Sam's Top 20 of 2016: #1

1.Cool Heat-Momma's Boy

You know my fascination with this song was a very slow burning kind of deal because I remember seeing these guys at The Homegrown Buzz Showcase and being told how dope they were by my favorite local DJ and all I remember about their set was that it was one of the most awesome fucking shows I'd seen but oddly enough I couldn't remember any of the details about it and all I had was this awesome little sheet of paper with a download code and whenever I redeemed that download code it seemed to have opened a crazy little world for me.

From some of the nicest outdoor spaces, to slick city bars, to this bands god damn basement Momma's Boy are a hell of a captivating act that craft some ingeniously simple tunes that just take your attention and make you think to yourself, “GOD DAMNIT THIS IS THE BEST FUCKING BAND EVER!” and all I've gotten to just cling on is this one fucking song and OH GOD DAMN is it just too fucking good for it's own right.

You know basic songwriting 101 verse chorus verse the idea that you give a verse and then follow it up by the hook to you know give everyone something to remember and cling onto since it's what we all remember you know things like, “Sweet dreams are made of the years, who am I to disagree,” “Don't Stop Believing, hold on to that feeling, Streetlights people oh-a-oh,” “I fucked 17 girls in a grocery store and I didn't lose my erection,” you know stuff like that.

This song on the other hand is a bit different because in a way it reminds me of a song I adore called, “Standing in the Rain,” by Husker Du in that it instead of going verse chorus verse it instead uses the first half of it's run time to bust out a couple of verses in succession before reaching around the 2 minute mark when you finally get a proper chorus that's just one god damn phenomenal if not ingeniously simple piece of songwriting and performance that at that very second hooks you and GOD DAMNIT did this song hook me.

This song starts out very unassumingly with some simple strumming of a very surf rock tuned guitar that then bust out in an awesome little swirling burst of everyone jumping into the pool at once with the whole band just then making things very dreamy and awesome before the vocals then start and just mesh so perfectly well with things in such a natural way that you can't help but not realize that you're almost 2 minutes in before it bust out one simple but so perfectly executed line, “cause you're coming closer, closer,”and GOD DAMNIT that fucking line it's just so fucking simple but so good because it's simple to sing along to and it'll make you fucking move I know because I just love jumping around singing it over and over either in the privacy of my own humble abode or whenever I'm seeing them perform it live this oh to awesome bit of musical nirvana just kind of reminds me of why under 4 minutes is so good because out of nowhere and most immediately it just ends...done...bam that's it the song is in a whirling haze of totally fucking awesome just done leaving you standing there cold, a little bit scared, and feeling like you just had the best god damn 3 minutes and 55 seconds of your god damn life.....but then you hit that repeat button.

There's a reason this song is Number 1 and I said it back when I first talked about it earlier this year this song will just kind of crawl into that special little part of your brain that tells you, “Hey this is totally fucking awesome,” and it'll just make a cozy little spot there maybe pour itself a nice cold one and it'll just fucking take residence there and never leave and to be honest I don't think I'd let it leave either because the unexplained out of nowhere quality of fascination this song brought me this year is something I definitely wouldn't want to have just leave.

Also in all honesty this song kind of is a bit symbolic for my year in a nutshell because between April to October of this year I probably attended more shows than I could have even possibly thought I'd ever of been able to and it's because of this Homegrown Showcase that I attended and the vast amount of immensely talented and incredible acts that this city is filled with from Rachel Mallin and the Wild Type, Yes You Are, Kangaroo Knife Fight, Vigils and Thieves, The Uk's, Brave the Spirit, and of course Momma's Boy I've meet some bad ass and talented fucking people that have made my life quite a bit more eventful and given me a load of new friends and some of the best god damn performances I could have ever thought of seeing and fuck I even had a god damn concert in my house which is fucking mind blowing to say the least.

It's this band and the fact that I decided to give them a view at the showcase that eventually lead me to drive out to a house in some random part of Kansas to see them again which lead to me meeting a variety of people that I'm not sure that I'd ever of really gotten to know and managed to make things a little bit better even if I'm still kind of all over the place in my emotions at least I got to rock the fuck out to some great god damn songs and this one in all honesty is more definitively than any other year of top 20's the truest number 1 song of the year Momma's Boy are the fucking best god damn band in Kansas City and every song is a god damn winner that they do and I'll keep supporting them as long as possible and keep treasuring every set list even if I could literally have enough to wallpaper and an entire wall in my house.

