I'm thinking now about how my grandmother got them in her 80s but no one else in my family was prone to them.

How likely is it the Kidney Stone Fairy is going to pay me an unfortunate visit?

i dunno, obviously you should see a doctor if you're genuinely concerned about it

all i know is that having it in the family doesn't decrease your chances

This is evidence there's a God. I take back everything I said about this site needing to be shut down. As long as Verbatim reports on his pain to this website, it deserves to exist.

i still don't really know what's causing this vitriol towards me

pretty much everyone who's once disliked me has either gotten over it, or has decided i'm not so bad after all (whether they're right or not, it's what always happens)

the worst thing i could possibly have done to you is say something you dislike, either because it was mean, or simply because you disagreed with it

i think there's a case to be made for me "deserving" what i'm going through right now, but if i do, it's certainly not for whatever i've posted on the internet

i can say that i wouldn't wish what i'm currently going through on even my least favorite user of this website

Sorry to hear that. How big are they?

4.1mm, small enough to pass on my own

0.9mm bigger, and surgery would likely take place instead, so i'm thankful for that

i mean they're both nightmare scenarios but i'd rather not be cut open to remove rocks from my groin

would it be a by product of a vegan diet or just random

in my case, it was hereditary; my dad has had them too

i wouldn't be surprised if my poor diet was a contributing factor, though

in spite of my veganism, i've never really been a paragon of healthy dietary choices—so i wouldn't pin it on being a vegan, i'd just pin it on me (somewhat—stones are kinda unpredictable, and it's considered unwise to pin it on any one thing)

Ouch
What’re you doing while you pass them

just gonna take ibuprofen every six hours (or something stronger if i need them) and hope for the best, really

and drink lots of water and nothing else (which i've been doing for the past few years anyway, so that's no issue)

supposedly i experienced the worst of it this morning, when i woke up with some of the worst pain i ever felt around my lower intestines, and i guess that means it was passing through my ureter

it was pretty bad (i was puking), but if that's honestly the worst of it, i don't think i have much to worry about at this point

i don't feel anything right now at least, whereas this morning i thought i was gonna die, but not knowing what was happening to me at the time definitely made it worse

roy too but i'm not as good with him

never mind, i'm getting good with roy too

he's so fucking fun in this game

My question is, why is rape or sexual violence a line that we can't cross in video games?

Rape appears in movies and books and probably did appear in some games too. Is the interactive aspect what pushes it over the edge of acceptable? What if a game just had a rape mechanic not crucial to the game?

it CAN be crossed, and it has been, there are just more consequences associated with it because it's a more taboo subject

why is it more taboo than murder? to me, it's kind of one of those self-evident things that's hard to explain

if you were guaranteed to be both raped and murdered in your life, but you could choose which one you could experience first, which would you choose

would you rather be raped and then murdered, or murdered and then raped

i think it would be pretty obvious which one you'd choose

reminds me of every thread posted here twice a week for the past 3 or 4 years

Energy Orchard - Pain Killer
Basic rock
4th album

Probably the most obscure band I've covered so far, and that status is not undeserved.

Basically, an Irish group of Van Morrison wannabes make the most bland rock music imaginable. On previous records, they dared, on occasion, to incorporate some Celtic roots into their sound, which was actually quite nice, but there's not much of that to be found here. Not that it would've been a resounding selling point anyway. Do not bother.

5/10

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Atari Teenage Riot - 1995 (aka Delete Yourself!)
Digital hardcore
Debut album

"Digital hardcore" is essentially an adrenaline-fueled, blood-pumping affectation of electronica when combined with the vibe and ethos of hardcore punk music. It's very loud and very abrasive and most of you wouldn't like it.

This is a GREAT album, though, and if you enjoy the music of, say, Death Grips (especially for their punkier side), then I would absolutely consider this a must-listen.

