A Decade Under the Influence: 10 years of SOTD

I started this shit 10 fucking years ago today that's crazy as hell folks in 10 years I....wrote a bunch of post, tried a host of different post types, threw myself 3 shows, and kind of don't really feel like I did the most I could have done with this little pet project but at the same time I kind of did more than I could have imagined a shitty thread nobody read 10 years ago could go so thanks for sticking through this project as a whole ain't gonna be a blog forever but I guess I've engraved the concept into my very being so whenever passion comes back to start something with a group of like minded individuals really pushing me I'll have a decades worth of shenanigans to be proud of but even with all my failures in this venture I can at the very least say that it lasted longer than anyone ever could have guessed.

I don't have it bad anymore but I can't come up with much else more appropriate to say...

Song of the Day 1/14/19

You know I got a big ass Spotify list of tracks to cover on here and I still find myself at a loss of what to say about them and you know what I guess I may as well take some time to sit down and highlight a few particularly great one's and just work my way out from there.

I am a cheap son of a bitch that has gone for years not wanting to pay for Spotify Premium and because of that I get forced to hear everything on random shuffle all with a host of suggested artist and tracks getting played and in the process of not writing for this blog I found a host of absolutely spectacular tracks on there that I'd completely missed because of one reason or another and a lot of the tracks in question are years old so I am extra not the cool hip guy at the party in the know of what's going on but then again considering the free formed nature of this all I guess it don't matter so here's what may be one of the greatest songs of the 2010's....

Take my Head- Turnover

This bit of shoe gaze indie rock is one of the most beautifully atmospheric pieces of music I've heard in a long time and that mixed with some of the most painfully personal lyrics imaginable you're left with a track that just sonically from the beginning is on a whole other level and maybe my favorite cut from their 2015 effort Peripheral Vision which in and of itself is an absolutely fantastic album just filled with the type of music that reminds you why you love that kind of moody echoing sung in an empty room kind of rock and roll that has more to say once you start to look into it after just being utterly absorbed by it's outstanding instrumentals.

Danny Dempsey Bassist for turnover-

“Take My Head” is about how it could be the best day and you’re surrounded by happy things, but you still want to be pissed off and sit by yourself. 

That feeling rings true for us all and you should give this song, band, and album a real listen because it all fucking rules.

Sam's BEST OF 2019 #4

4.Us – Faintheart

I saw these handsome son's of bitches just before I started seeing my current girlfriend.

There's no purpose for that statement I just think it's kind of funny also I remember them playing this song at that show and months later it did this weird thing for me where it dropped, I listened to it, thought it was fantastic, forgot about it, heard it again, and now I can't help but not jam to this summery little tune.

These guy's are another pop punk kind of emo group that make the catchiest most easily sing along session ready tunes you'd ever heard in your entire fucking life and the fact that they got a pretty devoted local following should come as no surprise because they know what the fuck they're doing they're just in need of everyone else coming to realize these bright airy tunes are what they need in their lives.

This song is subtle it gently lulls you in before busting out a very energetic and dreamy chorus that makes you think of riding the bike along a coast line during the summer as you see a very attractive girl in a sundress walking by and as she gives you the sweetest smile you've ever seen in your entire fucking life you're then transported to this cloud like state of euphoria that you didn't know could exist nor do you ever want it to go away.

If you haven't felt that feeling then listen to this song, get that feeling, see these guy's live, get your fucking mind blown, awkwardly hit on a girl, and live your best fucking life supporting people making great stuff ya fucking asshole.

 

Sam's BEST OF 2019 #5

2019 A.K.A. THE YEAR I STOPPED!

Yeah that's pretty accurate because I just did not fucking try this year I gave myself a send off of epic proportions and then just been blaring the same things all year so with that in mind there had to be some fantastic things that came out right?

Well yeah and here's the tracks that I personally felt something listening to and remember actively listening to quite a bit in what is some form of an order that while not defined (Minus number 1) should serve as a means of giving this pre-christmas week something else to look forward to so let's fucking do this:

5. Nervous – The Fiction Department

 

You know when a band does one show a year and that show happen to be for you? 

Well when a band does one show a year and that show happen to be for you, you best god damn believe you listen to the music they put out especially when it happens to trickle out at a rate similar to your last few years of being a music blog and that's what these guy's did when they dropped this demo on the same day that my end of the day show was suppose to happen and here we are a little less than a year later and yeah it's a pretty deep hitting tune for me.

