The Tour Diaries

Favorite Album of 2010

2010-10-18T09:12:00.000-07:00

The Wonder Years - The Upsides

In 1951 there was The Catcher in the Rye, in 1999 The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and in 2010, The Upsides. Forget the coming-of-age novel. With this fast-paced generation that barely has time to read an email, let alone an entire book, it's all about the coming-of-age album. The Upsides is all about looking at the bright side of life and growing up and leaving behind those things that bring you down.

Frontman Dan Campbell's vocals are earnest and never seem anything but genuine, the lyrics are intelligent and uplifting, the music style is consistent throughout the entire album, and with the exception of a couple of tracks, the high-energy pace of the songs set by drummer Michael Kennedy never lets up. The Wonder Years give The Upsides the feeling of a cohesive piece of work when the album references itself throughout several songs, like in "Hey Thanks" when guest vocalist Rachel Minton sings "I'm not sad anymore" in the background, a line from the chorus in opening track, "My Last Semester." The line can also be found in "Logan Circle" and the final track, "All My Friends Are in Bar Bands," bringing the album's theme -- looking at the upsides of life -- full-circle. It is because this album has such smart songwriting and because the Wonder Years obviously put so much thought into structuring an album to make it a complete piece of work that The Upsides is my favorite album of 2010. It is so refreshing to see a band write such a mature album even though they play such a youthful style of music.

You'll like this album if you like: Say it Like You Mean It by The Starting Line, Sticks and Stones by New Found Glory

There for Tomorrow Interview

2010-07-11T19:44:00.000-07:00

(July 8, 2010)

Florida’s own There for Tomorrow will be taking the stage at Jack Rabbits July 12 as part of the Rock Yourself to Sleep Tour. I chatted with front man Maika Maile during a day off about how their sound has evolved over the years, their involvement with the 2010 Take Action Tour, and how they’ve been keeping busy over the past two years with a new album, several major tours, and even a trip abroad to play for fans in Japan.

Before I jump into the questions, you should know that the first time I saw There for Tomorrow was about six years ago, my freshman year of college, at Wackadoo’s at the University of North Florida. Even then I was really blown away by you guys, you were so young to be playing so well and so professionally. And then a few years later you put out your first EP and it was a totally different sound, and I was even more blown away by that. Was that change in sound an intentional thing, or was it kind of an artistic evolution, or a combination?

Yeah, since we kind of hold our music pretty close to our hearts it just grows as we grow, because all it is is an extension of us at the end of the day. Of course, as time comes and as we go through different things … Now we’re traveling the world, I can’t imagine what our music is going to sound like in a couple years. But it’s not like we ever try to neglect the past, or anything, and move on to something new, we use the past to move on to something new. I can’t even really remember what we sounded like before Pages, it was a lot more, like, metallic, more metal influence. We just started to adopt a huge love for good pop songwriting, so maybe that influenced a lot of what we did from then on out. But it’s always going to be a changing thing.

For people who aren’t familiar with There for Tomorrow, how would you describe your sound?

I don’t know, that’s always a tough question for me. We’re influenced by a lot of things, but at the end of the day, in layman’s terms, we’re just a melodic rock band. We’re really inspired by melodies, that’s really what drives our music, but we’re still rock-rooted because all of us grew up, mainly, rooted in rock-playing and rock music culture and everything. But we really do listen to everything, so it’s kind of eclectic for just being a rock band, so it’s hard to exactly title it. That’s the thing, a simple question like that, which could be answered in two words, gets thrown out in a couple paragraphs, that’s how much we don’t know what we are.

How was the process of writing and recording your very first album, Point of Origin, different from writing and recording your subsequent releases?

Oh my gosh, we were, like, thirteen, that was us just having the time of our lives, just making music. Looking back on it I really can’t remember tracking or anything about the experience of the process of making a record. Everything was just so different and I was so young I can’t even remember. But, we went in there and did all our songs, we wrote all our songs, we always have, and did our thing, and we have that to always reflect on and brag about, like ‘look what we were doing when we were thirteen, while you were playing with Pokemon trading cards we were making full-length albums.’

There for Tomorrow recently wrapped up the 2010 Take Action Tour with Mayday Parade and A Rocket to the Moon. Tell me about the Take Action Tour’s mission and why it was important to you guys to be a part of it.

Take Action was great, we’ve always kind of looked up to it because of it being involved with things not just trapped into what happens in the music scene. It’s reaching out to the world, and it’s making an impact for situations that are tough for people. This year it was about bone marrow diseases and raising awareness for it. The National Bone Marrow Registry has a thing called the Be The Match Organization where it just tries to raise the most bone marrow donors as possible. We raised a bunch this year, I think by the second week [of the tour] there was like 200 or 300 newly registered donors, so it was really cool. The organization that was behind it all was started by a kid that had leukemia when he was fourteen, so it was amazing to be behind something that a fourteen-year-old is doing. That’s so positive, and it’s making such an impact, because he had leukemia and he obviously had his struggles with that, now he’s making a difference in the world, which is really cool. We just helped out by playing music.

You guys also recently returned from a tour in Japan. What is it like having fans in another country that don’t even speak English as a first language, and do they still sing along to the songs when they see you guys play?

I think nowadays English is the epicenter of communicating among the world, so they all know far more English than we know Japanese. That’s always respectable to go to other countries and meet people that are bilingual or sometimes trilingual, and sit there and translate with their friend who’s a fan who can’t talk to us because she can’t speak English. We meet really cool people all around the world, it kind of blows our minds that we were just playing Wackadoo’s a couple years ago for, like, thirteen people, and now we’re playing packed shows in a whole other continent.

Speaking of tours, There for Tomorrow has been busy over the last couple of years with the Secret Valentine Tour at the beginning of 2009, last summer you had Warped Tour and also released your album, then this year you had the Take Action Tour and the dates in Japan, now you’re on a tour with a little over 40 dates. Have you guys had a chance to kind of sit back and take everything in, and how do you deal with homesickness and keeping in touch with your family and friends?

You know, we’re just so eager and young and adamant about what we do, we love playing so much that a lot of the time it’s just blurred in our lives because of what’s happening. We basically save ourselves up for just the 30 minutes, 40, 50, an hour we get to play a day. Since we get so wrapped up in that, it’s hard to think about other things too much. But obviously we’re very close with our families, and we have real tight-knit groups of friends at home. At times you can obviously get a little homesick, but I think we’re all just so used to it by now, and our eyes are so set because we’ve seen such a return with it, with how amazing our fans have become, and are becoming, and some of the people we get to meet are really awesome. It always inspires us to meet people that are still actual, legitimate fans of music, so it makes us feel like we’re doing our job to return sincere music to the limelight again, instead of all of this candy land music.

Tell me about the Rock Yourself to Sleep Tour and how There for Tomorrow became involved in it.

Rock Yourself to Sleep is put on by Motel 6. They just contacted us about it, and our friends were going out as well, so we just decided to come out and visit all of our friends that we’ve built all over the country one time during the summer, and then we’re coming back all around the U.S. again in the fall. We just want to get out there and just really keep tying the knots with our fans, we gotta keep busy on the road.

Talking about your new album, A Little Faster, how does it feel to have an album that’s doing so well? You guys got the MTVU award … Was it surprising, or something you feel like you’ve been working towards?

It’s kind of hard to really classify what “doing well” is nowadays, but for us, and how young we are, and how much time we’ve been doing it, it’s been a huge honor to see what’s happening and how people are really paying attention to our music. Personally we don’t feel like we’ve connected with the world yet, at all, we don’t feel like we’ve made any sort of stamp yet of what There for Tomorrow is, what we mean, and what we will mean. It’s obviously just going to take time, just like everything has up until now. We’re young, we’re 21 years old, and able to travel and play, but it’s not like we’re real interested in making suitcases of money any time soon. We’re just trying to put in time and show some genuineness towards what music is nowadays.

Are the lyrics on A Little Faster about specific events, or situations, or people in your lives, or are they meant to be more general?

Especially on A Little Faster, they’re fairly personal accounts of things I’ve been through and things I see happening through my eyes. I’ve been through a lot, I’ve seen a lot happen, and have made it through a lot of things thanks to the love and support of my family. I’m able to kind of just share my personal experience being myself and striving to be a unique individual, so I think A Little Faster was kind of … just a way to vent, to just cope with being a person. So I try to open up as much as I can because I think it’s really important for people nowadays to understand how important communicating is; communicating your thoughts, what you think about things in your voice, just speaking up and not being ashamed is what we’re trying to encourage.

Just to go back to this whole “making it big” idea, in an industry where bands with little to no talent can become popular overnight just with marketing by the right people, how do you set yourselves apart from everyone else and get your music out to listeners?

You know, thanks to the internet and thanks to all these new ways to reach out and break language barriers, this and that, we can kind of enable ourselves to start to slowly become something global. Thanks to the support of our team behind us who help us push what we do, and they all really believe, we can get our stuff out there among the cesspool of candy land music, and baby music – cute music is what I like to call it. But everybody does their thing and my whole perspective on life is that there is no one better person than the other, there’s just good and bad intentions, and I think everybody can understand what good and bad intentions are. So when you have people singing about just taking shirts off, and partying with “my red cup” and this and that it doesn’t really hold any true weight to anybody, it’s just a fun time to get drunk to. Like I said, I want to be a part of the fight to restore sincere music to the top again.

Another thing that has changed in the music industry, also because of the internet, is how accessible artists are to their fans, and vice versa. But along with that comes easier access to the critics, too. I took a few minutes the other day just to look at some news entries about There for Tomorrow on AbsolutePunk.net and immediately found hundreds of people who had lots of good things to say, but there were also lots of people who had bad things to say. Do you guys ever read reviews and look at message boards, and is the negativity that comes from some people on the internet something that’s ever bothered you guys, or is it as normal to you as someone stopping you to take a photo with you?

Well, when we were young and kind of new to having ourselves out there it was a lot more effective, like, somebody attempting to bring us down, but now it’s just an understanding that some of those people are probably just sitting in their underwear with milk crust all over their lips in their parents’ basement on the computer that their parents bought them last year. So it’s not like that really has a huge effect and weighs heavy on what we do, but of course you have to have those people. You have to have the naysayers because there’s no protons without electrons, there’s obviously no good without bad, bad defines good, so the negativity defines us just wanting to prove through and come out with something positive instead.

Do you have any last words, anything to say to encourage people to come out to the show at Jack Rabbits?

I don’t know, I think the people that really want to be there will be there because they know where we’ve come from, we haven’t come from anything different than just what we’ve done. They’ve seen us play Jack Rabbits a lot of times, and Murray Hill Theatre, so we have a lot of family there, a lot of believers and followers so we’re excited to be in Florida once again.

2010 Second-Quarter Review

2010-06-08T13:40:00.000-07:00

Here's what I've been listening to and my music recommendations for the second quarter of this year:

Buy

Alkaline Trio - This Addiction (Feb. 23)
I won't pretend that I've been following Alkaline Trio from their inception, but I am familiar enough with them to know that this is a more polished, mainstream-ready Alkaline Trio than their previous albums. This Addiction is a solid album beginning to end and one of my most listened to discs so far this year.

Favorite song: "Off the Map" (listen)

Envy on the Coast - Lowcountry
(March 30)
There's always a bit of trepidation when a band has written a debut album that you loved and is preparing for their sophomore release. There was no reason to worry in the case of Lowcountry, however. The New York quartet has come back with a tighter sound, and frontman Ryan Hunter's vocal performance is excellent. Hunter's flippant religious questioning didn't end with Lucy Gray either. My only complaint is the dialogue at the beginning of "Southern Comfort," which I find myself fast-forwarding through to get to the song every time I listen to the CD.

Massive Attack - Heliogoland
(February 9, 2010)
Heliogoland is my first Massive Attack album, and I am so glad that someone told me about these guys. If my past reviews are any indication, this obviously isn't the type of music I typically listen to, but between its unimposing electronica and soulful, sometimes bluesy vocals, I can't stop listening to this album. Heliogoland is all at once creepy and ominous, soothing and funky, and absolutely addicting. I plan to acquaint myself with the rest of Massive's discography.

Favorite song: "Girl I Love You" (listen)

Download

Go Radio - Do Overs and Second Chances (April 20)
If you're like me and loved Mayday Parade's A Lesson in Romantics, this album is a must-hear. On Do Overs and Second Chances, ex Mayday Parade singer Jason Lancaster proves that he was the driving force for his former band -- MP's recent album, Anywhere But Here, is further proof. Expect melodic emo punk accompanied by Lancaster's one-of-a-kind gritty, yet heartfelt, vocals. And you might want some tissues on hand for the final track, "Goodnight Moon."

Favorite song: "Thanks for Nothing" (listen)

The Spill Canvas - Abnormalities EP (January 12)
The only reason I didn't recommend this CD as an album to buy is because I have a hard time advocating paying for only three songs. All three songs on this EP, however, are more of what we have come to love from the Spill Canvas: An addicting combination of gritty rock music and unapologetic emo lyrics. Frontman Nick Thomas even turns up the sex appeal, especially on "Good Graces, Bad Influence."

Favorite song: "Gateway Drug" (listen)

Forget

Rufio - The Loneliest EP (Jan. 19, 2010)
If your band is going to release a four-song EP with only two tracks -- especially after a three-year absence -- those two tracks had better be excellent. Such is not the case with Rufio's The Loneliest EP, which has the electric version of two songs as tracks one and two, and the acoustic versions of those same two songs as tracks three and four. This is a juvenile attempt at a style of pop-punk that hasn't been played since the '90s -- think early Yellowcard or Amber Pacific. While the drums on the electric tracks sound like a prepubescent beating away at his first drum kit, the acoustic tracks are no improvement with frontman Scott Sellers' whiny vocals.

2010 First-Quarter Review

2010-03-19T20:18:00.000-07:00

Last year I wrote a review for the first quarter of 2009 and never got around to reviewing the other three quarters of the year. I make no promises for reviews of subsequent quarters for 2010, but I have every intention of getting them written.

