In July of 1518, a mass hysteria event known as the “Dancing Plague” took over the French city of Strasbourg. A woman named Frau Troffea simply stood in the town’s center and danced. For nearly a week straight, fighting off hunger, pain, exhaustion, and more, she danced. She was far from the only one; by the time she eventually stopped, hundreds had joined her. No reason, no rhyme, not even a tune. Just dancing for the sake of dancing.

I wouldn’t go as far as to say this is another mass hysteria event, but I would say we have another dancing plague upon us. This one, at least, has some music behind it, but similar to the original plague, this seemed to have sprung up out of nowhere.

Suki Waterhouse’s new album “Memoir of a Sparklemuffin” was released September13th 2024. The album includes 18 songs, which each tell a story of an aspect of her life, specifically with the theme of finding true happiness. The title of the album comes from the poisonous Sparklemuffin spider, native to Australia, this is a reference to how Suki feels about herself and how both her and the spider get misunderstood for who they really are. Suki Waterhouse also just became a mom, with partner Robert Pattison, which was another influence to her album. The vibe of the album is indie/alternative with hints of pop and rock here and there, and is considerably more upbeat than her past albums.

The album starts with her song Gateway Drug, which starts mellow, with soft vocals but gradually gets more upbeat. It is a love song, saying get addicted to me and it's okay I will keep you safe. The next song on the album, Super sad, is one of my personal favorites, with a drumbeat that keeps your head bopping and lyrics that remind you to not let a bad night ruin everything else. The songs My Fun and OMG are the most popular on the album, with OMG being the first song she released off the album along with the song To Love. They were released all the way back in January 2024.

The West Virginia Mountaineers are set to take on the UCF Knights in a battle on the pitch, on Saturday October 5th. 

The Mountaineers are coming off of a 1-0 victory over Bucknell in Lewisburg PA, an early goal was scored by Sergio Ors Navarro just a minute into the match off of a pass from Marcus Caldera. The 1-0 victory makes it 6 shutouts by Marc Bonnaire who had big shoes to fill in replacing Jackson Lee who graduated a year ago. 

Morgantown W. Va. - The Mountaineers are set to face off in a contest against the visiting UCF Knights on Friday, Oct. 4 2024, as the Big XII campaign rolls on.  

The Mountaineers came off a four day road trip to Arizona where Niki Izzo Brown's team played the Sun Devils of ASU in a 2-1 win on Thursday then tied the Arizona Wildcats 1-1 on Sunday, making West Virginia’s Big XII record 4-0-1 coming into Friday’s contest. 

For a city of its size, Morgantown has an absolutely cracked music scene. With both established venues like 123 Pleasant Street, Morgantown Art Bar, and more ephemeral house venues, Morgantown supports a variety of artists of all kinds of genres. Here are four of my personal favorite bands:

Wizards Is Crazy

Morgantown, W.Va. - The West Virginia Mountaineers men’s soccer team will face the
Kentucky Wildcats on Friday, September 27, at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium in
Morgantown, WV.

Last Saturday on September 21, West Virginia narrowly defeated the Old Dominion
Monarchs by a score of 1-0 on the road. It was the first win for the Mountaineers after
two straight draws against Loyola Marymount and UNC Greensboro. The Mountaineers
have yet to lose a game this season.

It is often said that when it comes to innovation and discovery, it doesn’t happen in a vacuum but by standing on the shoulders of giants. That is to say most creations in the present wouldn’t happen without the presence of some prior creation. The progressive rock genre, known for its incorporation of unrelated musical genres and experimental soundscapes, is a prime example of this process in action. However, despite this sentiment, all genres have to start somewhere. There must be one album, one artist, that lights the metaphorical match and ignites the entire keg, leading to that explosion. In the case of prog rock, this crown ironically goes to the debut album of King Crimson: In the Court of the Crimson King. But how did this album come to be and what came as a result of it? That’s what we’re here to talk about today. 