These guy's are modern American Emo through and through a bunch of young guy's that write some fairly simple heart on your sleeve tunes that won't be winning any awards any day soon but they speak to a primal sense of dread that even my old ass can't help but feel attached to especially when the line, “Convince myself THIS IS RIGHT WHERE I BELONG!” that shit rings true people especially when you decide to throw all your past efforts into a wood chipper and burn it all up, and there's all the weird personal attachments for me because these guy's really have a lot that they can do they just seem to be at an awkward place a lot like myself and it's weird to sit back and listen to this tune and not feel like it hits closer to home than I think these guy's intended on it doing.

Yeah this song is a fantastic bit of emotionally tinged I need purpose in my life pop punk and you don't need to be a shitty teenager to feel the appeal that's for fucking sure so go listen to this fucking song and pester the shit out of this band and convince them to start playing shows again.

Song of the Day 4-13-19

Well it happened folks the showcase to end all showcases Song of the day is officially done and last night after much delay due to mother nature not being able to accept the fact of the matter I had the farewell show happen over at Minibar KC.

It was a hell of a showcasing of 3 exceptionally good acts starting with the Fiction Department finally coming out of hiding to rip through a well balanced host of what I feel could be the signs of the next great American emo band from the rip roaring "20 Minutes," to the debut of their exceptional "Nervous," these guy's really put forth a fantastic effort.

Following them in an incredibly timely and efficient matter was The UK's who fucking tore the god damn house down with a well crafted set of mostly newer jams that have really come into their own and become a whole other beast of their own from the fantastic cuts off their newest release American Way of Death to some newer cuts my favorite being Motor City Blackout which is this fucking fantastic rocker of a track that I'm sure will be a fucking banger when they release it sometime in the next century and a half be sure to be on the lookout for that when you can because it's fucking tight.

After that whirlwind of awesome you're wondering what could possibly come next well then we have the Saints of St. Joseph, the men, the myth's, THE LEGENDS OF MODERN DAY Scruffy and "THE MOTHER FUCKING!" Janitors who to put it bluntly brought this to the best kind of finish playing through a host of some of Modeling is Hard's best cuts as well as a new tune that fucking killed it these guy's proved just why they had to headline this bitch for sure.

This night was a weird experience for me because that's it I'm fucking done with this little website of mine and the whole concept of writing a song of the day and looking at this footage it's strange because ever since announcing this I've been asked by a host of people what is next and that I can't really answer for ya I got 9 years of post to use for a resume if I wanted to and maybe if I'd of played my cards a lot better I could be doing some part time work or something but in the process of setting up this show and figuring out how to end this blog I just kind of needed to step away from that and reconsider things and what I can do with my creative energy.

If there's one thing I really can say it's that this night humbled the ever loving fuck outta me because as I'm writing this I'm still having a difficult time coming to grips with the fact that this actually happened like I can watch the videos that I recorded and hear my awful singing along to all of these tracks but it's hard to really grasp the fact that it all happened just because I didn't want this bastard to just die the way as all pet projects with nothing more than a written farewell.

At this point I've said most that I needed to say in regards to the state of Sam's Song of the Day and I just wanted to do one last post to commemorate the end show thanks to everyone who read the years of post and to anyone wanting to know what's next give me a while and I'll be up to something all of the love I have gotten is more than I could honestly ever expect to be deserving of and from the folks at x105.1 shouting out the show twice, to the various bands expressing their appreciation for the nice words, to the bands who played all of the show's I've put together, and of course to all of the people who've ever read song of the day and thought, "You know that is a pretty good fucking song," I thank you all for making this worth it.

Fiction Department

So we're a little over 2 weeks until the end and a few day's away from the anniversary of this little thing and with that in mind I should probably have something posted about the wonderful acts playing my farewell show but like I've highlighted depressive spells are a real bitch and a half and it's difficult to really get around to writing things when you don't want to do anything but it's that level of depressive thoughts that got me thinking about what it is I like so much about some of the bands I chose to play my show and the various things they seem to cover and that's where I'm going to go and with that in mind I figure I'd cover a band who describe themselves as modern American Emo The Fiction Department.