Buy

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach (March 3)
With influences that range from hip hop to dub with sounds from various other cultures along the way, Plastic Beach is already on heavy rotation on my beach playlist. This album is funky, refreshing, and features guest appearances from artists including Lou Reed, Mos Def and Snoop Dogg.

Favorite song: "Some Kind of Nature" (listen)

Spoon - Transference (January 15)
Spoon is one of those bands that I had been aware of before now, but that I had never gotten around to really listening to. I feel like I was probably doing myself a disservice, however, because Transference is an awesome album. Whether I'm driving to work in the morning or hanging out on the beach, when I want something mellow I turn to Spoon.

Favorite song: "Written in Reverse" (listen)

The Wonder Years - The Upsides
(January 26)
In a world of auto-tune abuse and synthesizer overkill, The Wonder Years is pure, unadulterated pop punk. Think Fall Out Boy meets The Starting Line before anyone knew who either of those bands were. These Philadelphia boys have proven that simplicity can also be perfection.

Favorite song: "All My Friends Are in Bar Bands" (listen)

You Me At Six - Hold Me Down
(January 26)
Hold Me Down was the first album to come out this year that I listened to, and I am still thoroughly enjoying it. You Me At Six write great rock tunes with driving guitar parts, intent vocals and unrelenting, vindictive lyrics. If you like Envy on the Coast and Just Surrender, check these guys out.

Favorite song: "Safer to Hate Her" (listen)

Download

Justin Bieber - My World 2.0 (March 19)
Before you judge me for listening to Mr. Bieber, hear me out: This kid is adorable, and his story is incredible. Some of the lyrics are a bit odd coming from someone so young ("I'll buy you anything, I'll buy you any ring," "So give me the night to show you"), but Bieber has a great voice, and the mixes on the songs are a lot more tolerable than most of the other pop music out there.

Cold War Kids - Behave Yourself EP
(January 19)
The funk-rock movement is in high-gear ala bands like Cage the Elephant, Crash Kings, and Kings of Leon, and Cold War Kids is one of the leaders of said movement. The first track, "Audience of One," is an incredibly catchy, piano-driven song, and the rest of the album follows suit, incorporating blues influences with earnest vocals.

Favorite song: "Audience of One" (listen)

Motion City Soundtrack - My Dinosaur Life (January 19)
Motion City Soundtrack consistently puts out solid albums and seems to mature and improve with each subsequent release. My Dinosaur Life is no exception, the songs are memorable and well-executed and the lyrics are as witty as ever.

Favorite song: "Her Words Destroyed My Planet" (video)

Never Shout Never - What is Love?
(January 26)
This is simple, quirky acoustic rock. Christofer Ingle has a cute singing voice and writes sickly sweet lyrics, and every song on the aptly titled What is Love is about an aspect of, well, love.

Favorite song: "Can't Stand It" (listen)

Forget

Story of the Year - The Constant
(February 16)
This album is pretty standard as far as Story of the Year's sound goes, and actually ends up sounding like Hoobastank at some points. The only difference between this and their first album is that there are no gems like "Until the Day I Die" or "In the Shadows" to be found on this one.

Happy Anti-Valentines Day!

2010-02-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

Don't mistake this entry as one that is coming from someone who is bitter about not having a Valentine. Until the right person comes along, I'm quite content with being single. But if you're anything like my roommate and I, there's a cynic lurking within you that sees happy couples and mutters "I hope you're happy."

So, for the bitter cynic in all of us on Valentine's Day, here are my top ten anti-Valentine's-Day songs:

(click on a song to hear it)
10. Taking Back Sunday - "You're So Last Summer"
Not only does this song contain some of the best emo lines ever, but the music video features Flava Flav lip-syncing the lyrics alongside frontman Adam Lazarra.

9. Bayside - "Don't Call Me Peanut"
Bayside frontman Anthony Raneri never ceases to amaze me with the songs that he writes. A fan favorite, "Don't Call Me Peanut" is about being cheated on and still not knowing whether he has the strength to leave the relationship. While I haven't been in the same exact situation myself, the line "afraid I'll never leave, afraid I'll never know what's good for me" has surely rang true for many of us at one time or another.

8. Angels and Airwaves - "Do It For Me Now"
This song is one of my top ten anti-Valentine's-Day songs because of just one line: "The one thing that I can most willingly prove: That when you are gone I'll be fine without you." Ugh! Love it!

7. Fall Out Boy - "Tell That Mick ... "
I definitely prefer old Fall Out Boy over their new stuff. This song and the other FOB song that is on this list have an unapologetic bitterness about them that isn't as apparent in their later songs. I think the line "let's play this game called 'When You Catch Fire I Wouldn't Piss to Put You Out'" is one of the most genius and poetic ways that anyone has ever told someone "I hate you."

6. Dashboard Confessional - "Saints and Sailors"
This is the Chris Carraba that early fans of Dashboard Confessional fell in love with: Angsty, overly-dramatic, and painfully honest.

5. Brand New - "Seventy Times Seven"
Reportedly about a falling out between singer Jesse Lacey and former Taking Back Sunday guitarist John Nolan, "Seventy Times Seven" goes almost too far. With lyrics wishing its subject would have another drink before driving home, or simply just choke and die, this song is evidence that Lacey did not take well to his girlfriend cheating on him with Nolan.

4. The Spill Canvas - "All Hail the Heartbreaker"
This song is essential Spill Canvas. A fan favorite, "All Hail the Heartbreaker" is one of the best-known of many TSC songs written about unrequited love from a girl who probably doesn't deserve singer Nick Thomas in the first place.

3. Mayday Parade - "If You Wanted a Song Written About You ... "
This is my favorite Mayday Parade song. It's got a great hook, catchy beat, and fantastic lyrics about a guy getting over a girl after finding out she's gotten over him by moving on to someone else.

2. Fall Out Boy - "My Heart is the Worst Kind of Weapon"
This is my go-to song when I am beyond angry at anyone, especially at a guy. Calmly furious and bitter, singer Patrick Stump asserts unarguably that the subject of his song never deserved him in the first place. Between this song, "Don't Call Me Peanut," and "If You Wanted a Song ..." I believe the lesson here is never to cheat on vindictive songwriters.

1. New Year's Day - "Ready, Aim, Misfire"
The rest of the songs on this list didn't stand a chance against this one. With a chorus that details shooting Cupid out of the sky and disfiguring him, and ends with the line "your love is my heart disease," what could be more anti-Valentine?

My Year in Music: 2009 Edition

2009-11-09T20:20:00.001-08:00

I started 2009 off extremely organized: I kept track of albums as they came out, downloaded them right away, listened to them right away, and made notes about the albums diligently. Then life took over, I got busy, and keeping close tabs on new music had to be put aside.

However, I still made a point to be aware of the new albums that came out, what bands were touring, and even managed to conduct a few interviews. With that said, here is my personal best and worst in music for 2009:

Favorite Albums of 2009

1. A Day to Remember – Homesick
Hardcore + pop-punk = genius.

2. The Audition – Self-Titled Album
All of the sex appeal of their last album minus the annoying pop music influences.

3. Manchester Orchestra – Mean Everything to Nothing
It’s like Nirvana meets Modest Mouse, but better.

4. Cage the Elephant – Cage the Elephant
(2008 UK release, 2009 US release)
The soundtrack to my summer.

5. fun. – Aim and Ignite
The most interesting album I’ve heard all year. Their sound lives up to their name.

More Favorites

6. Emery – In Shallow Seas We Sail
Another band putting two genres together seamlessly.

7. Third Eye Blind – Ursa Major
My first love in music, and this is more like their original album than the last two.

8. Paramore – Brand New Eyes
Hayley Williams clearly overcame some serious demons to write this album.

9. New Found Glory – Not Without a Fight
The boys from my neck of the woods haven’t disappointed me yet.

10. Brand New – Daisy
Incredibly dark, this album showcases even more maturity from Brand New.

11. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
I don’t agree with MySpace naming this the best of 2009, but good nonetheless.

12. Taking Back Sunday – New Again
A lot of critics have been hating this one, but it’s consistently good start to finish.

13. Boys Like Girls – Love Drunk
Much grittier and more confident than their debut. Kudos, gentlemen.

14. Mayday Parade – Anywhere but Here
I don’t hate it, but it’s certainly not A Lesson in Romantics.

15. Hello Danger – Shark Attack Party
The guest vocalists read like a who’s who in Jacksonville music.

Disappointing Albums

16. All Time Low – Nothing Personal
Listen to the first five tracks and then get on with your life.

17. Owl City – Ocean Eyes
It’s like the generic Postal Service. A song about the dentist? Really?

18. Two Tongues – Two Tongues
Chris Conley plus Max Bemis does not equal greatness.

19. Lily Allen – It’s Not Me, It’s You
I listened to it twice and was over it.

20. The Dangerous Summer – Reach for the Sun
Does anyone else remember when these guys were called The Starting Line?

Other Notable Albums
(in alphabetical order)

The Almost - Monster Monster
Arctic Monkeys - Humbug
The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love
Frank Turner - Poetry of the Deed
Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown
John Mayer - Battle Studies
Meg & Dia - Here, Here and Here
Polar Bear Club - Chasing Hamburg
Tegan and Sara - Sainthood
There for Tomorrow - A Little Faster
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!

These are albums that I felt were good but didn't listen to enough that I felt I could adequately review them. I do recommend checking them out, however!

Favorite Songs
(in alphabetical order)

The Almost - "Souls on Ten"
The Audition - "Los Angeles"
Brand New - "Noro"
Cage the Elephant - "In One Ear"
Chiddy Bang - "Kids" Remix
Demi Lovato - "Here We Go Again"
Emery - "The Butcher's Mouth"
fun. - "At Least I'm Not as Sad as I Used to Be"
fun. - "Be Calm"
Green Day - "Before the Lobotomy"
John Mayer - "Assassin"
The Metric - "Help I'm Alive"
Paramore - "All I Wanted"
Phoenix - "1901"
Say Anything - "Hate Everyone"
Select Start - "Dress Impressive"
There for Tomorrow - "Sore Winner"
Third Eye Blind - "Water Landing"

Most Anticipated Records for 2010

Envy on the Coast
The Gaslight Anthem
The Spill Canvas

Big Artist in 2010

Chiddy Bang

That's it folks. Feel free to let me know what you think, but let's keep in mind that these are my personal opinions. I've read so many EOTY lists with people leaving nasty comments at the end, but the beauty in opinions is that everyone has one, and everyone is entitled to theirs. :)

Electric Six Interview

2009-10-26T16:55:00.000-07:00

(October 19, 2009)

If you spend any amount of time at the Pearl you’re probably familiar with Electric Six’s dance hit “Gay Bar” and the music video that accompanies the song, chock full of shirtless Abe Lincolns in spandex short-shorts and more shameless phallic references than you can count. The Detroit six-piece will be at Jack Rabbits Oct. 27 as part of a tour in support of their sixth full-length album, Kill. Lead vocalist Dick Valentine talks about their latest album, their newest music video (which only lasted on YouTube for 12 hours before it was removed because of explicit nudity), and his unending fascination with Nickelback.

You guys are about to start your tour now, aren’t you?

We’re five shows into it. I’m already exhausted. Day one, fatigue sets in.

I was looking at your schedule, and you guys have two straight months in the U.S. and then less than a week off before you start a month of European dates. Don’t you want to kill each other by the time you’re done with the tour?

We’ve been touring for a while, so we’re good at it. We’re good at not killing each other.

How do you avoid getting burnt out while on tour or experiencing the fatigue you just spoke of?

A lot of ginkgo biloba, a lot of wrestling.

We have a club in Jacksonville that is often mislabeled as a gay club, and they poke fun at themselves by playing “Gay Bar” all the time. Did anything specific inspire that song, or was it just kind of a joke?

You might be familiar with a band called Devo. They have a song called “Girl U Want” from one of their albums in the ‘80s. I was at a crowded bar and it was on the jukebox, and listening to it I thought that the lyrics he was singing were “she’s just a girl, she’s just a girl in a gay bar” and it turned out it was “she’s just a girl, she’s just a girl you want,” but I was mishearing it, so, so far I write a lot of songs of things I think I heard and it turns out I wasn’t hearing the correct lyrics, so I then take the incorrect lyrics and think of my own. So from that moment on I knew I needed to write a song about a girl in a gay bar.

How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard Electric Six before?

I would say that we are nervous dance music.

How is Kill different from your five previous full-length albums, and why will your fans like it?

It’s not any different. It’s exactly the same, it’s the same album. (laughs) There’s more guitars, we’ve got a real power ballad, “Steal Your Bones,” so if you’re looking for inspiration, to feel better about yourself, you can listen to “Steal Your Bones” off the album Kill. Our fans are gonna like it because we’re giving them exactly what they’ve come to expect, the high quality that they’ve come to expect.

I saw the video for the first single from Kill, for the song “Body Shot,” and I’m glad I wasn’t at work when I decided to look that up. Was there any particular inspiration behind that video?

Well, I just think it’s mostly based on the lyrics. The song is vaguely about a director of porn, or at least of explicit images, and it’s the idea that this character I play in that video is kind of a jerk, and he treats women like a piece of meat, and then the tables get turned and he becomes part of the meat show. And then at the end voodoo breaks out, and the joke’s on him.

I read that Kill was originally rumored to be titled Sign of the Beefcarver. Was there ever any truth to this rumor, and where did it originate?

That’s completely true. Sign of the Beefcarver is a restaurant in Detroit, and it’s got a huge sign that you can see from the road, and it’s kind of a Detroit landmark. And we thought it would be a good idea to name [the album] Sign of the Beefcarver. But I got cold feet about it because I went online and saw that they had a history of litigation, and even though we’re not naming a restaurant Sign of the Beefcarver and it’s a non-competitive use of it, I just didn’t even want to deal with the headache or stressing out about the fact that maybe one day they just might file some sort of lawsuit, because I’ve already had a couple people coming after me for things and it’s not easy. It was easier just to go with a word like “kill” because everybody kills and everybody’s going to be killed and you can tie that one up in court for a long time.