The history of this album starts all the way back in July of 1969, approximately 55 years ago from this year. At this point, King Crimson had formed only 9 months beforehand, not having a single studio album to their name yet. In terms of the greater rock scene, they were truly an unknown. No one had any idea of just what their career trajectory would be. The band was originally formed as a group called Giles, Giles and Fripp, consisting of brothers Michael and Peter Giles, along with guitarist Robert Fripp. After their initial band dissolved, Fripp and drummer Michael Giles teamed up with multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald, lyricist Peter Sinfield, and bassist/vocalist Greg Lake (who would later go on to co-found Emerson, Lake & Palmer). They eventually settled on the name King Crimson, though there were some internal debates between whether that name was a reference to Beelzebub, prince of demons, or if it was a reference to tyrannical monarchies, but regardless the band had finally been formed. All they needed now was an album.  

Underdressed at the Symphony is the fifth studio album from indie pop, alt-country FayeWebster. She released this album back on March 1, 2024, featuring ten rich, immersing tracks detailing a recent break up in a new light, as well as how she struggles to move through daily existence from tttttime to tttttime, something we surely can all relate to. She is currently still touring the U.S. and will be until Nov. 15th.

The album starts off with the hit track “Thinking About You”, which subtly fades into melodic vocals and “sleepy” instrumentals, featuring southern slide guitar and whimsical lyrics. Fun fact, the pedal steel player Matt “Pistol” Stoessel, happens to be my second cousin. The album then moves into tracks like “Lego Ring” that use synth, R&B tones, featuring Lil Yachty, to convey a sensation of floating through the track. Faye talks about her childlike tendencies and desires, as mentioned in the track “Feeling Good Today”, where she says “I got paid yesterday, I’ll probably buy something dumb because I am pretty childish.” She manages to relate to her audience and listeners through her description of everyday life and human desire. The album rounds out with the truly folky, laid-back track “Tttttime”, featuring symphonic sounds with gentle piano notes embedded thoughtfully throughout.

Morgantown W.Va. - The West Virginia Mountaineers will open up Big XII conference play at home on Saturday, Sep. 21, 2024 against the visiting Kansas Jayhawks. 

Saturday's contest will mark the 13 game between KU and WVU, of which West Virginia leads the series 10-2. 

Spotify’s algorithms are unreliable and strange, seemingly willing to conjure new genresout of the mist and disjointed adjectives. It was through this I discovered the work of WilburnBurchette (1939-2024), an obscure artist appearing on a playlist described as “outsider”,“magical”, and “psychedelic rock”. I first the opening to his second album, 1972’s Opens theSeven Gates of Transcendental Consciousness, and was immediately struck by the album cover,a red star with a single giant eye, as much as by the music itself. While well described byadjectives Spotify had provided, the music itself also reminded me of a spaced out, surf-rock ifit was delivered by the Spaceman 3.

Recently released by Numero Group, a label that specializes in the long out-of-print,Master Wilburn Burchette’s albums were originally released by mail-order to the discerningreaders of Fate Magazine, Beyond Reality, and Gnostica News, who noticed his advertisements.Each album was not merely a collection of songs, but a religious experience based on sometheory of vibrations being able to transcend time and existence through his hand-built ImproGuitar. Religious mysticism in song was certainly not new at the time of his first album, 1970’sOccult Concert. Overtly religious rock music had emerged on the scene with the Jesus freaks ofthe ’60s, and quite a few literal cult records exist of the time, including infamous records by theManson family. Unlike these, Master Wilburn Burchette was no cult leader, isn’t electrifying oldgospel songs, nor does he sing hymns to a modern messiah claimant. His early music is purelyinstrumental guitar rock with some occasional white noise mixed in for your transcendentalstudies, with instructions, and paintings illustrating concepts like the Gates of Consciousness.It’s slow and meditative, a weird joining of the psychedelic scene and New Age music, and it’scertainly not spa music. It’s also produced and released almost entirely in-house, with all but hisfirst two albums, released on the Burchette Brothers label which he ran with his brother.