If you've seen the third Fast & Furious movie, Tokyo Drift, then you've already heard the best song on the album. Which is unfortunate, but I hope that doesn't discourage you from trying out the whole album.


The song in general represents the album's sound very well. If you don't like what you're hearing, the album's probably not for you.

My biggest problem with the group is their politics—not that I disagree with them, but because it's practically impossible to disagree with them. You see, part of the group's whole appeal is that, sure, they may be making this intensely aggressive music, but it's only because of how politically conscience they are. They're directing that anger towards a greater evil. And what greater evil, you may ask?

...Nazis.

Yeah. Atari Teenage Riot is taking a hardline stance on Nazis and fascism: they're bad, and this is what they want you to start riots over. They have a song on this album that they, apparently, play at every single one of their shows, and they'll never stop until every Nazi is dead.

Obviously, I'm not saying it's bad to hate Nazis or anything. It's just a little... easy? And not the most political stance?

Whatever, the music is still good and that's ultimately what matters. So good, in fact, that I think this is probably my favorite album for this month.

8/10

Oh, and if you were gonna listen to it, do notice that 1995 and Delete Yourself! are the same album; the latter is a 1997 re-release that changed only the title and the cover, so don't get confused by that. Here's what the new cover looks like:


I'm not sure which one I prefer, but I went with the original 1995 cover because, after all, this is the 1995 thread.

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PJ Harvey - To Bring You My Love
Alternative rock
3rd album

I think this album is somewhat of an alt-rock classic, so I'm not sure how much I need to talk about it. It's really good—Harvey's husky vocals are pretty powerful and bluesy, and even though I'd argue that she doesn't always sing "well" in the conventional sense, she embraces the idiosyncratic elements of her voice in such a way that every note feels deliberate and very impassioned or soulful.

She can get a little hamfisted at times, though, like on "I Think I'm a Mother," where the entire song is sung with the lowest possible voice she can make, and it does sound quite silly. It doesn't ruin the song or make it bad, but I personally can't listen to it without grinning.

My favorite tracks on the record are probably any of the heavier ones, such as "Meet ze Monsta" or "Long Snake Moan," but it also offers some really cool tracks that are less heavy, like "Working for the Man," which has this really sly instrumentation that slinks along like a cat, or one of the more popular songs on the record, "Down by the Water," which is a fun track that tells a rather grim but nonetheless interesting story in its lyrics.


I, for one, quite like it. Give it a try, it's pretty accessible.

8/10

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Mike Watt - Ball-Hog or Tugboat?
Alternative rock
Debut album

This one's pretty wild. So, Mike Watt is a bassist who played in a number of bands, like the Minutemen, and made a name for himself in the '90s before embarking on a solo career. This is his first "solo" album, but "solo" is a term I use loosely, because this album has this crazy yet ambitious gimmick where Watt pretty much formed a new ad hoc band for each of its seventeen cuts, all of which feature a menagerie of big names in the alternative rock world, including Eddie Veder, Henry Rollins, Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, Flea, Carla Bozulich, J Mascis from Dinosaur Jr, Mark Lanegan from Screaming Trees, Kathleen Hanna from Bikini Kill, and MANY more—most of whom I don't even recognize. Even Mike D shows up out of nowhere on one track. This album is a collaborative giant and every '90s alternative fans' wet dream, basically.

Does that mean it's good, though? Actually, I think it is. It's an extremely uneven and almost schizophrenic mess at points, but I think that's part of the experience.

Instrumentally, it's all over the place. You got your standard rock 'n' roll fare, which comprises most of the material here, but you also have these random flavors of blues, country, and a little bit of jazz, punk, and spoken word, too. All sorts of weird shit, and it's all done weirdly. There's a song on here called "Piss-Bottle Man," which is sung and performed very matter-of-factly as if it's not a bizarre subject.

The album seems self-aware about its oddball nature, which is part of what makes it work for me. For example, there's a cut on here called "Intense Song for Madonna to Sing." Naturally, you'd expect there to be vocals, but... it's an instrumental. That's fucking hilarious.