I can't lie I've listened to their EP TV Show's a fuck load of times and for some reason I really don't know what brought that up because I only got to see them one time prior to this show and this EP while being fantastic is also an incredibly rough product that you can tell is made by some rather young individuals looking to really get their footing and you can tell that just looking at the track listing which   goes from very upbeat kind of pop punkish tunes like Felt, to the downright early 2000's heart on your sleeve painful youth experience's in 20 minutes as well as the non EP single Bad Idea, to these kind of angsty angry screaming cuts, and even the slow paced closing track this goes through a very youthful set of emotions I've all but been numbed to and I guess what I like about these guy's is there's a certain cathartic release in just throwing aside everything and just kind of pretending to be a shit heel emotionally charged teenager again.

I know they're going through a host of changes in their sound and direction as a group which is why they seemed to of went on a long break but I'm sure seeing them at this show should be an interesting experience for all involved and I'm pretty pumped to see where they've taken themselves.

A rant and Song of the Day 1/18/19

There's a song by a band called Middle Kids called Edge of Town and it's a pretty solidly good track that came out at a terrible time for me, it's this kind of lower end indie rock tune that's dripping in this overwhelming sense of pretentiousness that's made worse by the fact that the other songs on that EP just sounded like a half rate Paramore and I realized this band peaked with this song and I never bothered to listen to them ever again, but it's not honestly their fault when I think about it in retrospect because it was about the time this song came out that I was going through an angry lonely period of time where nothing was very good for me and I was starting to have this weird falling out with the radio because I guess these guy's, Glass Animals, and the most recent Catfish and the Bottlemen record at the time where being rammed down my throat and I got this feeling of not wanting to have to be a drone of what the radio wanted me to be all hyped for and I rejected in such a way that I didn't even really listen to much of anything new or national because I'd honestly gotten sick and fucking tired of being told that those bands as well as the vast majority of mdoern alternative rock wanted me to be into because I'd developed this feeling that it was all a bunch of fucking bullshit that dragged on and on and was only meant for teenagers to say they discovered something and that's awkward for me because I'd come to grips and have been doing this whole being a god damn adult thing and these tracks don't speak to me because they're the same old recycled as fucking garbage that I've been hearing for years it's not being broken because the radio station is wanting you in on a cool little secret it's all corporate telling you this is your band this is what you want and you all need to pretend that these are your songs and that's fucking bullshit because those aren't me or what I want to associate with you bastards haven't broken a god damn thing in years you just are hoping that everybody remains a dumb ass shell of a human not willing to actually have their own fucking taste and that really had tainted me and is why I don't really ever find myself listening to the buzz these days.

Although even with all that vitriol spilled I mention that song because even with the lack of fucks I have for that band there's a part of that tune just one part between 2:20-30 where things kind of awkwardly slow down and stop trying to be this anthem of sorts where she starts asking if some guy has something on his mind and then things just blow the fuck up in this blast of energy that's utterly captivating to me in such a way that it's literally the only thing about the song that I like and will occasionally still remember every now and then and just mark the ever loving fuck out over it's an utterly bombastically awesome way to end what's ultimately a pretentious piece of trash of a tune that at the time I tried my hardest to accept it as a good tune because of that but never could in time.

Cave-Mess

Now what does that rant have to do with this band? Well in all honesty not a god damn thing minus that one sentiment about when a song just comes at you out of nowhere with a sense of bombastic energy because that's kind of this little Kansas City Emo outfit.

Mess are a band with some of the prettiest most lighthearted  vocals I've heard from anyone in this city and those wonderfully dreamy vocals are usually situated over some very not happy lyrics that make you wonder how such a down trodden group of people can also manage to be so sad, pretty, and energetic because their live shows are a very energetic affair of a crowd of people who are incredibly into this band and radiate that energy into a group of musicians who surprisingly rock the fuck out way more than you would think they would listening to their releases.

They have an under produced charm to the way they approach tunes that's a good way to showcase their kind of unfiltered efforts and emotions, and if you get the chance you should give em a view they're a real surprise for sure.

Sam's Top 10 of 2017 #4

4.Heroin and Automobiles-Vigil and Thieves

You know I've gotten it pretty fucking well some times and if there's ever something that proved just how good life can be some times it'd probably be my birthday week because I got to see some performances that I'll never be able to truly comprehend and of all the songs I got the pleasure of not only getting to see played live and molded into something I actually got to have it played right in front of my face in my house which is fucking mind blowing.

