It’s April 13, 2024, a breezy Saturday morning here in Philadelphia, and I am sipping on a nice cup of coffee watching the first episode of Kaiju No. 8 on Crunchyroll. Ever since I heard that YUNGBLUD was going to have a theme song on Crunchyroll’s latest anime. I have been getting hyped reading the first couple of books of the manga that I had grabbed on a rainy day excursion downtown.  The song called Abyss is the opening theme song and is two minutes of pure adrenaline as it gradually progresses into this battle cry anthem. With the emergence of Kaiju, Japan definitely has the situation under control…or do they? If you’re a fan of the kind of movies like Pacific Rim, Godzilla and Rampage — you’d love it. The manga itself is the Shonen Jump Edition and it is definitely as beautiful as the anime is too. If you’re absolutely stoked as I am about this modern retell of a Kaiju versus Human, then be sure to check in weekly as I’ll be doing a weekly review (no spoilers) of Kaiju No 8 from someone that doesn’t watch anime as religiously as their friends. 

In speaking of the song, YUNGBLUD reveals that ”“I think there are times when we feel that the world is cruel and not necessarily made for us. I think that’s expressed very beautifully in the story, and it’s really in line with what I’m trying to achieve myself. To find my place in the world, to find my friends. Don’t suppress your hidden talents and power, even if you can’t be proud of them yourself. Because everyone is beautiful.”

— 

Kaiju No. 8 can be watched on broadcasting and streaming services on April 13, 2024 (that’s tomorrow) — and exclusively streamed via Crunchyroll bringing this highly anticipated and fan favorite anime to the masses worldwide in over 200 countries and more. 

Recorded during YUNGBLUD’s tour in Japan last year, ‘Abyss’ was written specifically for the series, and describes the struggles of lead character Kafka Hibino. The song was co-written with Imagine Dragons’ front-man Dan Reynolds. 

But wait there’s more…

It was also recently announced that BLUDFEST — is a new music festival that is the brainchild of YUNGBLUD will have its inaugural performance at the iconic Milton Keynes Bowl in the UK. The festival will be held on Sunday, August 14 and will be joined by Lil Yachty, Soft Play, The Damned, Nessa Barrett, Lola Young and Jazmin Bean on the star studded bill. Not only is this going to be a music festival, but there will be activations onsite that’ll be community driven including ‘Make a Friend’ — a tent for those fans who want to meet new friends who are interested in likeminded things. It’ll be a safe space and a haven for music lovers and the community alike. For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit https://www.bludfest.com. 

YUNGBLUD has risen above the stratosphere with astronomical tours, nurturing a safe space for the dedicated fans around the world, and amassing a social following of ~14.5 million and accumulating billions of streams. He was risen to the top of the artists to watch in 2024 and this is just the beginning. We’re in month four of 2024 and he’s just getting started. 

From the fellas that gave you the hit, debut track ‘Home” comes the latest single Keep It Up - the second single off from UK natives Scott Verril and Oli Fox. They made their mark on the UK music scene with their alt-indie-pop cannon vibes that have likened them to similar artists such as MGMT, Passion Pit and Glass Animals. Although they get this comparison quite often, the duo holds it down with the catchy pep talk in a song “Keep It Up” which gives listeners hope and recognition that even though things aren’t going their way. That if one does their best and shoot for the stars — that they’ll land among their own stars. The song is a short but catchy one at 2 minutes, 37 seconds but it does it jobs to convey hope and strength. The song incorporates a lot of rolling piano and drums and keeps that energy on cloud nine until the very last second.

Would you also believe they wrote this song in a span of 20 minutes as a way to help Oli lift his spirits after the bleakness of a loss job during a time with things get can get miserable at best. (Hello Mayday Parade reference, nice to see you.) “It was a bleak time, but this was a song that we needed to hear to give ourselves some joy and optimism. We wrote it, and Good Neighbours was born.” (Scott Verrill - via Press Release) And honestly it tracks with their debut single “Home” which catupulted them into chart-topping, viral buzz sensations. Here’s the stats for Home: 125 millioon combined streams and counting, entered the singles chart in 12 countries (including their home country of UK with #26), and the Billboard Hot 100. The song keeps charting even as we speak and I can’t remember where I first heard this song. But I love it and I probably won’t stop listening to it on repeat.

We created a playlist called “Make Good Choices” that features Good Neighbours two singles “Home” and “Keep It Up” and added a bunch of music that gets our bodies moving and allowing us to choose freedom at any given chance. Give it a listen. 

