Music / Dream Puzzles

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Dream Puzzles is an American virtual band consisting of Willow Athena Queen and Grey White, and hosted by their respective cartoon avatars, Super Crunch Jr. the dinosaur and Bondi Buddy the computer.

The band has a distinct synthpop sound with chiptune elements and bitcrushed vocals. Their songs tend to be about nostalgia and bittersweet memory, with a heavy helping of references to the The 2000s and their technology.

Discography

• 3d Virtual Buddies (2021)
• Hell is Real Forever (2023)

And I know, and I know, and I know, fortune favors the tropes.

• The 2000s: The band's sound and lyrics extensively evoke the trends and technology of the decade.
• Arc Words: "And I know, and I know, and I know" comes up multiple times on 3d Virtual Buddies, twice in "Puzz3d" and again in "Dead Mice."
• Armless Biped: Bondi Buddy lacks visible arms.
• Art Shift: The album art for Hell is Real Forever has the mascots rendered in a more realistic and frightening art style than usual.
• Bathos: "My CRT" is about having one's memories distorted after a traumatic event, but the whole thing is communicated in cheesy computer-themed metaphors.
• Captain Ersatz: Bondi Buddy's name is an obvious riff on BonziBuddy, an infamous spyware program disguised as a virtual assistant.
• Eye Beams: Super Crunch has this ability and uses it to defeat Wineguy in the video for "Melissa."
• Genre Shift: "Dead Mice" and "Teal Flowers" are far more traditional and minimalistic sounding than the rest of the band's discography.
• Huge Rider, Tiny Mount: Super Crunch is a tad larger than Bondi Buddy, but she can ride atop his head with no problem, as seen the "Melissa" music video.
• Inexplicably Tailless: Super Crunch is a dinosaur but lacks a tail.
• Invisible Anatomy: The "SkyMaze" music video shows that Bondi Buddy can play a pretty mean electric guitar solo for someone with no arms.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: The band's Spotify bio describes Bondi Buddy as a "Blue Computer Angel."
• Sampling: Many sounds from games, commercials, and other media from the 2000's or earlier are sampled in their music.
• Shout-Out:
  • "Captain Midnight" references the Captain Midnight broadcast signal intrusion.
  • "Puzz3d" and "Night Sweatz" use samples that are known to most as Super Mario World and Super Mario 64 samples, respectively.
  • "Centipede," "Finkles World," and "SkyMaze" all reference video games of the same name, the latter two even feature gameplay in their music videos.
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Super Crunch has small eyelashes in the visualisers for 3d Virtual Buddies on the band's YouTube channel.
• Waddling Head: Bondi Buddy has no arms and two stubby feet without proper legs
• YouTube Poop: A YTP-esque moment happens at the beginning of "Puzz3d" where a sample from this commercial is altered to say "A grandmother that really twerks" instead of "A grandfather clock that really works."