Electric Six comes off as a band that knows how to have fun and poke fun at themselves. Do you think that not taking yourself too seriously is an essential part of being successful and staying sane in today’s music industry?

Well, a lot of people ask the same question and say “if you took yourself more seriously, don’t you think you’d be bigger?” So, my answer to this is always that this isn’t anything premeditated or concocted, it’s just kind of the way we are naturally and it’s the path of least resistance for us so we’re just doing what we did for a long time without getting paid, and now we’re getting paid to do it. It’s just the easiest way to go about being a band for us, I think.

What can fans expect from your tour this fall?

You’re gonna see six middle-aged men playing their instruments, playing a collection of songs from our six albums, trying to connect with the audience, trying to involve the audience, hanging out with people in the audience after the show, perhaps buying them a banana daiquiri.

With 2009 coming to and end, what musical moment or event do you think has been the biggest one of the year?

I don’t know, I guess you’d have to say the passing of Michael Jackson, even though I’ve never met him. I don’t know if he actually ever existed, I never met him, I never touched him, he only existed on television. But that having been said, it was a big televised moment, the passing. I was running in the park when it happened. I saw people getting the text messages as I passed them in the park, people would stop running. I kept running, because, like I said, I never met him so it didn’t really affect me that much. In terms of other great music moments, I think Nickelback went to number one again, so that’s pretty cool for Nickelback. I don’t know how that keeps happening, but good for them.

What is the most outrageous thing that a fan has ever done for you guys?

Recently a girl wrote a screenplay based on our lyrics and got back stage somehow, I don’t know how that happens, they vaporize or something and come through the walls, and then [she] handed me this screenplay and was just like “let’s make this movie.” And I was like “well, I’m going on tour for three months, I don’t have time.” And then she was just like “you’re not hearing me, I wrote this and I wanted to do this, so when can you start filming?” It’s really weird to see people that crazy.

What are your thoughts on the current state of the music industry, and do you think that the condition it’s in now is helping bands or hindering them?

I guess I could go on for a while. The one thing I always say is that it’s a level playing field, all bands are affected by the same technology in the same way, so there’s nothing really to bitch or moan about. America, at least in my lifetime, has always been interesting and cool anyways because of the situation where Nickelback is the only rock band you hear on the radio, whoever decided that Nickelback gets to be that. So that leaves a big vacuum for people who want to seek out more interesting types of music, and so that allows bands to be more independent and kind of do a DIY sort of thing because there’s always an audience for music that isn’t Nickelback. But just because the record industry doesn’t know that doesn’t mean that musicians can’t find ways to market themselves and be more do-it-yourself and I think that’s kind of cool, especially about America.

The Color Fred Interview

2009-08-18T14:55:00.000-07:00

(July 17, 2009)

Ex guitarist of Taking Back Sunday and former Breaking Pangaea frontman Fred Mascherino struck out on his own in late 2007 as The Color Fred. Shortly after his departure from Taking Back Sunday the jazz-trained musician released his debut album, Bend to Break. Mascherino, who comes to Jack Rabbits on August 28 as part of his acoustic tour, talks about being a solo artist after several years of belonging to bands, what ended up being a not-so-amicable split from Taking Back Sunday, and his efforts to go green while pursuing a profession that isn’t always so eco-friendly.

When can we expect the next album that you’re working on?

It should come out late fall, but it’s not done. I took on quite a project this time, and my new album is following a storyline, sort of a concept type of thing. It’s basically a story of this couple that are kind of in a terrible place, and they’re just going through hell, basically. So I’m writing all about that, and it’s partially based on true things, and partially fictional. I’ve been working on that all year. I went down and recorded half of the record, and I kind of wanted to do it in two parts because it’s such a big project, so it’s half done right now. I came home and finished the rest of the writing, and I guess after this tour I’ll finish the recording.

Has it started to get annoying at all that pretty much every press release, or interview, or article that’s written about you – probably including mine – usually introduces you as the former guitarist of Taking Back Sunday?

No, it’s something that I did, and it’s the biggest thing that I’ve done so far. I’m fine with it, I wasn’t ashamed of any of my work with them.

You’ve been working on your solo material since back before you even joined Taking Back Sunday, when you joined them in 2003, had it occurred to you at that point that you might have to be unencumbered by any other musical projects in order to pursue your solo work full time?

I definitely had to make a choice, because I was actually in Breaking Pangaea when I joined Taking Back Sunday, so I had to stop that project and stop that band, and that was a big decision because those guys were close friends of mine. But I was also friends with Eddie from Taking Back Sunday, so it seemed like it was going to be cool. But I really didn’t have any thoughts on solo work or anything. Basically, I was in TBS, and I had written a lot of songs for Louder Now, and a lot of those were on the record, but there were a lot of leftover songs that I liked, so I just thought “Well, I’ll record all of these and put it out just as a side project.” And then the fact that I had to kind of overnight turn that into a full-time thing was hard because then it was judged as a full-time thing and I really didn’t take the time with everything because I had recorded between two tours I was going on, and instead of sitting home and writing I was always writing, like, while I was on tour. Although I’m pretty happy with Bend to Break, my first record, I think now that this is my full-time concentration the next record is going to be a whole different level.

How have things changed for you, both personally and professionally, now that you’ve been a solo artist for a while?

Personally, it’s been a lot better for me. You know, I sleep a lot better at night, and it’s just been nice because I’ve been writing songs since I’ve was very young and now I’m able to do it a lot more freely than I ever have. So something like taking on this project of the whole concept record, that’s probably not something I could do if I was writing with a band because some of the subject matter is real personal to me. So now I get to actually put it out there. A lot of the music that I’ve always liked growing up was, a lot of times, from one songwriter. So even something like Smashing Pumpkins or Nirvana, of course it’s a band, but the singer kind of writes everything, it’s not so much like a Led Zeppelin jam or anything, I relate to a perspective coming from one person. I also like solo artists, like Bright Eyes, but like classic guys like Bruce Springsteen. I’ve always related to things like that where it’s one guy kind of writing everything. So I’m glad I’m kind of back to that.

The press that came out immediately after you left Taking Back Sunday said that you and the band parted amicably, and they even posted a blog wishing you well and talking about your new album. But it’s recently come out that “Capital M-E” on Taking Back Sunday’s new album is about you, and [lead singer] Adam Lazarra referred to it in reference to a comment you had made about them being “more about cooking than making music.” So what happened?

What happened was, I guess that someone posted that comment and they asked the band what they thought and they said “Well, listen to this song.” But that’s besides the fact. Whatever that cooking comment was, I’m pretty sure that I hadn’t even quite said it that way at all, but even if I did, it was kind of a ridiculous comment. It was weird because there was a video of them reacting to it, it was such a stupid comment it didn’t even look like they took it seriously, at least Matt didn’t. Either way, I thought it was funny that [it was interpreted as] “Well, he says that’s the reason he left the band,” and I’m like “Does anyone really think I would leave a band and say that that was the reason?” In any case, I really tried to keep it mostly positive in my interviews as far as them, and that was someone definitely starting trouble. I will say that it hasn’t been as amicable as I had hoped, from their end. I would email people on their birthdays and try to keep in contact, and it just seemed like there was no interest on their side. I did think there have been negative comments from them, and I’ve tried to keep mine to an absolute minimum. The only thing that I’ve ever said is that I had to leave the band because I wasn’t happy, and I’m not gonna lie about that.

Then the other thing is, of course, that they wrote that song. I thought there was some cliché stuff in it. I only heard the song once but it had something about a snake slithering away, I thought that was kinda cheesy. But, you know, it happens. Definitely some songs on Bend to Break touched on that, but it never was directed at one person, it was kind of about the situation, on my record at least. I guess if they had to write about it I’m the only person on the other side. It’s sad that it couldn’t have been everyone being cool to each other, but it just never seems to be that way. I know what the other guys that left the band before me went through and it just seems like that’s the way it has to be. Also, I’ll say, when I left I told them that I still wanted to be friends, and everybody except one person was cool with that, and so we haven’t been friends.

In early 2008 you mentioned in an interview with AbsolutePunk that it wouldn’t be weird to tour with Taking Back Sunday. Is that still true?

I think it would be weird, now. I think it would be more negative than good. I was all up for it. That’s the thing, I did a year-and-a-half of interviews before they came out with anything, and then they started doing interviews, and their song, and I was like “Oh, well they didn’t look at this breakup the way that I looked at this breakup, so I guess it’s not cool.”

Your solo material at times has a sound similar to that of Taking Back Sunday. Is that a result of your influence on their writing, their influence on you, or is it a little bit of both?

I think that it was a little bit of both because anyone who knew me and my past bands, when I joined TBS they could hear the sound that I brought to it. But, also, when I was doing Bend to Break I was trying to write something that those fans could enjoy. And some of those songs were b-sides from Louder Now, so a lot of it was also written with Taking Back Sunday in mind to be playing it, which is kind of weird. But with my new stuff I think it will become more of the other way that you described, which is it’s probably only going to sound like them because it’s me writing, because I definitely tried to, with my new album, sort of step a little bit out of the “emo” format and I’m just writing very straight ahead rock songs. I’m really proud of what we’re working on right now, it’s probably the best thing I’ve ever been involved with and I’m pretty happy with how it’s been going. Hopefully people get into it and hopefully what I’m doing now continues on for a long time as a result of what we’re doing right now.

Most people know you from Taking Back Sunday, but you also fronted Breaking Pangaea. Do you have any plans to revisit that project sometime in the future with a reunion or any new music with them?

I actually got together with the two guys from that band last week. We were basically getting together for fun, and we only played Breaking Pangaea songs, we played like 25 songs. There’s no set plan, I think if the right show came up that we could, if we could tour with a band that we really liked, we would probably play again. And I would love to be in a band with either of those guys, I talk to Will and Clint all the time, and I do hope to work with them in the future, but there’s no set plan at this exact moment.

Your fans are most likely familiar with your efforts to leave the smallest carbon footprint possible through things like packaging your album in recycled material and buying carbon offsets for recording. How are you continuing your efforts to be as green as possible with this tour?

I always buy the carbon offsets, but since this is an acoustic tour, I have a car that runs on vegetable oil and I’m considering taking that out, but it’s an ’82. If you see a little orange Volkswagen parked outside of the club that means that I’m running on grease the whole tour. But I haven’t fully decided. If I don’t take that then I’ll be buying the carbon offsets. It’s definitely a conflict in my brain to not want to pollute and at the same time have a job that is driving around the country. And I love driving around the country, I just wish that someone came up with a better fuel option for me. The thing about the grease also is that it does take some time to filter it, and it gets messy too, so it’s not always the most convenient thing when you’re playing every night of the week.

Do you end up smelling like it too?

Oh yeah, and that’s the thing. When you’re out on the road and you can’t just quickly take a shower at any moment you really have to weigh your options. If the tour winds up being just a two-week thing I might just go for it.

What advice do you give to your fans who also want to leave the smallest carbon footprint possible?

I think there’s a lot you can do, and obviously the more you can educate yourself online about it, the better. People always talk about recycling, but there’s also a point where a lot of times the things we buy that we don’t need are causing a lot more trash than we need to have, and things like, the second it goes over 70 degrees kicking on the AC in your house. You can obviously use AC if you want, and I don’t expect everyone to live in grass huts, but just know that every time you do it, every time you turn on your faucet, there is an effect on the other side. It’s hard for us in America to not be wasteful, even myself, like I said, it’s always a conflict, but the more we’re aware of it, the less waste we create. A lot of times I’ll go to buy something that I need, and I’ll think “Wait, what if I could find this used?” And I’ll get online and look at Craig’s List, or there’s this site called Freecycle.org that’s really interesting, and I get on there and a lot of times I find what I’m looking for, and it’s cheaper or free, but it’s used, and then I didn’t cause a factory to make more.

Do you ever find it hard to balance having a family and being a professional musician? What advice would you give to other musicians who also have families and find themselves away from them often?

I would tell them give up now, forget about it. No, I’m just kidding. It’s great, for my family this is like our family business. The kids are growing up around music all the time, and my wife helps out with things that we need in the band, whether it’s mailing something or running to pick something up. It’s kind of just what we do, it’s as if we had a bakery or something. No matter what you do it’s always tougher when you have kids, because you can’t just leave at any moment, you have to make arrangements. And it’s hard to be away from them, obviously. But the good side is you come home, and if all went well you don’t have to run to work the next morning and you can all hang out together

What are some of your favorite albums to come out so far this year?

I’m not sure what came out exactly this year. I don’t know if it came out this year, Good Old War. I saw them live, and it was one of the best things I’ve seen live in a long time, so I’ve been listening to that a lot. I’m getting excited for the new Tegan and Sara, and also this band called Fun, which I’ve heard a little bit of. It’s a new band, it’s the guys from the Format, and I think it’s gonna be a great record.

Any last comments?

Just come out and see a show. Right now I’m doing an acoustic tour, so that allows me to play music from all my bands. So I’ll play a Breaking Pangaea song, and even maybe a TBS thing here and there. Anything I’ve written is up for grabs, so come out to the show and if I didn’t play what you wanted to hear just yell at me, yell out the song. I have a lot of fun doing those because there’s a big catalog to pick from, so just come out and I guarantee it will be a good time.

All-Time Favorite Songs: Part I

2009-07-29T20:52:00.000-07:00

There are some songs that no matter how much time goes by, they still remain huge favorites of mine that can change my mood instantly. These aren't in any particular order, I'll just post a few every now and then as I come up with more.

