Sam's BEST OF 2019 #1

1. Daydream – Bleached

I literally knew from the first chord of this song that it was going to be a phenomenal piece of art that would blow my fucking mind and Jesus fucking Christ did it ever.

I'm not fucking joking I literally heard that bass line and a shiver went down my fucking spine and I said holy shit this is gonna blow my fucking mind and yes it did.

This is the best song of 2019.

I could end it there I really could but these guy's deserve to have way more said about them that what is out there because they are without a doubt one of the best groups out there and ever since they decided to regroup, sober up, and refocus their lives and career they've managed to pump out the best album of the year and one of the best songs of the 2010's.

This song like all of the songs I've mentioned on this list is fairly simple and straightforward lyrical tale of the struggles of getting over seeing something you loved get over you but still being stuck in this fantasy that you're still together and if I'd not of been dating someone this year then this album as a whole would have hit me extra hard because this song just kind of encapsulates that weird awkward feeling of isolated loneliness and escapism that I'd gone through in the process of dealing with depression, sobriety, and anxiety alone you just kind of want to curl away and live in a fantasy of what could have been but never will be.

I never can truly tell these guy's in person just how important they have been in those awkward transitional phases to me weather it's going through a break up with a  former lover or drinking they've managed to make the last few years a little less painful and reaffirm my adoration for punk and music as a whole and after getting to tell them an idea of just how fantastic this song is to me I kind of had to say something.

Thank you this song made me make this series of post and write something again they are truly the best and deserve to be told such.

Sam's BEST OF 2019 #2

2. Scrawny – Wallows

“I'm a Scrawny mother fucker with a cool hairstyle.”

You know it takes a certain level of UN-ironic confidence to do a line like that and not sound like a try-hard fuck face and these guy's managed to do that and be one of the few new bands I've heard about that people actually listen to and while their album kind of has a bit too many songs that sound the exact same this song is a fucking exceptional cut that brings a certain energy that I often feel is lacking in a lot of the more electronic heavy down tuned offerings I hear blaring out of most alternative stations I find myself listening to for more than 10 minutes at a time these day's and considering I like my rock to be a more guitar driven affair with a lot of punch to hear a newer act make a tune that is both of those things of course I'm going to be pretty happy.

These guy's aren't reinventing the wheel and if I were to be honest with you this is essentially a vampire weekend tune if vampire weekend didn't suck ass and the fact that it's not in every teenage coming of age movie trailer from here to infinity is nice because this song is one of the few bits of spontaneously energetic Indy rock that's managed to not make me roll my eyes.

These guy's are cool and I hope they don't have the same scenario as the 1975 where teenagers make a bigger deal of them than they need and turn their shows into a hodgepodge of annoying ass screaming fan girls reminding me that I'm too fucking old for this shit.

Sam's BEST OF 2019 #3

3. Winter Savior – Kid Computer

I saw these guy's play an almost completely packed venue in the release for their EP “The Darnedest Things,” and it blew my fucking mind to see these guy's truly get a reception that showed that they are something worth giving a fuck about and that view of them on that stage looking out in a stuffed room playing these songs that spoke to an entire room of people in such a way that I'm not sure they knew would happen made me feel like a dad looking at their child accomplish something they never thought they could do even if I kind of really didn't actively do much of anything for these guy's really it was one of the last times I can immediately think of that has truly stuck with me in terms of show's I've attended.

This song is a blast of early 90's alternative rock aesthetics with some echoing guitar work, a fantastic pacing, and George doing a vocal performance that sends a shiver down my spine because there's just this weird sense I get that this guy finally found his voice and the line, “To Be a fucking weirdo ALL THE TIME!” is just absolutely perfect just a casually expressed cooler than cool delivery that's just so effortlessly done that I'm at a loss for words really.

These guy's go their shit together way better than I do that's for fucking sure and you better see them whenever the fuck you can because I got a good feeling about them especially if they can keep on making stuff this fantastic.

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.

Don't Call it a comeback.....

Life has a weird way of making you have to reassess it all whenever you decide to quit things and that's where I am with this whole writing thing. I basically had a host of anxiety and depression lead me to have to end a thing I was doing because the lack of proper fulfillment was a real son of a bitch and a half that's for sure and after being such a narcissist  that had to end his personal project in a the most self fulfilling way that was throwing a show completely on my own dime with enough people awkwardly patting me on the back for what I kind of wasn't sure was really all that special I was kind of left in an awkward state of being relieved that I wasn't trying to write something substantial anymore but at the same time crushed in the knowledge that I had completely lost a personal connection to listening to music or going to shows so much so to a point that I may have grown to personally detest going out and listening to live music in general.

I have nothing to really add to the discourse and nobody around me has any essence of an idea of what I am trying to express in this passion of listening so many individuals are just overly dismissive or numbed to a point of just making a meme out of it all that I don't honestly see a fucking point to even trying to do this thing anymore that's kind of why I just ended up taking my ball and fucking going home there was no reason for me to even put an effort in anymore.

The thing about life is that it goes on and even if I'm not covering things there's places and people who are doing things there's local podcast doing their thing to expose local acts who are putting out great stuff and there's plenty of online critics gaining headway in some capacity and I get this feeling the sonic landscape has changed....the only thing that doesn't change is every dickhead that want's to tell me that it's alright to like what you like because we all have different taste to which I say with the most gleeful expressiveness I can conjure up to shut the fuck up, let people who know some iota of what they're talking about do the discussions, or at the very fucking least provide an interesting point that's not you just being an internet troll otherwise I kind of don't really care to deal with those things in my life I'm getting on in years and I already deal with my fair share of dumb non-intellectually stimulating discussions on the daily.

Unlike politics entertainment has a certain aspect to it where you can disagree and argue but you're not actively putting the lives of millions at risk for thinking some band/film/video game/ect. Are good, great, shit, or trash you're just simply expressing some level of passionate discourse that helps provide some sense of purpose in giving a flying fuck all about these things and a the end of the day we all need some sense of worth and validation otherwise we're just shell's walking on by listening to fluff.

I don't have anything to achieve anymore so fuck it let's just say something ya bunch of fucking assholes strap on in and give me something to talk about otherwise it's not like I ain't use to nobody paying attention to me anyways.

Mark your calendars Monday December 16th 2019 I got some stuff to cover more specifically the best of this quiet year.

 

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.