(Yeah Yeah I know pics or it didn't happen so in that case HA here ya go fuckers!)

Vigils and Thieves are a band that I've covered over the past year plus and in that time I've seen them put on a multitude of great performances and seen the beginnings of a proper full length that I'm sure will be great and this song the first official piece of that project in comparison to their Never Land project is a real leap forward for them overall as a group with Sarah Storm giving a more restrained but effective vocal performance that effectively carries what's a fairly depressing tune about an individual who's life was tragically cut short.

“I Tried My BEST!” it's a line I very much screamed along with the second I finally knew what was being said and it's a thing I tell myself all the time just an simple sentence with a bunch of weight behind it because when you think about it that's all we can really do and that's what every local act that I cover on here and hope for the best is doing and in all honesty these guy's are one of the one's I really wish the best to come to because they're not only a great act they're also the best people who've really done things for me that I can't ever properly show my appreciation for.

This song is just fucking excellent bar none.

I was able to get with Sarah Storm of Vigil and Thieves to answer a few questions about this song and 2017 and this is what she had to say...

So what is the inspirations behind Heroin and Automobiles?

The loss of Anthony Saluto and Sam Watson kinda sunk me into a death obsessed spiral, and it was all I was writing about for awhile, still kind of do. I wanted to create something hopeful from it. I've known quite a few people who have passed from drug related causes or suicide and many of them were really young. It's hard to swallow reality sometimes and that song is about accepting yourself and carrying on despite the shitty way the world is.

What made you chose it as the first single for your upcoming album?

It has a relatable message, that you are worth something, and it's okay not to have it all together. Setting the tone for the mood and direction is important to us.

How was 2017 for you as a band in terms of the music you wrote, released, and the performances you gave?

Fucking rad! We got to play Midcoast Takeover at South by Southwest, we played Middle of the Map for the first time, did a tour, we played all the venues! It has been an awkward year considering we've been in limbo bass player wise. But we've written so many songs and really developed our tone. We've gotten a lot more political and a lot more passionate. I'm in love with where this album is going and

I can't wait to share it with everyone!

-Sarah Storm

The KC Showcase 3 new tunes for you

Fuck it's been like 3 months since I've written anything and in that 3 months I've kind of been a bit of a hermit in all honesty I seemed to of developed a bad case of writers block and I've been completely and utterly devoid of original or well constructed thought to provide all of you and in that time but you know with a few exceptional shows seen recently and a bad ass announcement on the horizon I figured I'd inform you guy's of one of my favorite topics on here Kansas City's thriving and excellent music scene and here's 3 bands that recently just unleashed some new music that you should make a part of your rotation starting with a group I've covered on here before....

Pink Royal-Bring it On Back

This band is a tour de force of awesomely funky grooves and energy that's managed to only get better and better the longer they keep on keeping on and this song the first with their new lead singer the bad ass keytar wielding Vik Govindarajan just utterly throwing everything and the kitchen sink with a nice shot of Ass Whooping soul infused funkiness that's part Hall and Oats part true indie rock glory you have a cut here that's a true showcase of what you expect this band to be making but with a renewed sense of focus and much tighter playing than ever so if you haven't gotten down with these pink Flamingos then you really should because this will get ya body a grooving and a moving mother fucker...




OH and they have a show coming up for the release of this new effort if you're cool and want to see a spectacular live show then here's a link to it's event page so you can get reminded to go and be blown the fuck away...

Fiction Department-Bad Idea

Do you like early 2000's angst ridden emo ala Taking Back Sunday or At the Drive In? If you answered yes than this is your jam in the form of this rowdy group of youngsters Fiction Department and their newest single Bad Idea which evokes all those memories of all those angst ridden high school years but in a way that we can all enjoy and the new video seems to fit well with the lyrics about a guy and a girl in a tight situation.

This isn't a complicated jam just a solidly good one for those looking to kind of throw back and listen to something new that's a lot like day's of old.