Barenaked Ladies: "Brian Wilson"
"Brian Wilson" tells the story of a man whose life parallels that of Beach Boy Brian Wilson. It's a simple song, but the story is told so well that every time I listen to it I can see the narrative unfolding in my mind. My favorite line, "drove downtown in the rain, nine-thirty on a Tuesday night, just to check out the late-night record shop" always makes me think of the line that Kate Hudson has in one of my favorite movies, Almost Famous, when she tells William "and whenever you get lonely, just go to the record store and visit your friends."

Blink-182: "Going Away to College"
"Going Away to College" is a love song that captures the fickle time between the end of adolescence and the beginning of adulthood. With lines like "this world's an ugly place, but you're so beautiful to me," this song is a rare show of vulnerability and sensitivity from a band otherwise notorious for their explicit toilet humor.

Duncan Sheik: "On a High"
Duncan Sheik is best known for his hit "Barely Breathing," but he later released this lesser-known single. This song manages to be exceptionally optimistic and uplifting without being cheesy and often helps me put things into a more positive perspective when I'm feeling cynical or depressed.

Incubus: "Are You In?"
Despite my tendency toward vindictive emo songs, most of my absolute favorite tunes seem to be light and upbeat. "Are You In?" is yet another example of this. The lyrics are simple, mostly just a repetition of the line "it's so much better when everyone is in, are you in," but the actual sound of the song creates such a carefree vibe that I'm sure I'm lowering my blood pressure every time I listen to it.

The Postal Service: "Brand New Colony"
Anyone who knows what Postal Service frontman Ben Gibbard looks like knows that he isn't exactly a heartthrob. As is the case with many musicians, however, it seems as though it's the unattractive ones who write the sweetest songs. "Brand New Colony" is my absolute favorite romantic song.

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: "Walls (No. 3)"

I feel like I fit the description of the woman that Petty is singing about in this song, with "a heart so big it could crush this town." This is another mood-lifter, and I much prefer this cleaner-sounding version of "Walls" to the other version, "Walls (Circus)," which was released as a single from the She's the One Original Soundtrack.

Oh, ever-fickle America ...

2009-06-25T15:44:00.000-07:00

Entertainment icon Farrah Fawcett died today, losing a more than two-year battle with cancer. When I got home from work I turned on the television and specials about the actress's life and career were being run. Less than two hours later I logged into Facebook and Twitter, and my feeds were flooded with updates about Michael Jackson, who died of what appears to be cardiac arrest this afternoon.

This is yet another example of how fickle our culture is, what short attention spans Americans have got. Farrah hasn't been forgotten, but the King of Pop has most certainly overshadowed the news of her passing. Perhaps being so plugged-in and being able to access information so quickly isn't entirely a good thing. Our society moves at such a furious speed that we often don't have time to process one thing before the news of something else breaks.

I realize there is an issue of relevancy, my generation is more familiar with Jackson than they are with Fawcett, but my disgust with mainstream culture has once again been reinforced.

Rest in peace, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. And Ed McMahon.

2009 First-Quarter Review

2009-03-29T18:35:00.000-07:00

I've already listened to quite a few of the CDs released this year, and since we're already a fourth of the way into 2009 I thought I'd do a first-quarter review. Hopefully I can keep this up and do one every three months.

Ben Nichols
The Last Pale Light in the West ****
(January 20)
Lucero fans eager for the band's next release can tide themselves over with frontman B en Nichols' debut solo effort. Inspired by Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian," The Last Pale Light in the West is pretty much an unplugged Lucero album.

Franz Ferdinand

Tonight: Franz Ferdinand **
(January 26)

I'm not very familiar with Franz Ferdinand's previous albums, but if you like indie tunes you can dance to, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand is worth checking out. The album's second single, "No You Girls," can be heard on the new iPod Touch commercial, and the rest of the album is mostly more of the same.

A Day to Remember
Homesick ****
(February 2)
I'm pretty picky about what kind of hardcore music I'll listen to, but A Day to Remember's unique blend of catchy melodies, pop punk choruses, grinding guitars and often growling vocals is refreshing. Homesick is further proof that hardcore and pop punk were meant to exist in harmony.

Two Tongues
Self-Titled ***
(February 3)

As a fan of Saves the Day, and an even bigger fan of Say Anything, I was stoked to hear that Chris Conley and Max Bemis would be teaming up to form supergroup Two Tongues. For the most part the album sounds like a Say Anything CD with Chris Conley doing guest vocals on almost every song, but I'm okay with that. Check out "Silly Game" and "Wowee Zowee."

New Found Glory
Not Without a Fight *****
(March 10)
The boys from Coral Springs continue to play catchy pop punk with pointed lyrics and memorable choruses. If you like the disc's first single, "Listen to Your Friends," the rest of the album will not disappoint.

Hello Danger
Shark Attack Party ****
(March 27)

Jacksonville Beach melodic hardcore band Shadow Agency went on hiatus in early 2008, and returned last summer as Hello Danger with a new lead singer and a much friendlier sound. Shark Attack Party is the perfect summertime album, complete with songs about days spent on the boardwalk and ocean sunsets. This is also the ultimate local album, with almost every track featuring a guest vocalist from a Jacksonville band. Yellowcard's Ryan Key, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus's Ronnie Winter, Evergreen Terrace's Craig Chaney and more all make appearances on the CD.

Close Call, Alternative Press

2009-03-26T16:28:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I was looking at my collection of Alternative Press magazines – I’ve got just about every issue since January 2005 – and giving some serious thought to forgoing a renewal of my subscription at the end of the year. When I first started reading AP, it was because a friend had loaned me a copy that featured Dashboard Confessional, a band that I had just become a huge fan of, on the cover. From there the magazine introduced me to more bands that I had never before heard of, like Brand New, Fall Out Boy, Matchbook Romance, Senses Fail and more. AP showed me that there was a world outside of manufactured boy bands, pop princesses, and sound-alike mainstream rock groups. I was so enlightened, in fact, that at the end of my senior year of high school I decided that I wanted to become a music journalist and do my part to spread the word about truly good music to the masses.

That was more than four years ago, and AP has changed quite a bit since then. Issues have gotten thinner, layouts have gotten sleeker, ads have become more prevalent, and just like every other outlet in the music world, neon-laden, side-bangs-wearing, can’t-tell-them-apart post-emo synth-pop-punk bands have begun to take over.

This isn’t the first time I’ve expressed my disgust with this sad trend (see “Turning off the Radio” and “My Year in Music: 2008 Edition”), and it certainly won’t be the last, especially if I end up at Warped Tour this summer. But despite others like myself who see through the manufactured images and charming personalities to the lack of talent that lies beneath, the kids are still eating it all up, and spending their parents’ hard-earned money in the process. I opened up to the “Unsigned Bands of the Month” section in AP’s May 2009 issue, and every band pictured had at least one member sporting the emo, bangs-across-the-eyes haircut – and most of the photos had a majority of the members wearing variations of the hairstyle. My point? There’s no originality, no artistic integrity, no real talent.

This isn’t AP’s fault. Magazines are a business, and as such they need to cater to their audience. But as I was considering discontinuing my patronage to Alternative Press, I thought that maybe I’ve grown out of the magazine which so clearly appeals to scene kids all across the country. It’s as if they think that by reading AP they are credible music fans and not just cliche teenyboppers. I thought to myself “why hasn’t AP put a good band, like The Gaslight Anthem, on the cover in a while?”

Imagine my surprise when I went to the mailbox today and that very same quartet from New Jersey was looking up at me from AP’s cover. While I might have to deal with an obscene amount of ads that feature pretty-boy bands and ‘80s, techno-colored merchandise, and see commentary from middle-schoolers who are convinced they know what’s what when it comes to real musical talent, AP is also still covering great music. Now if they just manage to score an interview with Blink-182 before the end of the year, I might just consider renewing my subscription.

Lucero Interview

2009-03-18T13:58:00.000-07:00

(February 25, 2009)

Don your flannel shirt and grab your whiskey and your girl. Memphis, Tennessee’s Lucero brings their country-influenced, heartbreak-inspired music to The Social March 8 and 10. Guitarist Brian Venable talks about their recent transition from an independent to a major label, what he thinks makes Lucero appealing to such a diverse audience, and what the boys plan to do with their free time while they are here in Orlando.

You’re playing in Orlando March 8 and 10. What are your plans for March 9? Can we expect to see Lucero riding the coasters at Disney or hanging out at the bars downtown?

We’ll probably be at the bars downtown. We came down and played Will’s Pub when it was closing a couple of years ago and definitely did the Disney World thing. We got drunk at Epcot and almost got kicked out, so we’ll probably just stick to our element this time.

What led to your choice to sign to Universal Music Group?

The deal wasn’t bad ... I have kids, we’ve all been doing this for eleven years. It’s like with Jawbreaker and all those kind of bands, at some point you’re like “you know what? Fuck it. Let’s see what happens.” The way I see it is, if we make a record, we might lose the record, but it’s just our shot. Most major labels now are working on a small label business model anyway, unless you’re the Jonas Brothers. They run a tighter ship on a smaller level, but they still have amazing distribution, they’re still Universal. It has a little pull, you can go “yep, we’re on Universal. Who do y’all want for a backup singer?” People are like “you’re on Universal, we can probably make some calls and see if we can’t get somebody.”

It’s just that shot to get more records out there, to make our name a little bit more recognizable. Basically, you start a band, you’ve got four drop-out guys who don’t want real jobs, and if it gets kind of successful you realize you’ve gotta go buy that “Business for Dummies” book, you’ve just started a business. They were just real nice to us, they pretty much told us ahead of time they’re not gonna make us lose a hundred pounds, wear eyeliner and have a funny haircut. They know what they’re getting. I think they’re looking back to the days where The Bands, and the Bruce Springsteens and the Tom Pettys, those people had whole careers on labels. They know they’ve got a dependable touring machine that’s not gonna break up anytime soon, hopefully, and that’s just gonna continually put out records and tour and be a stable act.

How is writing, recording, and releasing an album different now that Lucero is on a major label?

It takes a lot longer. The demos for our new record sound better than our first record. I’m like “there’s the record,” and they’re like “no, these are just the demos.” And then you send them to them and they’re all like “yeah, okay, these are great,” and then you hire a producer guy, he just came out last week, and he’ll be like “I feel like these songs are seventy percent done, they’re great, they just need a little tweaking.” And he sat with us like a coach, and we played, and he’s like “try to stop that, just that, do this ...” His whole vocabulary is chord changes, and choruses, and bridges, and was just putting stuff together, he helped us out. Then we’ve got seventeen days to record the record

I’ve seen you compared to Jawbreaker, Social Distortion, and Kurt Cobain, what other artists have you been compared to?

Those are all the good ones, we don’t care about those. We like when they compare us to the bad ones, we’ve had Nickelback, Creed, Pearl Jam. One of my favorites was “the redneck Cure,” one of the bad ones was “y’alternative” and whatnot. When you get a good review people are like “oh, they sound like all these other bands,” but then the bad reviews they’re like “ugh, this band sounds like Nickelback!” And you’re just like, “wow! That’s amazing. That’s terrible, but amazing!”

What about Lucero’s music would you say makes you accessible to such a diverse group of music fans?

Honestly, I don’t care if you’re a dip-spittin’ redneck, or a black-collar-wearing punk rock kid, or a family of four, or whatever. Most of our songs are about being sad, getting drunk, pretty much we bypass all these little colorations of different themes and pretty much just strike to the heart of the matter. And that’s based upon blues, and country. You’re listening to the song, driving around, and it’s about boy loses girl, or boy chases girl, or boy gets drunk. The longing, and the loss, it’s all songs about girls, there’s three songs about grandpa. Generally, we’re not breaking any new ground with the subject matter. I think that a good song about heartbreak or wanting something you can’t have will always transcend all the different genres and barriers.

A published version of this interview can be found in aXis Magazine.

I'll be watching the Grammys.

2009-02-05T15:44:00.000-08:00

I wouldn't want to be the only person to miss seeing Blink-182 play live together for the first time since they announced their "indefinite hiatus" in February 2005. Granted, it's only been announced that they will be taking the stage together as presenters, but I'm not taking any chances. Rumors about a potential reunion started circulating when the trio began spending time together after the plane crash that drummer Travis Barker was involved in. Those rumors became even more frenzied after an MTV interview in which Mark Hoppus both confirmed that he and Tom Delonge were friends again and didn't deny the possibility of a Blink-182 reunion.

*Fingers crossed.*

Update:

David Kennedy of Angels & Airwaves has allegedly confirmed that there is a new Blink-182 album in the works. A screenshot of a chat Kennedy had in Modlife has been posted on Absolutepunk.net, but I'm a bit skeptical. If this was a legitimate conversation, however, Kennedy told whomever he was speaking to that Blink-182 is putting out a new record.

I'm going to be a pessimist and say that I think this conversation is bogus.

Is Lip Synching Ever Okay?

2009-02-02T11:25:00.000-08:00

(photo by Al Bello, Getty Images; obtained at PopCrunch.com)

Jennifer Hudson reportedly lip synced her performance of "The Star Spangled Banner" last night at the Superbowl, as did Faith Hill during her performance of "America The Beautiful." Hudson is being criticized by people on forums like Absolutepunk.net and MTV.com for her decision.

I think that in a situation like this one -- during the biggest football game of the year, for the nation's most important song -- lip syncing is acceptable. No one should be surprised that this would occur during one of the most sensationalized television events of the year. Recent family tragedy or not, I wouldn't expect someone to sing the National Anthem live during such a huge event. And are we forgetting that these were Hudson's vocals, that the fantastic rendition we heard last night was, in fact, sung by her, just not at that moment?

We have hundreds of bands coming out that have no credibility and no talent, and that still become huge because of their trendy images and marketing gimmicks, and we're picking apart Jennifer Hudson because she made a smart decision by prerecording the National Anthem? This is just another instance of why it's our own fault as music fans that the music industry is going in the direction it is.

Really, Mayday Parade?

2009-01-09T17:12:00.000-08:00

Mayday Parade premiered their music video for "Miserable at Best" on MySpace today, and asked fans "what do you think?"