There's even one part of the album that aims to completely disrupt the experience entirely and make things awkward and uncomfortable. Kathleen Hanna's "contribution" is a phone call where she aggressively informs Watt that she has no interest in being on the album, because one of her friends was raped by one of the other collaborators (though she doesn't name anybody) before casually asking him to return her Annie soundtrack that he had borrowed. It's... fucking odd, and it wasn't until later when I did some research that I discoered that this segment of the album was merely a bit, and nobody was actually raped (or, at least, I think/hope that's what that entails). I think Mike Watt is a pretty ballsy motherfucker to include something like that in his album, and it's this moment on the album where I decided I was listening to a great work of art.

I don't even feel as though I fully comprehend this record, or what it's doing, or why it exists, but for what it's worth, I enjoyed a significant amount of what I heard. I do still think it's a little bit too uneven for me to give it the 8/10 that I want to, but it's still very much worth checking out and will most certainly top my 3x3 chart when this is finished.

7/10

---

Adina Howard - Do You Wanna Ride?
R&B
Debut album

...

4/10

Next.

---

Quicksand - Manic Compression
Alternative metal
Sophomore album

To me, this is a genre that lives and dies on the quality of its riffs. If you don't have good riffs, and you're making riff-based music, and you're not an insanely talented auteur producer or multi-instrumentalist like Trent Reznor or something, then you're probably not making very interesting music. You're probably making bland, forgettable music. So what does that say for these guys?

It's all right. Definitely forgettable, but decent if you're into the genre. I think their first album was a little better. "East 3rd St." and "Supergenius" are good cuts, and there's not an outright bad song on the album, but there's nothing particularly unique or special about them.

6/10

I think there's enough material on this record to MAYBE justify a 7/10, but my decision comes down to lack of memorability. I don't remember much of this record after first listening to it, and nothing is really compelling me to come back to it.

---

Jewel - Pieces of You
Folk
Debut album

This style of music is normally a bit little too sugary-sweet for my sensibilities, especially when looking at the subject matters she typically sings about, but there are a number of songs that delve into some startlingly dark territory, and of course, these wind up being my favorites on the record. I'm especially talking about songs like the title track or "Daddy." I don't love these songs unconditionally, but they give an otherwise emotionally diabetic record into something that has a bit of an edge to it. It worked out, and it seemed to have worked out for a lot of other people as well, as this is one of the best selling albums of 1995 (apparently).

7/10
Maybe a little generous, it could be a 6/10 but I'm keeping it as a 7/10 for now.
If you're into soft and cuddly folk music like this, it might just be a 10/10 for you.

---

Wax - 13 Unlucky Numbers
Pop punk
Sophomore album

This record is just over 20 minutes, which is probably the ideal dosage. I can only take so much pop punk.

I actually kinda like these guys, though. Between the Blink-182 debut that I covered, as well as the No Use for a Name, I think Wax actually put out the best album. I think they have more energy, MUCH better riffs, the better vocalist, and all-around the more cutting-edge sound (for '95, obviously).

Not to mention, I think Wax's debut, What Else Can We Do, might be one of the best pop punk albums I've ever heard, but I've only been able to find it on Spotify. There's not even a Wikipedia article on it. But check that one out, too, if you're interested.

7/10

---

Steve Earle - Train a Comin'
Country
5th album

Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Steve Earle—my favorite country singers, as someone who doesn't like the genre.

Steve Earle was never really a pure country artist, which is what makes him so palatable for me. He also has one of the coolest-sounding voices in the genre. You're probably familiar with "Copperhead Road" or "Guitar Town," both of which are great songs that manage to blend country with harder or catchier rock sounds which make them easier for non-country fans to digest.