Modern Day Fitzgerald-Forsaken Echo

I love me some 60's tinged surf rock jams people and aside from their bad ass name this group has released one bad ass surf rock tune. This song is kind of dark in a way with a very eery echoing coo in the way the vocals are stacked and how this steady drum beat and use of a full on string section make things move along in an oddly rapid pace that hits a sudden wall to slow down at points only to then punch you in the face by increasing things tenfold.

This song is just coolness personified and a damn excellent cut from a group looking to make a rise out of themselves and if you get the chance go see them live they're a good show.





There's some new tunes for you to give a listen now back to the shadows to work out my next announcement for you people this time in less than 3 months.

Sam Reviews an Album: Goodbye Gravity, "Sunday Matinee"

(image courtesy of Bands Bandcamp Page)

I was recently approached by a local band called Goodbye Gravity to write up a short review on their new EP Sunday Matinee and after giving it a listen here's a few thoughts I had with this release.

Goodbye Gravity are an alternative rock act formed in 2014 with a sound that I can best describe as a combination between a Pink Royal meets a Westside Royal with some vocals that are incredibly solid and give a vibe of some early 2000's kind of emo/indie rock tones with a lot of light guitar work that never get's too complicated for it's own good and a penchant for writing very kind of dreamy sounding easy to sing along tunes.

Sunday Matinee as a collection of 5 songs is a decently presented package of tunes that showcase a good range of nice kind of indie rock guitar tones that remind me of a host of one off bands that came and went with Rain Cloud having a nice Two Door Cinema club vibe to it with it's nice backing synthesizers adding a kind of danceable vibe to what's already a solidly good rock number with plenty of doo's in the chorus to give the listener something to sing along with.

Listening to this I'm not really noticing any real flaws here besides maybe the fact that Nightmares and Daydreams is a bit out of place with it's kind of circus music tones and the vocals while very solidly good are a bit reserved and could maybe use a bit more inflection at points here and there and when I'm listening to these songs I kind of find myself thinking it sounds very close to some other bands in Kansas City but even so that's not taking away from the fact that when you give this repeat listens you find a lot to really enjoy especially Dustbowl, Strings, and Blurry which I can genuinely say are some pretty bad ass songs.

So if you like bands like Two Door Cinema Club, Pink Royal, Westside Royal, or MOBS I'd say you should give these guy's a listen Sunday Matinee is a solid little collection of fun danceable alternative rock cuts that'll make you feel all sorts of early 2000's feels that we all can't help but love every once in a blue moon and if you like what you hear in the link provided below you can go see these guy's live at The Tank Room Friday February 10th.

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Sam's Top 20 of 2016: #4

4.Your Tide-MOBS

Let us all take one second to give a moment of silence for all that could have been because unfortunate for us all what I can only assume is dispute among the members ended what was the beginning of a great thing a moment please.

….

OK now that we've gotten that out of the way MOBS was for all intensive purposes a group that came in like a fucking fire, a collective of musicians including two in particular that manage to time and time again bring out the best in any band they're a part of weather it's through their own creation or as backing musicians and are the reason I went to one of the best EP release shows I've been to this whole year.

This song fucking rocks plain and simple it's a slow start to one spectacular fucking chorus that I very much get so into whenever I listen to it and it just doesn't fucking let up Micheal Schley delivers a vocal performance that is just damn near perfect in it's delivery and the overall band arrangement and steady but purposeful guitar work is on point to a degree that you just kind of find yourself down right addicted to this song. For real you'll get to a point where even after it's done you can't reach that replay button fast enough.

It's a god damn shame things don't work out because this had all the potential in the world but fuck it I guess one of the best shows and songs of the year is good enough for somebody out there and at the very least as sad as it is that I won't get to see MOBS again I can rest in knowing that the two core members of this group who were responsible for everything great about this band have managed to carve out maybe the next best new band in the form of the awesomely bad ass Westside Royal which isn't MOBS but I'm pretty sure they'll be something even better.

EVERYBODY SCREEEEEEEEEEEAM!!!!

So I've come to realize it's almost Halloween people and I haven't posted some of my favorite festive jams or any new one's so let's fix that reaaaaaal quick and do the trick or treat....

BOOOO!