So here's what I think:

I love Mayday Parade, and A Lesson in Romantics will always be one of my favorite albums. What many fans don't seem to realize about this band, however, is that half of the vocals and pretty much all of the songwriting were done by Jason Lancaster, who left the band in early 2007. It's one thing to play Mayday Parade songs live and have someone else sing Lancaster's parts during the show, but the "Miserable at Best" video has taken it too far. Drummer Jake Bundrick, who occasionally sings backup vocals, is lip syncing Lancaster's parts in the video.

Really, guys, you could have gone with another approach to this video. Perhaps one that doesn't require your drummer to pretend that he is the one singing the main vocals for this song on the album.

Check out the video below.

Miserable at Best - Music Video

Select Start - <3 EP

2009-01-08T12:53:00.000-08:00

(January 6, 2008)
genre: synth pop-punk

It figures that the very first release of 2009 I listened to would be a CD from the synthesizer/emo/pop-punk movement that I so love to hate.

Don't confuse my scorn for the genre for absolute dislike, however, because while the music that falls into this category is often lacking in any originality or degree of talent, it can be a hell of a lot of fun to listen to. It's like dating an extremely attractive, but not-so-intelligent person: while they're nice to look at for a while, you eventually tire of the inane conversation.

At times way too heavy on the synthesizer, this CD doesn't offer much to set it apart from the myriad other recordings just like it. Kids will listen to this EP and go to Select Start shows because they can dance to their music, not because they relate to their lyrics or admire their musicianship. Ironically enough, the first song on Select Start's <3 EP is titled "Kiss Your Genre Goodbye." The only redeeming song is "Dress Impressive," the Jonezetta-esque tirade against excessive, materialistic lifestyles. Of the remaining five songs, four of them sound so alike as to be almost indiscernible, and the last song, "If You Fall (Fall in Love)," is the obligatory slower romantic song that, when played live, most likely begins with just the lead singer on stage with his guitar, crooning to the audience, with the rest of the band "sneaking" in mid-song for the big surprise where the song suddenly climaxes and goes from being acoustic to all-band electric. I liked that trick the first ten times I saw it.

Select Start aren't a bad band. Their songs are well-executed, they can write a decent hook, and they know how to play their instruments, but they mostly come off sounding like a mediocre Forever the Sickest Kids.

It seems yet another band has joined the ranks of neon clothing and expensive haircuts. Let's hope the scene kids wise up and turn on these bands by the end of the year . . . and considering how fickle teenagers can be, the demise of synth pop-punk is inevitable.

Sounds like: Forever the Sickest Kids, Jonezetta, Rediscover

My Year In Music: 2008 Edition

2008-12-30T21:41:00.000-08:00

Last year it wasn’t until the end of December that I even considered creating a best-of-the-year music countdown. This year, however, I started thinking about my list near the end of summer and decided that I wanted to be more thorough than I was in 2007 by listening to as many new albums as I could.

The result of this was mixed: On one hand, I exposed myself to a lot of great new music and discovered some amazing bands that I wouldn’t have otherwise. On the other hand, I stretched myself a bit thin and wasn’t able to absorb some of the albums as much as I would have liked. But in the end there were still songs and albums that I found myself going back to again and again, even when I had much newer records to listen to. With that said, the following is my personal best and worst of music in 2008:

Favorite Albums of 2008

17. Rediscover - Sleepless Nights
16. Counting Crows - Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings
15. Alkaline Trio - Agony & Irony
14. Tokyo Police Club - Elephant Shell
13. T13C! - We've Created a Monster EP
12. Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs
11. Fall Out Boy - Folie à Deux
10. Anthony Green - Avalon
9. Jack's Mannequin - The Glass Passenger
8. Forever The Sickest Kids - Underdog Alma Mater
7. Hit the Lights - Skip School, Start Fights
6. The Loved Ones - Build & Burn
5. Every Avenue - Shh. Just Go With It

4. The Audition - Champion
The recent trend of generic, synthesizer-laden pop punk music by groups that just barely avoid being boy bands is one that I won’t be sad to see die. The '80s had New Kids on the Block, the ‘90s had ‘NSYNC and The Backstreet Boys, and this decade has The Cab, The Maine, Metro Station, and hundreds more. Despite my annoyance with this trend that bands seem to be flocking to with the sole purpose of gaining popularity and selling albums, there are a handful of bands that fall under this genre but are still respectable. Case in point: The Audition. What makes it ironic that this, of all the albums in the new pop-punk movement, would be one of the best of the year, is the fact that The Audition’s frontman, Danny Stevens, has unapologetically admitted to getting inspiration for Champion from former boy band member Justin Timberlake. The result is a pop-punk album that contains legitimate rock music, but takes influences from mainstream pop as well. For proof of Timberlake’s influence on the album, check out “Warm Me Up,” the disc's first single which manages to sample “Cry Me a River” and feature a rockin’ guitar solo in the same song.

3. Bayside - Shudder
This was one of my most anticipated albums of the year, which set it up to either be really great or really disappointing for me – there would have been no middle ground. I had concerns that this record would be too different from Bayside’s previous three, but ultimately this is still a Bayside album, and the changes that I did hear were changes that I liked. While Shudder was obviously influenced by the punk records that the band was listening to while writing it, and some of the lyrics are more optimistic than those that frontman Anthony Raneri has been known to write, the album still retains the essential elements that make up a Bayside album: Raneri is still as self-deprecating and bitterly honest as he has always been, and guitarist Jack O’Shea still plays relentless, grinding guitar rifts à la “Rochambo.” I literally danced when I heard the album’s Green Day-reminiscent first single, “No One Understands” for the first time. I later fell in love with “Demons,” the song that opens with the lines “you can never really win, not to say you’re born to lose. You were born to take tenth place out of twenty in the field” – typical unapologetic, tell-it-like-it-is Raneri lyrics. For the second year in a row Bayside has released a fantastic album, further cementing their place as one of my absolute favorite bands.

2. Senses Fail - Life is Not a Waiting Room
The first thing you'll notice when listening to Life is Not a Waiting Room is that the Senses Fail that released Let it Enfold You is nowhere to be found. And this is a very good thing. Lead singer Buddy Nielsen and the rest of the New Jersey quartet have traded emo lyrics, pop-punk influences, and often whiny vocals for a much more aggressive sound and more mature songwriting. Nielsen uses Waiting Room as an outlet for his demons, addressing very personal aspects of his life such as the end of a four-year relationship with his girlfriend, his battles with depression and alcohol abuse, and his estranged father. With its grinding guitar rifts, achingly honest lyrics, and anthemic all-band-sing-along choruses, Senses Fail have proved that it is possible to overcome old criticisms and write an album that even past doubters will love.

1. The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound
The Gaslight Anthem wasn’t even on my radar until the end of the summer, but when I heard their new album mentioned by a friend I decided to check them out. End result? The ‘59 Sound is my favorite album of the year, even more so than my most anticipated album of the year. The Gaslight Anthem blend punk, old-fashioned American rock, and poetic lyrics to make the aptly titled ‘59 Sound an album that is nostalgic both in its sound and in its subject matter. Frontman Brian Fallon’s ability to write songs that romanticize the struggles and experiences of day-to-day life makes this an exceptionally accessible and timeless album that music fans across several generations will appreciate. In songs like “The ‘59 Sound” and “Here’s Looking at You, Kid,” Fallon pulls the listener into vivid stories of heartbreak and growing up. This record is what Bruce Springsteen would have written if he had been backed up by a punk band instead of the E Street Band. In a time when many bands are jumping on the post-emo, synth-punk bandwagon, The ‘59 Sound is both a refreshing change and assurance that not everyone is selling out.

Top Ten Songs of 2008
(This is mostly according to the number of plays the songs got on my iPod.)

10. "Dear Child" - Anthony Green (Avalon)
9. "Pretty Good Year" - The Loved Ones (Build & Burn)
8. "One of THOSE Nights" - The Cab (Whisper War)
7. "Demons" - Bayside (Shudder)
6. "Help Me" - Alkaline Trio (Agony & Irony)
5. "American Love" - Jack's Mannequin (The Glass Passenger)
4. "Between You and I" - Every Avenue (Shh. Just Go With It)
3. "The '59 Sound" - The Gaslight Anthem (The '59 Sound)
2. "No One Understands" - Bayside (Shudder)
1. "Shut up and Let Me Go" - The Ting Tings (We Started Nothing)

Most Annoying Songs of 2008

2. "Bleeding Love" by Leona Lewis
You know, I remember when this singer was named Whitney Houston. I liked this song the first ten times I heard it on VH1, but there came a point during the summer when I couldn't turn on a Top 40 radio station without hearing Lewis whine about how she keeps bleeding love. After a while I just started to wish that she would find a band-aid and get on with her life.

1. "I Kissed a Girl" by Katy Perry
As if sexual experimentation and lesbianism were things our society hasn't already grown accustomed to, Katy Perry confides that she kissed a girl -- and she liked it. I wonder if Perry's girl-kissing has anything to do with her and Gym Class Heroes frontman Travis McCoy's reported breakup ...

Album From 2007 That I Still Love

Envy on the Coast - Lucy Gray
I didn't hear this album until after I wrote last year's best-of list. Had I heard Lucy Gray before the end of the year, however, it would have tied The Walking Wounded as my number two favorite release of 2007. Every time I listen to this CD I hear something I hadn't noticed before and find more and more reasons to love it. From the catchy first single, "Sugar Skulls," to the protest of blind faith, "If God Smokes Cheap Cigars," Lucy Gray is reflective of a talented band that still has much more to offer. Their sophomore album, slated to come out in 2009, is officially my first anticipated release of the year.

Essential Albums: Deja Entendu

2008-10-28T21:44:00.000-07:00

Brand New was the first not-quite-mainstream, just-under-the-radar, yet incredibly popular band that I ever listened to. Realizing that there was an entire other rock music scene apart from the one I heard on the radio was enlightening, and it was around this time that I started to realize that what I really wanted to do with my life was to be a music journalist. Deja Entendu is an album that I became a fan of one track at a time, and each time I fell in love with another one of their songs I realized even more how incredible a songwriter frontman Jesse Lacey is. This is a record that defines a period of growing up and self-realization, which is probably why I was so drawn to it during my college years.

Essential Album #3: Brand New - Deja Entendu

SIC TRANSIT GLORIA ... GLORY FADES
“Die young and save yourself.”

I became a fan of Brand New’s sophomore release one song at a time. My first exposure to the band was their video for “Sic Transit Gloria ... Glory Fades.” For starters, the premise of the video is genius. A mysterious looking Lacey walks into a bar, and every movement that he makes, from overturning tables to smashing glasses, is imitated by the bar's patrons. At the end of the video he seemingly uses his power to get a girl to expose herself to him, then turns around to face a shadowed man who suddenly has Lacey’s power and uses it to force him to make a slicing gesture across his throat. The subject of the song is equally brilliant, about a boy who unwillingly has sex with a girl and loses his innocence in the process. Add to those things the song’s infectious, throbbing bass line, and I was hooked.

The subject of sex comes up again in “Me vs. Maradona vs. Elvis,” the song that tells the story of a woman who is date-raped, but from the unique perspective of the rapist rather than the victim. This song, however, isn’t actually about rape, but is a metaphor for Lacey’s fear of being destroyed by his own popularity like soccer player Diego Maradona or Elvis Presley.

OKAY, I BELIEVE YOU, BUT MY TOMMY GUN DON’T
“I am heaven-sent, don’t you dare forget.”

While I first heard “Sic Transit Gloria” my senior year of high school, it wasn’t until I got to college that I heard the rest of the album and fell in love with “Okay, I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don’t.” (You might remember this line from the black and white movie that main character Kevin McCallister watches in the second Home Alone.) The song’s brilliance lies in the fact that it’s almost too-cocky, and I used the track’s one after another one-liners as my instant messenger away messages for months.

I WILL PLAY MY GAME BENEATH THE SPIN LIGHT
“Wrote more postcards than hooks, I read more maps than books.”

If “Tommy Gun” was the song that I fell in love with the first few times that I listened to Deja Entendu, then “I Will Play My Game Beneath the Spin Light” was the less arrogant but equally assertive song that I became obsessed with after my initial introduction to the album. Written about the stress brought on by excessive touring, “Spin Light” offers a humble, realistic perspective of the self-doubts and anxiety that artists experience while on the road. Lacey still hints at the attitude found in “Tommy Gun,” however, with lines like “I am paid to make girls panic while I sing.”

THE BOY WHO BLOCKED HIS OWN SHOT
“Call me a safe bet, I’m betting I’m not.”

The song that ultimately made Deja Entendu an essential album for me is “The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot.” Though I had listened to the album countless times before, it wasn’t until the morning after a painful breakup that I truly took notice of this song. The combination of the song’s acoustic, melancholy sound and Lacey’s self-deprecating lyrics were the perfect salve for the wound I had just acquired. As cheesy as it sounds, the true emo experience is feeling as if a song is about exactly what you’re feeling, like you and the singer are both one and the same. Just like Deja Entendu is one of my top essential albums, “The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot” is one of my all-time favorite emo songs. Because of this song, I will forever have a snapshot of one specific moment in my life, and while the moment wasn’t one of my best, it’s one that I have learned from and would never want to give up.

Favorite songs: "I Will Play My Game Beneath the Spin Light," "Okay, I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don't," and "The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot"

Deja Entendu by Brand New
released June 17, 2003

1. Tautou
2. Sic Transit Gloria ... Glory Fades
3. I Will Play My Game Beneath the Spin Light
4. Okay, I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don't
5. The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows
6. The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot
7. Jaws Theme Swimming
8. Me vs. Maradona vs. Elvis
9. Guernica
10. Good to Know That if I Ever Need Attention All I Have to do is Die

Essential Albums: One Fell Swoop

2008-10-07T21:33:00.000-07:00

The reason why One Fell Swoop by The Spill Canvas is my Number Two Essential Album is best explained with a story. TSC’s third release wasn’t even on my radar until the following events began to unfold, and the album essentially became my soundtrack to the entire situation. Now, because of the associations that I make with this record, it remains the number one CD that I will pop into my car stereo when I am upset about anything relationship-related. One Fell Swoop is catharsis at its best, and frontman Nick Thomas seems to experience self-doubt in relationships and suspicions about the opposite sex exactly the way that I do. This album sits alongside others like Dashboard Confessional’s The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most and Taking Back Sunday’s Tell All Your Friends as one of the best records of this decade’s emo movement.

