fiction and creative non-fiction from Brennan Quenneville
Hey Blake, It's been a rough year for you. It wasn't that long ago that you were the next big thing and now, only a few bounced interceptions later, you're having to brush off questions about being out of a job. That's not a great career arc and I can’t imagine that it’s a whole lot [...]
When discussing Halloway, the late-2016 EP from Tessa Violet, the natural inclination is to focus on the album's jaunty electropop feel. While it's true that 'Dream' moves along on the back of a bouncing hook and that 'Not Over You' sounds like the musical lovechild of Tillian and Carly Rae Jepsen, these salient points do [...]
I. There was a time when Third Eye Blind's self-titled debut was the only album I listened to for an entire calendar year. Literally. That seems like an exaggeration, an overreach of the figurative use of “literally.” It’s not. I was ten during the summer of 1997, when 'Semi-Charmed Life' took over every radio station [...]
I didn't plan on playing Final Fantasy XV. In truth, I didn't even want to play it, having ostensibly abandoned the series after the incomprehensible slog that was Final Fantasy XIII. Still, I couldn't help but read the reviews that started flooding out around Final Fantasy XV's late November release and, much to my surprise, the [...]
This post was originally included in a group discussion at Type In Stereo. 5. Letters to Lost Loves by Tyson Motsenbocker. There were a handful of albums contending for this final spot, from PUP’s rambunctious The Dream Is Over to Panic! At the Disco’s surprisingly enjoyable Death of A Bachelor but I’m going to go with a more subdued choice in Letters to [...]
I am nothing if not a (wayward, powerless) arbiter of pop music. Over the years I have advocated for indie darlings, universally acclaimed megastars and criminally underrated savants. And now I've got a new addiction: 'Your Girl' by Violet Days. I don't want to get too technical here but, guys, that song is awesome. It's got smooth hooks! It's got [...]
Goddamn if this album isn't beautiful. From the moment it begins, with three twinkling strikes of a xylophone, Owel's dear me is a gorgeous, sweeping ode to the power of beauty in music. Each song across the album's 66-minute runtime brims with tenderness and passion; when, for instance, vocalist Jay Sakong sings the titular syllables of 'Pale Soft Light' during [...]
There's an old Jerry Seinfeld bit about the hazards of choosing a cold medicine. “This one's quick acting, but this one's long lasting,” he notes. “When do I need to feel good, now or later?” Weirdly, this is not so different from some of the listening choices that we make. Some albums use shortcuts to jump [...]
Two of my best friends are brothers; one is a comic artist and the other a musician. We used to play in a band together. Bands, actually. The most successful was probably our high school band, a pop-punk/screamo outfit that consistently covered both Finch's 'Letters to You' and the Limp Bizkit version of George Michael's [...]
For a few years I was lucky enough to work as a staff writer at Type In Stereo where I got to voice all my strange and needlessly in-depth opinions about music. It was a great time. So I'm happy to announce that some of my fellow writers from Type In Stereo are dusting off their [...]
Songs & Stories 