And if you’re in their home country of the UK — they’ll be playing several shows as well as a festival performance in Bilbao, Spain on July 13th. You can check out their dates down below:

UK & EU TOUR DATES

04/24 - The Lexington – London, UK++ (SOLD OUT)
05/04 - Sound City – Liverpool, UK*
05/16 - The Great Escape – Brighton, UK*
05/18 - Get Together – Sheffield, UK*
05/25 - Live At Leeds in the Park – Leeds, UK*
07/13 - BBK Live – Bilbao, Spain*
06/19 - Village Underground – London, UK++ (SOLD OUT)
08/09 – Boardmasters – Cornwall, UK*
++Headline Performance
*Festival Performance
About Good Neighbours:
Good Neighbours is a band born out of small towns and spare time. Scott and Oli have neighboring studios at their building in East London, and first began making music for the project together out of desire to make something positive and unpolished in a scene where most music felt quite mellow and intimate. Over the course of 2023, they began making music for the love of it, and only by summer realized they needed to create a band to release their songs under. With an urge to rekindle the early 2000s excitement of bands like Passion Pit and MGMT, Good Neighbours are a nod to classic songwriting and raucous production, inspired by A24, friendship and a cinematic approach to music.
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And if you are going to be in London on June 19th — we will be there from the States (Philadelphia to be exact). So come and say hello and cheers with us as we watch Good Neighbours take on the Village Underground at their sold-out show. Keep up to date with the band as they work on releasing more music and announcements galore because you would not want to miss out on this set of shows. 

I am really excited for Q2 of 2024 where we introduce our parent brand Made for Drew as a lifestyle brand that is dedicated to genuine community connections in an ever changing society. The appearance of the existing social media profiles for Made for Drew would be changing and I am still working out how to integrate MFD into the at kismet + co social pages in a symbiotic way. (Ha, hey Venom and Spider-Man reference here. NERD!) March has been a kickass month and behind the scenes I am working overtime to deliver some amazing content and improve on our operations as a brand and company. You’ll see an official launch for Made for Drew coming this summer and we’ve already updated our bio and staff pages to reflect the upcoming changes to the branding. With all that said – we’re excited to share with you all of the technical and gear related information during the second quarter of this year. This month we are focusing on our camera collection, what is in it and how we are utilizing it into our new studio space. Plus you’ll get to see an exclusive look into our studio build and see the office space for yourselves in some nice POV videos coming to our YouTube and IG/TikTok Reels. 

So without further ado, here is the newest addition to our camera collection: the Lomography Aperatif 35mm film camera (more specifically the Neubau Edition). I got this as a gift from my partner Joe during the holidays and I am excited that the weather has been nice enough to take this out for a proper field test. 

Film Stocks Purchased*

LomoChrome Color ’92 35 mm ISO 400 (1 pack $12.90)

Lomography Color Negative 35 mm ISO 400 (3 pack $44.90)

Earl Grey B&W 35 mm ISO 100 x Lady Grey 35 mm ISO 400 (2 pack $18.90)

Fantôme Kino B&W 35 mm ISO 8 (1 pack $8.90)

(Total $85.60)

ASMR Unboxing: LomoApparat 21 mm Wide-angle Camera Neubau Edition

So we ventured in the rain over to Photo Lounge in Rittenhouse Square to drop off a roll of Ilford HP5 Plus and got excited over film stocks and how special photography can be. There is an art form to it and that when you least likely expect it. Good memories will come out of sharing film photography and stories behind it. I am excited to focus on photography as it keeps my mind from lingering in on the grief for too long. In talking about the roll of Ilford HP5 that I had in my hand; I mentioned that it was a long time ago (nearly a year and a month) and that I was not sure what photographs would be on there. Or if the roll would be a successful one. But I trusted the wonderful folks at Photo Lounge to use their magic and send a folder with those images.

I wish it was not raining and that I had properly prepared to photograph in the rain but alas I could not so I am just going to wait for a day that the sun would be out to go on an adventure. I am sure the first frames of this Lomography 400 ISO film are a chaotic mess. But a nice mess nonetheless. I filmed an unboxing (sort of ASMR style) with a special appearance by my cat Hunter and some close up ones using his cat tree to show off the accessories. I am excited about the Kalediscope feature and the Multi Exposures feature. I do have to sit and read the hefty manual that came with it and just have fun with this new film camera in my collection.

In the second part of this series, we will show you what our film adventures looks like, the photos from the scans of the roll of Ilford HP5+, scout locations and prop work for the self portraits and field tests and my final thoughts on this camera. I can’t wait to share with you my final thoughts of it and will release that video sometime soon. If you’ve read this far, thanks for reading and make sure you go out and grab your camera or phone and make some memories. Your future self will thank you for it – trust me mine did when I decided to upload monthly photos on Facebook during the pandemic. Seeing the changes and progression of time and experience and knowing “yeah I made it through that…” Also please bare with me as I work on editing these videos. That’s a project in itself. 

 Subscribe to our channel here for the first of many video content of 2024.