Essential Album #2: The Spill Canvas - One Fell Swoop

SECRET OATH
“I’m racking my brain, trying to comprehend, how for some unknown reason our status will remain as friends.”

Three years ago, during their sophomore year of college, Boy liked Girl. Girl was pretty sure she liked Boy, too, but when Girl’s best friend expressed dislike for Boy, Girl stood boy up when he attempted to surprise her with tickets to see The Spill Canvas. A few weeks later, Boy started dating someone else, and Girl convinced herself that she was happy for him.

STAPLEGUNNED
“Do I have to spell it out for you, or scream it in your face? Oh, the chemistry between us could destroy this place.”

Summertime arrives, and when Girl sees how good Boy is to the other girl, she realizes her mistake. She starts to hang out with Boy around the same time that his relationship with the other girl begins to deteriorate, and when Girl admits to her feelings for Boy, he points out that, A: he is dating someone else, and B: Girl already had her chance and blew it. A breakup between Boy and the other girl, not related to Girl’s confession, soon follows, and Girl begins to pursue Boy.

BREAK A LEG
“I’m sick of you leading me on, I’m sick of you stringing me along.”

Boy and Girl fall into (for lack of a better term) a non-relationship. They hang out constantly, act like a couple, and are even referred to as a couple by many of the people who know them. While Girl is happy enough most of the time, it doesn’t sit well with her that Boy won’t make the relationship official. Girl suspects that she is being led on, as do some of her friends, and they are all soon proven right.

POLYGRAPH, RIGHT NOW!
“Fate is an elegant, cold-hearted whore. She loves salting my wounds, she enjoys nothing more.”

After being blown off a few times by Boy, Girl finally confronts him – via instant messenger, since he won’t answer phone calls. Boy (who, it later turns out, was quite drunk) bluntly tells Girl that nothing will ever come of their situation and that he has been making this clear to her from the start. Girl, who knew this to be the truth but chose to ignore it, is completely crushed and goes into work the next day feeling dejected and miserable. It isn’t One Fell Swoop this time that she plays over the stereo system while she works that morning, but Brand New's Deja Entendu, and it is during this particular listening of the album that she first takes notice of the song “The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot,” the track which secures Brand New’s second release as one of her essential albums.

Favorite songs: "Break A Leg," "Himerus and Eros," "Lusta Prima Vista," and "Staplegunned"

One Fell Swoop by The Spill Canvas
released August 9, 2005

1. Lusta Prima Vista
2. Staplegunned
3. Polygraph, Right Now!
4. Dutch Courage
5. Natalie Marie and 1cc
6. Teleport: A & B
7. This is for Keeps
8. Himerus and Eros
9. Break a Leg
10. Secret Oath
11. Valiant
12. Bound to Happen
13. Self-Conclusion

Turning Off the Radio

2008-09-28T18:18:00.000-07:00

My internet access has been extremely limited lately due to the demise of my laptop, and my iPod recently suffered a similar fate, causing me to lose thousands of songs. The result of these combined tragedies has been my turning to FM radio as my major source of music – a tragedy in itself. As I’ve been sullenly scanning the airwaves for something that doesn’t completely lack artistic substance and that I haven’t already heard several times in the past hour, two trends have brought themselves to my attention, and both of them have started to frustrate me to no end.

The first of these trends is probably as old as radio technology itself, and I’m starting to wonder whether the general mainstream music audience will ever catch on. Songs on pop radio stations and music television networks (a term I use loosely, considering the majority of the programming on channels like MTV and VH1 have little to do with music) are literally constructed to be short-lived singles that are obsessed over for a brief period of time, overplayed to the point of nausea, and then carelessly discarded to make room for the next song that emerges from the same mold as its predecessor. To exploit listeners’ short attention spans even further, some artists sample from yesterday’s hits, disguising their songs as original material and getting away with it because the songs they create are easy to digest because of their familiarity. The music industry is taking advantage of radio listeners, some too lazy, and others too oblivious to realize they’re being fooled, by cashing in on songs that took very little time or artistic ability to create.

The second trend that I have started to notice worries me more than the first. If you went to Warped Tour this year you probably noticed that the same band played several sets throughout the day, but under a different name and with slightly different songs each time. There is a rise of boy bands disguised as pop punk bands that threatens to become an infestation, and the scene kids that can be found en masse at their shows are just teenyboppers with a different name. These bands are easily identified by the following: pretty, carefully sculpted hair on all of the members, more than one song that contains beats suitable for an audience clap-along, short-lived careers, and nothing that distinguishes them from the other so-called bands in their genre.

These trends are related to each other by the simple fact that they both insult listeners’ intelligence without the listener ever being aware of it. While I am attempting to avoid calling anyone stupid, I am making a suggestion: if the general population of music listeners were to develop more discerning tastes in what they listen to and were to demand more effort from artists, artists will be forced to create music with more substance and a longer shelf life.

As for myself, I plan to dust off my CD collection and turn off the radio.

Essential Albums: Third Eye Blind

2008-06-18T11:11:00.001-07:00

I have a possibly unhealthy obsession with categorizing everything in my life -- especially music -- into lists. So it was only a matter of time before a list of my all-time favorite albums, my "essential albums," began forming in my mind. Just think of me as a modern-day, female version of Rob Gordon.

This list will, of course, change over time -- some of these albums swap places on a daily basis. But for now, here is the first of my Essential Albums:

Essential Album #1: Third Eye Blind - Self-Titled

This is the album that started it all. And by "all" I mean my undying, die-hard love for Third Eye Blind, my crush on Stephan Jenkins (which remains to this day), and my absolute obsession with music in general. Jenkins is an intelligent, eloquent songwriter who can both create a killer hook and say something profound in the same song. Songs like "Losing a Whole Year" and "The Background" tell vivid stories, and tunes like "Semi-Charmed Life" and "Graduate" are infectious rock anthems. My favorite song, and one that Jenkins has referred to as a fan favorite in the liner notes for Third Eye Blind: A Collection, is "Motorcycle Drive By." The story told in the song combines with its acoustic beginning, electric climax, and acoustic conclusion to perfectly mirror the emotions experienced at the demise of a relationship, leaving the listener feeling like they lived the song with Jenkins. This song, to this day, is one that often finds itself on repeat in my room, catharsis for whatever emotional wound I've recently acquired. Bands aren't emo, songs and albums are, so I can safely say that "Motorcycle Drive By" was my first emo song.

Self-Titled by Third Eye Blind is an album that epitomizes what was great about alternative rock music during the 1990s, and is still influencing new bands today -- check out what album Panic at the Disco songwriter Ryan Ross lists as one of his favorites.

Favorite songs: "Burning Man" and "Motorcycle Drive By"

Self-Titled by Third Eye Blind
released April 8, 1997

1. Losing a Whole Year
2. Narcolepsy
3. Semi-Charmed Life
4. Jumper
5. Graduate
6. How's It Going to Be
7. Thanks A Lot
8. Burning Man
9. Good For You
10. London
11. I Want You
12. The Background
13. Motorcycle Drive By
14. God of Wine

Stop the Snobbery

2008-03-15T16:28:00.000-07:00

Here's a thought: the bands that open for a headlining act are probably more often than not chosen by the headlining band or someone associated with the headlining band. This doesn't mean that because you like the headlining band at a show you are obligated or expected to like their opening acts, but is a little respect too much to ask? I'm standing here at an Evergreen Terrace show listening to the guy behind me mutter about how much the opening band that's playing right now "sucks." But chances are, Evergreen Terrace picked this band to play with them, so this guy is insulting the band he's here to see.

I've been guilty of saying a mean thing or two about some of the opening bands that I've seen and haven't been too fond of--just a few days ago I texted a friend of mine while at a Mayday Parade show to let him know that his band was WAY better than one of the opening acts--but the truth is, no band is going to be liked by every single person who hears them. And that's a beautiful thing. If we all liked the same music, there would be no catalyst for new bands to form and new music to be created.

My Year In Music

2007-12-31T10:26:00.000-08:00

Here I go, jumping on the end-of-year countdowns and best-of lists bandwagon.

Top Albums of 2007

5. Paramore - RIOT!
Me placing this at the end of my list is partly to make a point. As much as I love this album and this band, they didn't quite live up to my hopes and expectations for their sophomore release. Paramore must be doing something right, however, seeing how they've recently gone mainstream and were named Alternative Press's band of the year.
Favorite song: "crushcruhcrush"

4. The Spill Canvas - No Really, I'm Fine
I love that The Spill Canvas are continuing with a more electric sound rather than the more acoustic one that they started out with. (And with that same thought in mind, come on Chris Carabba, what's up with returning to the acoustic stuff?) The album title alone is perfect, what could be more emo than a phrase that essentially says "I'm really not okay, but I'm going to pretend to try to tell you that I am for effect?"
Favorite song: "Battles"

3. Silverstein - Arrivals and Departures
I've heard several people criticize this album for sounding too much like their last one, but Discovering the Waterfront was a good album, so why change something that works? Silverstein continue to blend pop punk and hardcore amazingly well, and the verse in "Vanity and Greed" will change your life.
Favorite song: "Worlds Apart"

2. Bayside - The Walking Wounded
The Walking Wounded was my first Bayside album, and I now consider myself a huge fan of the band. Musically, this album is more mature than the last two, but it still has the same biting, satisfyingly vindictive lyrics, making it apparent that this is the same band that recorded Sirens and Condolences and Bayside.
Favorite song: "Choice Hops and Bottled Self Esteem"

1. Mayday Parade - A Lesson in Romantics
Where do I even begin with this one? I got this CD in May, two months before it came out, and I am still not sick of the album, seven months later. A Lesson in Romantics has turned into one of those albums that I turn to for catharsis when I'm upset or angry about anything relationship-related. This album is full of hooks (which, if you've ever read a review of mine, you'll know I'm big on), lyrics perfect for singing along to, and even some melodies great for dancing to. My only worry is that Mayday Parade won't be able to make another album like this one, seeing as Jason Lancaster, who did much of the vocals, has left the band and formed Go Radio.
Favorite song: "I'll Be the Anchor That Keeps Your Feet on the Ground if You'll Be the Wings That Keep My Head in the Clouds"

Top Songs of 2007

5. "crushcrushcrush" - Paramore (RIOT!)
4. "Don't Be So Hard" - The Audition (Punk Goes Acoustic 2)
3. "Drink in my Hand" - The Classic Crime (Acoustic Seattle Sessions)
2. "Let it Happen" - Jimmy Eat World (Chase This Light)
1. "I'll Be the Anchor That ..." - Mayday Parade (A Lesson in Romantics)

Bands That Broke Up in 2007

3. Spitalfield
2. Waking Ashland
1. Rory - We're Up to no Good, We're Up to no Good is a fantastic album, and I was sad to see Rory break up because I've had wonderful experiences working with them and meeting them, they put on an awesome live show, and they had an original sound and great lyrics.

Guiltiest Pleasures of 2007

- The Jonas Brothers: They're like Hanson, but cuter.
- "Dance Floor Anthem" by Good Charlotte: Hate the band, love the song.

Most Annoying Song of 2007

"Hey There Delilah" by Plain White T's: First of all, I'm not saying that this song is bad, or even that I don't like it. But I have an issue with the fact that this song, which has existed for a few years already, is all of a sudden blowing up on the radio and on music television. Three years ago I saw Plain White T's in Jacksonville with two of my friends. They didn't play "Hey There Delilah" during their set, so when one of my friends asked them to play the song, lead singer Tom Higgenson said he'd play it for anyone that wanted to hear it outside after the show. After their set it was just me and my two friends standing outside with him and his acoustic guitar, listening to "Hey There Delilah." It was a moment that I cherished because it was so perfect and so intimate, and now my moment is all over the radio all the time.

Bands That Will be Big in 2008

3. Envy on the Coast
2. Mayday Parade
1. All Time Low

Florida Bands pt. 2: ANR

2007-08-04T08:06:00.000-07:00

Archers New Rival is one of Orlando's up-and-coming local bands. They've played slots on several big Orlando shows with bands like 30 Seconds to Mars and Yellowcard, were featured in Alternative Press magazine and have recently released their first full-length album--all as an unsigned band. Lead guitarist and vocalist Matt Troy Jones talks about ANR's successes, aspirations and his not-so-secret love of techno.

1. What will people recognize Archers New Rival from?

Taste of Chaos, Orlando 2006 and 2007, UCF's Homecoming concert in 2005 with Yellowcard and Pink Spiders, and Alternative Press Magazine Unsigned Band of the Month in the March 2007 Issue.

2. What do you think is your biggest achievement to date?

I think that writing, recording, and releasing our very own professionally produced full-length album as an unsigned artist is the biggest achievement so far. We've won some contests and stuff, but that CD will last forever, I still keep an extra one still shrink wrapped and unopened for keepsake value. (laughs)

3. What annoys you most about the current music scene?

Competition! Every band out there nowadays seems to be in a race or something against each other, who's gonna get farther faster. It's like everyone's swimming in the same pool and dunking everyone else's heads underwater to keep themselves afloat. A lot more can be achieved if bands start to stick together and help each other promote. Ask their fans to stick around for the following acts at shows, or try to get them to show up for the opening acts, instead of showing up just in time to see their band and go home, that really bugs me. I understand how promoting a show is: everyone wants to know what time you (your band) plays, but we should reassure them that the other bands are worth watching too. You might like them.