Train a Comin', on the other hand, doesn't really contain any of Earle's more well-known hits, and instead takes it back to the roots a little bit. This would be disappointing, but he still has the voice, and the country roots we're talking about is the era where country music was about storytelling, where the stories being told have something useful to take away from them after listening.

And for that purpose, I think this album succeeds, for the most part, at what it's setting out to do. Sure, there's a couple of trite songs here and there, like "Nothin' Without You," but there's still great stuff like "Tom Ames' Prayer" and "Ben McCulloch."

I dunno, in terms of country music, I think you could do a lot worse.

7/10

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Porcupine Tree - The Sky Moves Sideways
Progressive rock
3rd album

While not even close to a bad record, I would consider this to be a slight disappointment coming off their debut and sophomore releases, On the Sunday of Life... and Up the Downstair, which are both sonically beautiful 8/10 albums that are exciting and forthright in terms of quality.

This one's still good, but it's not as good, and it's very difficult to explain why, especially when it's frequently cited among Porcupine fans as one of their weakest outputs. It doesn't really help that "psychedelic" music like this has always come with the punchline that it was all made on drugs, or that you need to be on drugs in order to fully appreciate it. And while Steven Wilson has made zero compunctions about his drug abuse (Up the Downstair opens up with a message outright stating that the record was made under the influence), I don't think it's the case that the listener must also indulge in order to enjoy practically any kind of music.

But when you put out a spacey, pretentious-ass record like this (and it IS pretentious), it really kinda undermines that point a little bit. There are multiple 15+ minute ambient compositions on this album that, while impressively made and overall "good-sounding" (and that really is the best adjective I can come up with here), do not justify their length at all, and instead threaten to bore most listeners, because they aren't very engaging or challenging. They're kinda just there for you to zone out to. It's good "zoning out" music, nothing more.

I happened to enjoy it decently enough in spite of this, but the way the music is made makes it very difficult for me to put into words just what I like about it, because it's very apparent to me that all the reasons why I enjoy the record would be the same exact reasons that someone else would hate it. I don't know how to recommend this album, or if it's even worth it.

Why couldn't they have just released something straightforward in 1995? Christ. Just listen to their other shit.

7/10

---

All right, before we close the books on February, I have a couple of amendments:

Upon reconsideration, the No Use for a Name album ¡Leche con Carne! is a 6/10, not a 7/10. I also relistened to Tricky's Maxinquaye when I was in a mood more well-suited for the music, and decided to bump it up to an 8/10 from the 7/10 that I initially gave it. I reserve the right to change my ratings as I see fit, though I'll do my best to not be TOO fickle about it. It's important that I remain consistent, and I was simply beginning to notice that I was throwing out more undeserved 7/10s than was perhaps necessary.

Now I'm done, I think. Here's a 3x3 chart of my favorite albums from this month of 1995.


Top left best, bottom right worst. All of these are worth listening to at least once.


In terms of overall rankings, I would still say, as much as I like the Atari Teenage Riot, I still prefer the previously covered Swans record, The Great Annihilator. That record still rocks my socks, and it's gonna take a truly special album to dethrone it for the time being.

---

March is gonna be a fun month; I'm already seeing a lot of great bands that I already listen to.

Coming up, though, I'll be listening to Mike + The Mechanics, Grip Inc, Warrant, Adam Ant, and Zard.

...but what are you doing on a furry subreddit?

velox has shown no compunctions about his degeneracy

ember jim CMD aria icy

so are we all coming back at once or what

i haven't been reading your posts since i haven't played enough of the game and would like to form my own opinions

but this thread has inspired me to play along with you (even though i have several other things on my plate at the moment)

see, i literally just played a samus who played like that and i couldn't do a goddamn thing

he threw out like 40 charge shots and i think i got hit by every single one, and i tried my hardest to avoid them all

might just be input lag or something but goddamn what an oppressive character

aaaaaaand i still can't see the post, even though his shit seems to be visible now

but here's the notification to prove that i'm not crazy

well that sucks

maybe you'll get used to it?