So it's a scary to think that this month I haven't posted a god damn thing especially considering I've seen some amazing shows over the past few weeks from Catfish and the Bottlemen, MS MR, and of course the all mighty new age Rush in the form of one Coheed and Cambria I've been one busy bee and haven't devoted any time but you know I'm not sure just how much I'll fix that but I can say that the top 20 of 2015 is getting worked on and it'll be well worth the lack of post but until then I'm going to leave this appropriately named tune here because seeing it live was just FUCKING AMAZING!!!

Song of the Day 9/3/15

You Got Spirit Kid-Coheed and Cambria

OK so I’ve been saying for years that this band is a modern day Rush and for whatever reason people don’t want to believe me but finally whenever they decide to not make a concept album but rather just pump out ass kicking non pretentious 70’s sounding rock and roll they finally have made a tune that’s so undeniably Rush that even the most diehard of fans are finally seeing a point to my statements.

Now with that in mind this song is just FUCKING AWESOME it’s a super angrily worded rocker with a fairly reasonable run time and the strongest vocal performance I’ve ever heard Claudio Sanchez do and it’s instrumentals are just pure 70’s awesome people.

Perfect 10's: A Fever You Can't Sweat Out-Panic! at the Disco

So I'll have all sorts of irrelevant thoughts come to mind through out the day's but I seem to have a hard time really wording them which is why I almost never post on here anymore it's hard to really justify putting out sub optimal articles even if I do that fairly often but that's besides the point because I was talking to my Girlfriend a couple of nights ago and we were talking about some of her favorite bands and it occured to me that a decent amount of acts from about 10 years ago are a little too similar in terms of just how their careers laid out and I found myself comparing the year 2005 to 1991 in that there was about 3 BIG artist that kind of broke into the mainstream and defined a genre as a whole and if you're curious obviously the big 3 for 1991 the year of my birth BY THE WAY!!! ALSO MAYBE ONE OF IF NOT THE GREATEST YEARS IN MUSICAL HISTORY!!!!! were of course Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and The Red Hot Chilie Peppers who all had their biggest records and produced some of the most essential and successful alternative records of all time and it's kind of odd because that year was an impressively eclipsing debut album and two semi established acts having their commercial break and that happened again but rather then it being Grunge we had Emo have it's phase.

If you're not aware arguably the BIG 3 for the Emo boom in 2005 were Fallout Boy, Panic! At the Disco, and My Chemical Romance with of course two of them breaking through with their second album and the other having a stellar debut album which is actually the topic of today's article but for future reference if you're interested in hearing more into this I'll make those connections in a later article but for now let's discuss this perfect 10 of an album.

So if you were to ask me I'd have to say that the band that Panic! most remind me of in terms of how their career has turned out I'd have to say they're a lot like Weezer and I say this because their Debut Album is pretty much a pitch perfect collection of songs that in all honesty have no flaw's to be found and even at their worst or overplayed are perfect power pop numbers that are full of energy, clever song writting, and of course are catchy as fuck and while their second album is the better in both cases both of their second records were kind of critically under appreciated upon release and in time have been more then snubbed out by the band in question even if they're honestly the strongest records of those bands career and also in both cases both bands first album still remains their most treasured and highest sellers which is for a pretty good reason.

Now let's go back and note the things that I said were this albums strong points starting with the most important probably the fact that from beginning to end you are blasted with this kind of combination of synth heavy danceable and ever so electronic tracks that balance just enough fake instruments with the real deal to help highlight a series of songs that oddly enough was probably the strongest Brendon Urie was able to do in the course of this bands history because it's the perfect balance of kind of cheeky and dirty tunes that are meant as nothing more then fun sing alongs(I write sins not Tragedies, There's a reason these tables are numbered honey..., Lying is the Most Fun a girl can have...) and even a few songs here and there that are actually pretty serious in tone like Camsicado which is about his alcoholic father. The songs on this album are fairly natural really and listening to them through and through you can't help but want to learn all the words and sing along because even 10 years later they're still as amusingly refreshing as they were when these guy's were the biggest band on the planet.

Another thing this album has going for it is the fact that the first half of it is an electronic affair while the second half takes more a rock-ish at times almost cabaret approach which helps to break up the monotony that keyboard heavy records have and also it showcases that this band did actually have a lot more variety in them then you'd expect from their genre.