4. What song (by another band or artist) do you wish you had written, and why?

"In the Air Tonight" by Genesis, that song is so sneakishly deep, most people don't even understand. It's extremely clever, dark, yet catchy at the same time. Plus, the most recognizable drum roll ever! Absolutely perfect, good Job Phil Collins!

5. How would you describe ANR's sound?

If I could I'd make a new genre called "post-punk." As far as I know it's non-existent so far, so says myspace. Screamo would be the closest genre, but I feel like we're more of a graduated punk sound with a techno-ish style of suspense building, probably spawning from listening to too much Paul Oakenfold in high school. Most of our songs start off relatively simple, but they build up more and more, by the end of the song there's so much going on you have to listen to it a few times to pick it all out.

6. So you've just admitted to listening to techno music?

Yes, I still like techno, but I'm really particular about what DJ's I listen to. There's a lot of crappy techno out there, I'm a sucker for good trance though.

7. How important do you think it is for artists to listen to music outside of the genre they play?

Very. I take a lot of different styles, genres and even eras of music that have impacted me to get ideas that eventually make up what we end up sounding like. For instance, I think Josh Groban is amazing, as well as Michael Buble', Phil Collins, and Falco, (laughs) but sometimes I'm in the mood for some Paul Van Dyk, even though I'm usually more interested in stuff like Underoath, Thrice, and All That Remains.

8. What is the best part about playing a live show?

The reaction from the crowd after each song. When I'm playing I tend to block out what's going on in front of me, so until it's over I don't know what anyone thought of the performance. Ask me the worst part.

9. What's the worst part?

Everything leading up to the actual performance. I'm a big time worrywart, until we're on stage I'm freaking out about something. And "metal-neck" the day after, sore neck muscles from rapid head movements.

10. If you could make any song (or band, if there's one you've got a serious issue with) disappear forever, which one would it be and why?

This one's going to get me in trouble, I can't speak for the entire band on this one, but i cant stand NOFX. I don't understand how they got big. Cheesy simple lyrics, three-chord songs, fast punk beats every song, annoying voice ... and Fat Mike? C'mon.

11. What's next for Archers New Rival? (Any big shows, label interest, recordings, etc.)

Possibly a big show coming up soon, only eight people are invited to attend though. It would be in Chicago, that's all I can say for now about that. We are hard at work making new songs for our next project, but we hope to have some demos for the public soon.

Casualties Interview

2007-07-02T20:32:00.000-07:00

(Jake, guitarist for the Casualties, May 2007)

The Casualties have been around for more than 10 years. How do you continue to stay relevant and bring in more fans?

I don’t think that punk will ever not be relevant. I think we’re in the worst situation now with Bush, and I think there’s always going to be kids that don’t belong. We’re always going to be a voice for the outcast, we definitely get a different attitude from society, we’re the ones that are sticking out. As long as things are how they are, I don’t see punk not being relevant anytime soon.

Most bands have some group of people out there accusing them of selling out, and a look at online discussion boards shows that The Casualties are no exception. How do you respond to this?

I think with that whole thing, those people are still living at home with their parents and aren’t paying bills yet. We don’t have to work nine to five jobs, therefore we’re already going against society. I don’t think that we’ve changed our look or style since we started. We just do what we want to do. What it comes down to, people either support us, or they don’t. I don’t know where the whole sellout thing comes from. It’s just a lot of jealousy or ignorance on that end.

What is your favorite thing about touring and playing live shows?

Just the excitement on stage, the fact that people are excited to come see our band. It’s good to see punks in other cities, that sense of community.

How long do you see yourselves continuing to write music, record albums and tour?

I think we could do it for a while yet, I think we could do this for another five to eight years.

What is the weirdest thing that has happened to you guys while on tour or playing a show?

There’s been a lot of cases where someone will run across the stage naked.

What are your thoughts on the state of the music industry today, and how do you think it affects The Casualties, if at all?

I think it’s like for a lot of bands, the downloading stuff, I think it’s punk. People are just making copies, like ‘hey, check this out.’ You can’t stop it, so what’s the point getting upset? I just think it will be harder for bands because they won’t have that extra couple of dollars.

There are a lot of fans who take what you guys have to say about society seriously. Does it worry you that you have the power to influence so many kids? Do you feel a sense of responsibility?

All these things are opinions about what we feel. If you agree with what we say, cool. I feel like a lot of people relate to what we say. It’s like, that’s our opinion, so check it out.

Do you think that fans outside of the U.S. are also able to relate to what The Casualties sing about?

I think everybody across the whole world can relate to a social outcast. We have a lot of like-minded views on stuff, I think that punk is a world community.

Save the album.

2007-03-03T20:22:00.000-08:00

A band’s album is like an author’s book. Where an author consciously puts one word in front of or behind another, and thinks about the order in which he or she tells a story, a band puts thought into the order in which songs appear on their album. They intend for listeners to hear their songs in a particular order, sometimes the arrangement of the songs is meant to tell a story or convey a theme.

Thanks to music downloading – legal and illegal alike – the concept of the album is slowly getting lost. Many people pick and choose what songs they would like to hear from an album. Maybe they’ll hear a song they really liked on the radio or in their friend’s car, so they go home and download it and listen to it obsessively until it becomes played out and they’re finished with it and it gets tossed aside and forgotten. Or some people will download a couple of songs from a particular album, but they won’t take the time to look up the discography, find out what the track numbers are and organize their music accordingly.

No respect is given to the fact that the artists who created these songs placed them in a particular slot on the album it came from. Bands might put their best song, or the song they feel will be their "hit" first on the album in hopes that if a label were to take the time to listen to their music, they’ll be so intrigued by the first track that they will listen to more. Some bands put songs that are relatively different to their usual sound near the back of an album, or try to have songs that are in relative keys next to one another to make the transition from listening to one song to another more pleasing. Whatever the reason, if a person likes a band or likes their music, they should also respect the process that band went through in order to create their album.

If only people knew what they could be missing out on by not hearing an album in its entirety. There could be a track that, if they were to hear it, would become their favorite song or would give them a new appreciation for the band they’re listening to. But in a top-40 world where radio programming is ruled by what’s "hot" and what’s "not," and the same ten songs are kept in constant rotation because they are the current chart-toppers, everyone is on the bandwagon and mainstream music fans don’t have the courage to step off of it and explore more than just hit singles. Mainstream music fans are annoying to begin with, they are the reason why "Jumper" by Third Eye Blind got so overplayed on the radio in 1998 that for years afterward I had to skip track four on my all-time favorite band’s debut album to avoid a case of insanity brought on by redundancy. But what annoys me more about the mainstream music fan is their closed-minded approach to listening to music, to appreciating an album as a single work of art and not just a convenient collection of 10 to 14 songs.

Music listeners are doing themselves a disservice by allowing record labels (who, in most cases ultimately choose which songs are released as singles) to choose which songs they hear from a particular band. Only a true music fan, a whole-album kind of listener, gets pissed off when a band plays a live show but excludes their favorite song from the set list. Only a true music fan who has heard a band’s album in its entirety will obsess over a particular song, play it on repeat for hours because, holy crap, that band gets them, that band understands them.

I’m not knocking the idea of music downloading, in any of its forms. My feeling is that if people all paid for their music and no one downloaded illegally, a good percentage of the mid-stream bands out there would never have gotten to where they are now. The majority of people won’t be willing to pay for an album by a band they’ve never heard before and possibly won’t even like, but finding a couple of tracks on the internet to get an idea of how a band sounds is virtually effortless and costs nothing (unless, of course, you end up getting sued by the music industry for pirating music, in which case, congratulations on being one in millions of people to actually get caught).

It was a single phrase in a music magazine advertisement that caused me to dwell on this subject: save the album. And I agree that it needs saving. If a band has spent months and possibly even a couple of years slaving over the process of recording an album, paying for studio time, taking bullshit from a cocky, know-it-all music producer, don’t you owe them the respect of an act as simple as listening to their record? Download the whole thing, in its order and entirety. Maybe you could buy it too.

(logo from savethealbum.com)

More great summer releases

2006-08-16T18:29:00.000-07:00

Dashboard Confessional isn't the only band to release a great album this summer, by any means. Here are some more releases from May to July worth checking out.

Big 10-4, Testing The Atmosphere (May 16)

Having followed Big 10-4 since the release of their Bumper Sticker Philosophies EP in the fall of 2004, it's hard not to admire the progress they've made in the two years since. My favorite thing about Big 10-4's songs has always been that they are so infectious that they stay in your head for days. The catchy choruses make it easy to sing along at concerts, and it's not hard to understand why the drinks are always flowing at a Big 10-4 show.

To top off the mainstream rock recipe that front man Dan Verduin has concocted, there are insightful lyrics and soaring piano ballads to solidify Testing The Atmosphere's place as one of the best rock albums to come out in 2006. It's impossible to listen to songs like "Deadman," or "Superpowers" without understanding why Big 10-4 is so often compared to bands like Third Eye Blind and Matchbox Twenty. This is an album that is bringing back what was so great about the rock music of the mid-'90s, but the sound carries with it its own modern touch.

One listen to Testing The Atmosphere, or a trip to one of Big 10-4's shows, confirms that rock and roll is still alive and kicking.

Angels And Airwaves, We Don't Need To Whisper (May 23)

It's no secret that Angels And Airwaves frontman (and former Blink-182 member) Tom Delonge is cocky about his latest project. At first Delonge's profession that his band would be the best ever prevented me from wanting to listen to their debut release -- ever -- but I eventually came around. What I found was that Delonge had, in fact, oversold his band in a big way, though We Don't Need To Whisper deserves MOST of its hype. It's hard to classify the sound on this album, though it most likely is what U2 would have been doing had they been 20 years younger and from California rather than Ireland. The beginning of the album gives the listener the sensation of embarking on a journey, at the same time making them feel as if they may be about to relive some of their most-loved memories.

My biggest complaint about this album is the sound in the second track, "Distraction," that makes me think back to the overplayed "Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas Time." While this electronic sound is fitting and sounds good the second time around, Paul McCartney has ruined it for me, for I can not listen to the song without seeing falling snow and twinkling lights in the back of my mind every time.

The first track of We Don't Need To Whisper proclaims "everyone will listen" ... And everyone should. Just to see what all the fuss is about.

Cute Is What We Aim For, The Same Old Blood Rush With A New Touch (June 20)

These days, calling most bands "emo" is equal to insulting them or accusing them of selling out. While the emo genre has most definitely started to carry with it a bad connotation, Cute Is What We Aim For are a blatant and proud blend of pop-punk and emo -- heavy on the emo. The Same Old Blood Rush ... starts out strong with the hook-heavy sing along "Newport Living" which insists that "if you lie, you don't deserve to have friends, if you lie, you don't deserve to have them," surely my favorite chorus on the entire album.

While Cute may have crashed and burned on slower tracks like "Lyrical Lies" and "Teasing To Please," the pointed "Fourth Drink Instinct" carries a message about the regrets that could follow an alcohol-induced one night stand. "Risque" is one of my favorite tracks, a song about the complex feelings that a simple crush can cause.

This is an album full of witty one-liners and plenty of quotes that will soon be sprinkled throughout MySpace headlines and AIM away messages everywhere. The most surprising thing about this album? Its first week of sales surpassed those of labelmates Panic! At The Disco.

Rise Against, The Sufferer And The Witness (July 4)

In my last review I said that Dashboard Confessional's Dusk And Summer was probably one of the best albums to come out this season. The Sufferer And The Witness, then, would be the other great album to come out this summer.

I won't pretend to have been following Rise Against through all of their releases. This is the first of their four albums that I have listened to, but let's just chalk it up to not knowing what I was missing. There is not a single song on this album that I dislike, and the choruses are so infectious that I can just see myself at a Rise Against show, punching my fist in the air and shouting along.

Rise Against has taken the punk formula and perfected it on The Sufferer And The Witness. The songs are consistent throughout the album, but don't sound exactly the same. The choruses are catchy, but also contain very intelligent lyrics.

I've gone through several "favorite songs" since I started listening to this disc, among them "Prayer Of The Refugee," the track that seems as if two songs were meshed together, and "The Good Left Undone," the song that I played on repeat for a week. The song I like the most (at least this week) is "Survive," the last track on the album, and the only one that seems to contain any profanity. It was pointed out to me that this song contains the best use of the word "fuck" heard in any song in a long time. Vocalist Tim McIlrath sings, seemingly tongue-in-cheek, "All smiles and sunshine, a perfect world on a perfect day, everything always works out, I have never felt so fucking great."

Another song worth checking out is "The Approaching Curve" a mostly spoken-word song that tells of the precise moment that a relationship breaks down, and leaves the listener wondering whether the characters in the song ultimately live or die at the end of the song.

More than a month after the release of this album, I still haven't gotten sick of it. I only wish I had been wise enough to start listening to this band long ago, for now I fear I have jumped onto the bandwagon.

(album artwork from Wikipedia.org)

Currently listening to ...

2006-07-01T23:55:00.000-07:00

Dashboard Confessional

Dusk And Summer

You'll like them if you like:
The Spill Canvas
Counting Crows
The Starting Line

When the Spiderman II soundtrack came out with the Dashboard Confessional song “Vindicated,” I was so excited. The song had so much power, was so unlike most of what I had heard from Dashboard before, and I hoped that “Vindicated” was a preview to a new sound from them.

Dashboard’s third full-length release, Dusk And Summer, did not disappoint. Some people might put it down and say the new sound is due mainly to production work on the album and can’t be credited to Chris Carraba and the rest of the band, but it seems as if Dashboard is merely growing and changing, as many bands do, and their change is for the better. The first album, The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most, was chock full of depressing songs lamenting the end of relationships, and electric instruments were nowhere to be found. The second release, A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar, brought in some electric instruments and sounded more produced, but still held on to a bit of the old Dashboard sound.

