passing of an artist alter one’s opinion of the music?  Is it fair for someone to suddenly enjoy One More Light if they initially thought it was terrible?

Jokes aside, people should enjoy whatever they want, except Sach’s obscure-ass trap shit or whatever

jk love you bud

anyways

It’s a natural thing that happens. I’ve already seen people reading deep into past lyrics as Chester predicting his suicide and sentiments like that.

Personally I think the music is the music, no matter what happened after/before it was presented. It makes for a good/tragic story but I don’t think it should heighten the quality. It is what it is.

That’s no disrespect to Chester, but to me the album is still a bad album. I will say that, in a bittersweet twist of fate, a lot of older people are returning to the old records. Hell, I have Minutes to Midnight in my car right now. Never thought I’d dig it up again.

Got a bit rambly there but I think I made sense somewhere in there.

Agreed completely about it being a natural thing – it is sort of common to want to see what that person was going through at the time of – or just before – their death.  I think if that allows them to see the music in a different light, then a change in opinion (even if just a small one) is justified.  I’ve been spinning One More Light this week as it was Chester’s last recording, but I plan to backtrack through Linkin Park’s discog over the next couple weeks.  They were always one of my favorite bands when I was younger.

I think a lot of people could say the same thing. Shout outs to MP3 players, jammed Meteora and Hybrid Theory all the time back in ye olden days

I don’t think I’m allowed to say ye olden days yet though. I think the benchmark is however old zakalwe is and I think that floats around 50 so I got a long way to go

I always got the impression that Zak was either a middle aged man from rural Mississippi or a teenager who is just…off, y’know?  Either way, he’s a site mascot and we all love his antics, provided they aren’t at the expense of our beloved Brand New.   In a similar spirit, who are your sput bff’s?

(basically, your hi mom! moment on the camera)

Well I gotta give a plug to my man Kusangi, he reps Persefone hard and that’s all anyone should ever do in life

I’ve clearly failed then

SteakByrnes of course, and the Dedester. Both of em are super chill dudes and just really nice. Love both of you peeps

Con because he’s a silly emo stoner guy and we can get sadboi together, which is nice.

And you’re climbing up the ladder Sowing, don’t worry. You just have to 5 Modest Mouse’s landmark release Good News

And maybe find a way to improve the servers. Or something.

Nah bro, it’s We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank all the way.  I realize that’s an unpopular opinion but then again my taste is highly irregular.  Could you date someone who absolutely HATES Modest Mouse?  Like how would that relationship go down?

Well I dated someone who didn’t know any song past Float On and they’d most likely 5 Imagine Dragons discography. Shoulda known it was doomed from the start

But I got them into Blind Guardian somehow so you win some and you lose some

In reality I don’t mind people with music taste different from mine. I’ve grown up always being the odd man out when it came to tunes so it doesn’t bug me much anymore. It’d be awesome to find someone with similar views in music as me tho

My worst relationship ever turned me on (pretty much the only way, if you get me) to both Brand New and Opeth…and my current wife loves Nickelback so…yeah.  Musical compatibility does not equate to a healthy, long-lived relationship I suppose!

Alright as things wind down here I’m going to go through a series of rapid-fire questions.  Let me know if you think you can handle it.

Leggo my eggo Sowbro

Up and at em

I’m ready

Favorite artist of all time?

Persefone. I love Amia Venera Landscape, but they don’t really have a full discog yet. Persefone has a killer set of albums.

Favorite movie of all time?

Synecdoche, New York. Simply beautiful, still makes me emotional

Most interesting place you’ve ever been.

St. John’s, island in the Caribbean. Swam with sea turtles. Awesome

If you were on an island and could only bring three albums to listen to (let’s assume said island is decked out with an incredible stereo system), for the rest of your life, what would you bring?

Amia Venera Landscape – Long Procession

Core by Persefone

And yeah, I’d bring Good News. It has overtaken Woods V for me now.

Now I want you to just say the first thing that comes to mind when I say a word.  It’s sort of an association game.  Here goes:

-Britney Spears

Sucks

-LordePots

Sucks harder

-Pitchfork

Still relevant?

Hmm…Sowing

You never listened to my Lovedrug rec months ago and it made me sad

You’d like it trust me

Everyone is always rec’ing me stuff!  I suppose it’s a good problem to have….I’ll check it out after this interview.  OK – last but not least – tell us one thing about yourself that the sputnik community knows nothing about.  Go out with a bang.

Hmmmm

Well I actually don’t think I’ve ever mentioned I like acting. I’ve performed in front of 300 plus before. Favorite performance was Arsenic and Old Lace as Dr. Einstein

I was also ranked once top 5 worldwide in Minecraft Classic CTF out of 25,000+ players

In other words I’m a nerd

Oh wow, both of those are actually quite impressive.  You’ve already accomplished more in life than I have…Thanks again for coming out Mars.  And congrats again on winning the review competition!

Glad I could be here! Thank you for the opportunity, I loved the chat. It was nice interacting with you

Have a good day now my man

You too!