Now of course I will have to make note that the whole thing of your song titles being paragraphs of unnecessarily that they straight copied from the likes of Fallout Boy is annoying as fuck but in all honesty when that's the only bad thing you can come up with for this album you realize just why it broke them through and why we all have yet to be able to lose our nostalgia goggles when we listen to it because we all still remember just how awesomely big I Write Sins was and to this day you know if it comes on you'll still know every god damn word.

Re-Listening to this album is quite a trip still and what annoys me is that this band made a real leap forward in terms of musical direction with Pretty. Odd. even if it's songwritting wasn't on par but then because it didn't quite measure up they've spent the last couple of albums regressing and making more pop minded attempts at recreating this album which is a shame because it's the complete lack of them trying to be anything more then a bunch of young hungry kids making a record that really give this some character and strength they had nothing to prove and made a classic of their genre because of it too bad they had to follow it up but hey that's life and that's been another edition of Perfect 10's.

Quality Cuts: Camsicado, The Only Difference..., Time to dance, There's a reason these tables are numbered honey..., I Write Sins not tragedies

Song of the Day 3/21/15

Helena-My Chemical Romance

OK let’s be real here you damn well knew that one of the big 3 emo acts had to be mentioned at some point this week and in asking around what to cover it occurred to me that this week should end with probably the more semi consistent of the big 3 which for those unfamiliar would be Fallout Boy, Panic! At the Disco, and of course My Chemical Romance.

Now what always surprised me about that time frame in retrospect is how of all the bands to just kind of break out these guys were one of them and that of all the songs they did this song in particular was the one that broke them really into the mainstream and it’s not that I’m discrediting the song itself but it’s just kind of interesting to think that while I’m not OK kind of got them recognition this song got MTV rotations and people to go pick up Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge which is really a solid album but it also did eventually lead to the vastly superior Black Parade album which was the real commercial and creative peak for this band because like their contemporaries they had to expand their songs to be something more than slopped together rockers and they did which sadly that didn’t go to Danger Day’s which was the, “oh Shit our fans moved on and now we’re playing to young kids that don’t get it,” album and like their contemporaries things just kind of moved on.

All that critique aside this song still has an oddly amusing charm to it that hasn’t been to diluted to terrible follow up records like Panic! or Fallout Boy’s  more recent records though there’s a charm to going back to this semi knock off Misfits inspired act every once in a blue moon because they actually crafted plenty of good tunes that you forget just how good they actually are and it’s the fact that they just kind of said fuck it split up and have been doing there own musical adventures with Gerard Way making a semi alright solo record that’s knocking off glam rockers instead of Billy Corgan and Frank Lero is making music from his garage this band didn’t go some odd electronic direction which I can more then appreciate.

Well I guess that wraps up emo week time to bandage your cuts and remember that you’re a grown up now people but maybe in due time I can do this again because it’s kind of fun to throwback and of course there’s a shit load of acts that I didn’t cover but until then time to extra not act my age…

Song of the Day 3/20/15

Konstantine-Something Corporate

This song was actually suggested by somebody when I asked for songs for this week’s theme and while I’ve been aware of this band and more specifically their song Space I never really dived deep into their catalogue so I was rather surprised when I first heard this song and realized it was this 9+ minute piano epic of a track that just kind of explores a wide variety of feelings and emotions and also noticed there’s a shit load of comments on the video for this tune about people being taken back or put into a special place when they hear this slow burner of a tune.

Also upon doing a bit more research as to the significance of this song I also seem to read how they didn’t’ want to perform this song that often because of the fact that the lead singer felt it’d be so much a thing that he himself would have to do it every single night which is a bit excessive really but whatever this song’s still a nice slow burner of a gem that really showcases a band trying to be something more than their genre suggest and it’s held up incredibly well when compared to the rest of it’s genre.

Song of the Day 3/19/15

Uneasy Hearts Weigh the Most-Dance Gavin Dance

I was suggested to listen to this band through a co-worker of mine and after giving some of their music a listening I have to say that they’re a pretty groovy Emo outfit and this song in particular was probably the best one I recalled hearing.

It’s music is probably the best part of this song because they really use a lot of catchy alternative guitar work and this song likes to jump between kind of danceable jangly rock music, kind of screamo breakdowns, and even some very early 2000’s sounding emo and that’s even more present in it’s kind of child like lyrics that are equal parts romantic as they are disillusioned.

To put it simply this songs pretty bad ass even if the vocals are straight out of an era that has long passed.