The most recent release is Dashboard’s best as far as production goes. Some fans will argue that the sound is nothing like the old Dashboard, or that they sold out to win a more mainstream crowd of listeners, but Dusk And Summer could very well be the best CD that comes out this summer. Most of the songs are powerful in the style of “Vindicated,” and, as always, the lyrics are amazing.

One of my favorite songs on the album, “Slow Decay,” starts out with a great moody guitar sound and is about a soldier coming home from the war. Dashboard hasn’t really approached political material before, and it is beginning to be a cliché thing that many bands do, but the song isn’t meant to attack the government or make a political statement. It looks at the emotions a soldier feels after being involved in a war, killing people, and then coming home to the real world and having creature comforts and having to live with a heavy conscience.

Another great track, which Carraba played during a solo tour almost two years ago, is the piano ballad “So Long, So Long.” Adam Duritz of the Counting Crows does some of the vocals on the song, and it is this year’s equivalent to “The Boys of Summer.”

Fans of Dashboard’s older music haven’t been completely let down, however, for the title track is completely acoustic, and reminiscent of what Carraba was doing on the So Impossible EP and The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most. There isn’t a single song I don’t like on Dusk And Summer, and the three-year wait since their last release, though long, was worth the wait.

(album artwork from Wikipedia.org)

Links
Official Site
Myspace
Purevolume

Will pop-punk soon expire?

2006-05-29T20:39:00.000-07:00

The thing that is so appealing about bands like The Starting Line, Cartel, and Paramore is that the members of the bands are around the same age as the kids going to see their concerts. Kids can relate to these bands because they’re singing about things they’ve experienced themselves.

But eventually those kids will grow up and graduate from college. They’ll get jobs, and instead of going to concerts they’ll be going to weddings and cocktail parties. In will come a new crowd of concertgoers, a new crowd of high school and college kids, and those same bands will be playing for them, trying to win them over with songs that attempt to speak to their age group. The problem will be, however, that 25-year-olds will be singing about things that happen to 15-year-olds, and their new audience isn’t going to buy it.

Take Simple Plan, for example. They started getting big during my junior year of high school. I loved them because their songs were about growing up with adults who didn’t understand today’s youth, about not being able to wait for the day that you were out of your parent’s home and on your own. A year later I graduated from high school, went to college, and I was on my own. I no longer related to songs lamenting the life of a highschooler, because I had grown up and left that stage of my life far behind.

So what kind of place is there in the music industry for bands that work because they are the same age as their fans? When the fans grow up, can those bands grow up with them and keep their audience? Or will it just be a revolving door of young fans and young bands, with the older bands kicked to the curb once their expiration dates have arrived?

More bands like Panic! At the Disco and Brand New are going to come along -- bands that have intelligent lyrics, but catchy hooks, and that can appeal to an older crowd with their maturity rather than their youth. Concerts will become more of an age-group melting pot, with tenth-graders standing alongside college grads.

But opening for those bands will be another act of 19-year-olds reaching out for a connection with the kids in the audience that are the same age as them. They’ll wear hip clothes and set trends, but eventually the kids at their shows will grow up and have to wear suits to work, and the Converse shoes and faded band t-shirts will be tossed into a box and stuffed into an attic, and those young pop-punk bands will be forced to return to that real world they were fighting so hard to escape with their music in the first place.

So, should pop-punk bands try to write songs that are more timeless and generic? Should they just give up and let another genre take over?

Adolescence just wouldn’t be the same without them.

Florida bands pt. 1: Big 10-4

2006-04-15T20:03:00.000-07:00

Big 10-4

You'll like them if you like:

Third Eye Blind

Matchbox Twenty

Better Than Ezra

I am thoroughly convinced that Big 10-4 is going to be the next band from Florida to make it big. They've got catchy hooks, addicting lyrics, and an amazing stage presence.

Big 10-4, consisting of frontman Dan Verduin, guitarist Matt Verduin, drummer Jimmy Russo, and bassist Matt Reed, released an EP titled Bumper Sticker Philosophies in the summer of 2004, my favorite track from it being "Deadman." The song reminds me of the sound that Third Eye Blind had on their first (and best) self-titled album. Reed is a new addition to the band, and did not play on the EP nor the upcoming album.

I've seen Big 10-4 play several times now, the crowd ranging from 10 to 1,000 people, and regardless of the number of people in their audience, the show is always the same: energetic and fun. After their set the guys will go into the crowd, meet the audience, give out samplers, and talk to everyone about their music. In a scene where many bands show up, play the show, and then keep to themselves, it's refreshing to see a band keeping in touch with the root of their success: the fans.

In the summer of 2005, Big 10-4 was signed to Universal Records, and they began recording their debut album. The first single from the album, "Walking Disaster," is already getting play on the radio in Orlando and West Palm Beach. After having the release date change several times, Testing The Atmosphere is now set for release on May 16, with a CD release show May 13 in Orlando. Everyone who attends the show will receive a free copy of the new CD three days before it is available in stores.

(photo by Ian Witlen)

Links

Official Site
Myspace
Purevolume

Currently listening to ...

2006-04-05T22:56:00.000-07:00

10 Years

The Autumn Effect

You'll like them if you like:

Tool

A Perfect Circle

Staind

I generally avoid mainstream rock like the plague. It’s too commercial, too overplayed, and songs and bands often start sounding alike. 10 Years is no exception to any of the above: they’re a commercial band, their single “Wasteland” was ridiculously overplayed on the radio, and their sound is very much like that of Tool.

But their 2005 release, The Autumn Effect, is good, and I reluctantly admit to a newly-developed addiction to the album.

The album’s first single, “Wasteland,” (which was the first debut single from any band since June 2004 to reach number one on the Billboard charts) is full of emotional vocals and heavy guitars. The song is a good indicator of what the rest of the album sounds like, but doesn’t give away all of The Autumn Effect’s secrets. The songs are at times angry and heavy, and at other times eerie and mellow.

10 Year’s strongest asset is undeniably front man Jesse Hasek’s voice. You can’t hear it and not imagine the emotion of whatever it is he is singing about. His voice doesn’t vary throughout the album, which makes some of the songs seem to run together, but it’s impossible not to listen to Hasek when he sings.

Now, I probably wouldn’t run out to buy a ticket to see 10 Years the next time they come to town—I prefer to avoid the crowd that frequents most mainstream rock concerts—but I wouldn’t hesitate to tell you that this is an album you need to hear. Unlike the name of it’s first single, The Autumn Effect is far from barren.

(album artwork from Wikipedia.org)

Links
Official Site
Myspace
Purevolume

Far From Eden returns for one night.

2006-02-27T09:26:00.000-08:00

Far From Eden, a Jacksonville band that split in 2004, played a one-night-only reunion show at Jackrabbits as a part of Your Time Productions' first event Feb. 20.

Heather Douglas, a junior double majoring in business and transportation and logistics at the University of North Florida, founded YTP in January. The assistant director of Osprey Productions and the talent representative for YTP, sophomore marketing major Adrian Semerene, coordinated the event.

Far From Eden, which played its farewell show last October, headlined the concert, which also included The Summer Obsession, Shadow Agency, and Joe Gaskin, a freshman at UNF who has not chosen a major. Far From Eden was once a big part of the local music scene, and considering that they have not played a show in four months, played an impressive set.

In addition to playing most of its original songs, Far From Eden also played two cover songs that were regulars in their live set: Blue Oyster Cult's
Burnin' For You," and as their encore ACDC's "TNT."

Gaskin, a member of Osprey TV and a star in the Osprey TV show Garbage Gourmet, opened the show with an acoustic set. In addition to playing solo, Gaskin plays in a local band called Rhetoric. What sets him apart from other acoustic acts is the fact that he writes songs that tell stories about specific parts of his life -- for example, his opening song about a former teacher of his who was hit by a bus. Two of his band mates, Nathan Grimes and senior sociology major Chase Rileman, joined Gaskin for part of his set, adding percussion and an additional acoustic guitar.

Jacksonville bands Shadow Agency and The Summer Obsession completed the lineup. Shadow Agency, formed in March 2004, was chosen to play at Taste of Chaos at Metro Park Feb. 25. The Summer Obsession, who will soon join The Click Five on tour, was signed to Virgin Records in November 2004.

"For the first show, it was a really good step forward for the company," Semerene said. "We're looking to do bigger and better things in Jacksonville."

(flier design by Kellie Conboy)

Links

Your Time Productions
Myspace

The Summer Obsession
Official Site
Myspace
Purevolume

Shadow Agency
Myspace
Purevolume

Joe Gaskin
Myspace

Currently listening to ...

2006-02-12T21:04:00.000-08:00

Hawthorne Heights

If Only You Were Lonely

You'll like them if you like:

Senses Fail

Finch

Story Of The Year

Let me start off by saying that it is hard to go a day without seeing Hawthorne Heights somewhere, because they are everywhere. If Victory records doesn’t take it easy with the commercials and magazine advertisements, Hawthorne Heights are soon going to find themselves with a hard-to-shake “sell out” label for becoming too commercial. With that said, and while I think it is awfully early to already be releasing a sophomore album (The Silence in Black and White came out in 2004), their second release isn’t bad.

I’ve always liked this band because they can blend the hardcore and screaming elements of their sound with melodic rifts and choruses. Many hardcore and screamo bands irritate me to tears because their sound is just thrashing guitars and screams – mere noise. Unfortunately, the sound I liked on The Silence in Black and White is the same one you’ll be hearing on If Only You Were Lonely. If only Victory had given these boys some time for them to mature a bit more musically. The only song that sounds considerably different is the last track, “Decembers,” which reminds me a lot of what the Smashing Pumpkins sounded like on Adore.

The new album is catchy, and I’m sure I’ll be listening to it for a while, but it has nothing new to offer to Hawthorne Heights fans. In between releasing their first album and touring in 2004, and re-releasing their album, touring some more, and recording their second album in 2005, when has this band gotten a chance to grow up? Their sound surely hasn’t.

(album artwork from Wikipedia.org)

Links

Official Site
Myspace
Purevolume

When The '80s Attack!

2006-02-08T21:23:00.000-08:00

I sat down the other night to make a CD as a gift for my friend's birthday. He was turning 21, so I had planned to put songs on the CD that had to do with alcohol and being 21. I got as far as putting "21 and Invincible" by Something Corporate and "Alcohol" by Barenaked Ladies into a playlist before I went blank. I couldn't really think of any other songs that would fit my theme.

Then I had a brainstorm. Since my friend was born in 1985, I decided to look up hit singles from that year to put on the CD. I took songs from Billboard's Top 100 Pop Singles of 1985, Oz Net's Top 50 Songs of 1985, Music Lab's Top 40 Songs of 1985, Pop Culture Madness's 1985 Greatest Hits, The Village Voice's Top Singles of 1985, and Music Outfitters Top 100 Hits of 1985.

I'm a 1985 baby myself, and while I can't exactly say these songs made me think of the days when they first came out, they did bring back some early memories. One of those memories being how cheesy most '80s tunes are. While not all of the songs were that great, there were some big events in music in the year of 1985: Many pop artists, including Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, Cyndi Lauper and Bruce Springsteen banded together to record the song "We Are the World." Michael Jackson purchased the publishing rights for most of the Beatles' music. And Live Aid was held in Pennsylvania. (Answers.com)

After reminiscing over many 1985 songs ... and remembering how terrible others were, I eventually settled upon the following 13 songs for the CD which I titled "1985 Strikes Back" :

1. Dire Straits - "Money for Nothing"

2. Aha - "Take on Me"

3. Don Henley - "Boys of Summer"

4. Foreigner - "I Want to Know What Love Is"

5. Tears for Fears - "Shout"

6. Simple Minds - "Don't You Forget About Me"

7. Bruce Springsteen - "I'm on Fire"

8. Duran Duran - "Relax"

9. Bryan Adams - "Run to You"

10. Phil Collins - "Sussudio"

11. Dead or Alive - "You Spin Me Right Round"

12. Don Henley - "All She Wants to do is Dance"

13. Tom Petty - "Don't Come Around Here No More"

Happy 21st birthday to my friend, Simon!

Currently listening to ...

2006-01-31T07:16:00.000-08:00

LCD Soundsystem

Self-Titled

You'll like them if you like:

Bloc Party

She Wants Revenge

Head Automatica

Right now I am very much into music from a genre that many people argue over the name of. Is it indie rock? Dance punk? Indie dance? Whatever the label, lately I've been listening to bands that blend indie rock and punk with dance and electronica. With all of the punk and screamo bands that are going mainstream right now and being overplayed on television and radio, it's refreshing to hear something different.

Panic! At the Disco, Bloc Party and Head Automatica have been playing non-stop on my iPod, and my newest obsession in a genre that I will refer to as Indie Dance (it's a matter of choice, call it what you will) is LCD Soundsystem. Because I had overplayed those other bands to the point that I was nearly sick of them, I went through old issues of Alernative Press magazine in search of something fresh to listen to, and found a review of the self-titled 2005 release by LCD Soundsystem. Reviewer Jason Pettigrew used the "dance punk" title to refer to the album, which of the three labels for this genre is the one that I disagree with most, but I knew what he meant by the reference. Also taking into consideration that Pettigrew had given the release a five out of five, I decided to check it out.

I was not disappointed when I listened to the opening track, "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House." The tune is funky and fun, and the rest of the album lived up to all of the expectations that I had upon listening to the first song. The only complaint I have is that two of the songs, "Never As Tired As When I'm Waking Up," and "Great Release"are slower and bring a halt to the fun of the dance beats. The songs aren't bad, and if I'm in the mood to keep moving uninterrupted, I can skip over the tracks.

I was also proud of myself for finding and getting quite enthusiastic about a band that no one else really seemed to know about. Once I got my February issue of Alternative Press last week, however, I saw that the editors had named the self-titled disc by LCD Soundsytem one of the top ten of 2005. Not exactly a confirmation of the fact that I was one of the few people listening to the album, but surely a confirmation of my good taste in music.

(album artwork from lcdsoundsystem.com)

Links

Official Site
Myspace