Well there you go Kansas City proved that it has the best songs of the year let's see if next year everyone else can catch up thanks for all the support to every band who shared and everyone who enjoyed what I write you're the best here's to what I plan to be a drastic change in style here in 2017 so stay tune for that change to be announced come January but until then happy holiday's to all and here's to one crazy year.

5 Years 5 Albums: Day 2

Picture Show-Neon Trees (2012)

You know these guys were one of the first bands I wrote an album review on and while Habits was a great introduction to this fun little power pop group I think they really took shape and blew my mind in the most unexpected way possible with their second effort.

This album was from the gate something that seriously impressed me and even to this very day I still hold it in high regards because it’s really just that a truly substantial effort from a group looking to make a record that people would remember and it really is an album worth remembering because it’s songs are very solidly written numbers that are a bit cheeky and kind of gives things a thematic feel with strong musicianship and them making their best efforts to actually showcase a sense of growth from the album before which while being a fun little bit of power pop glory at times sounded a little too much like they were making something that’s trying to be like Sam’s Town Era killers.

The overall tone and sound of this record very 80’s indeed kind of struck because in time I’ve kind of digressed in my overall musical taste for older alternative music and this album is something that’s both old school but still fresh and it’s kind of 80’s teen romance tone gives it a quality that I found myself wanting to really write a story to and I have been to varying degrees of success yes but still it’s an album that motivated me to really think about writing a story and that’s something that really has helped as things kind of went in directions I never thought they would.

Probably one of my favorite albums of all time all I can hope is that I’ll eventually get that story done and that this band continues to produce records of equal quality as this opus of a record..

Quality Cuts: Weekend, Mad Love, Still Young

Sam's Top 20 of 2014: #1

1. Neon Trees- I love you(But I hate Your Friends)

I went to a lot of shows this year and I just got to see SO MANY AMAZING FUCKING ACTS but the show I was honestly THE MOST hyped up for was this little power pop group’s free offering up in Power and Light because not only did they manage to make my favorite album of the year, NOT ONLY did I get to see an AMAZING SHOW FRONT FUCKING ROW, not only did I get to shake Tyler Glenns hand, and not only DID I get the most important record I’ve had in quite some time for free but in all honesty I think that same album and show was probably the therapy I needed.

Like I said my life went to a really dark place people and in some sick fucked up way there wasn’t too many things that consistently gave me any sense of joy or happiness but oddly enough it was the songs that were the most important and Pop Psychology as an album is one of those records that filled with them and while I’d say Living In another World is the song I really NEEDED to hear live and did and of course loved it’s a bit hard to really think of it as the best because of all the songs released and meant to promote these acts and the efforts they were making this was probably the song that sold me the most on Pop Psychology and it’s still the most consistent tune that I find myself loving all these odd months later and constant rotations.

It’s a big energetic ball of wonder with a music video that seems like some odd art house bojankies that only the Talking Heads would do that is also something true as hell in that you may like someone but you never like their company and everyone can attest to that.

I honestly think this was the best song of the year for many reasons but if I had to say anything it’d probably be this amongst all the amazing shows, bad ass new artist, and amazing songs I’ve heard this one without a doubt when I look at the list I compiled was my clear cut choice of what I truly thought was the best and because of that its ranked accordingly. 

Neon Trees had an amazing year and followed up an album amazing enough to make me write a fucking screenplay to it with a collection of songs that was the strongest effort I’ve listened to through and through and because of that I just can’t help but be glad their music actually hit me in a special place and gave me some encouragement to really REALLY write something special and this song is a good example of the joys I can feel because of the music I hear so sorry to be all preachy and kind of cheesy but this song FUCKING KICKS ASS PEOPLE and it’s my pick for the best song of 2014 thanks for reading through these 20 day’s people here’s to a hopefully great 2015 and of course go like the fucking facebook page it’s all I really could ask for shit I’ll link it AGAIN! 

But all jokes aside I’m going to attempt to come up with something hopefully the beginning of next week then most likely take the rest of the year off because I didn’t post enough this year and I’ll be back January 1^st but until then listen on and keep on kicking ass…

Tuesday Two-Fer

So for some reason or another as I work on getting shit done and this story worked out I find myself listening to a decent range of Pop Punk for seemingly no reason beyond maybe the fact that it's high octane sound and sometimes juvenile lyrics help me kind of mask the large amount of annoyance, anger, and utter disappointment that life occasionally throws my way without feeling like I'm being a whinny little bitch but that's neither here nor there really in the long run of things because for whatever reason my desire to not complain too much has lead me to motivate myself to semi crank out a Tuesday Two-fer for ya that's something interesting.

Apparently in the early 2000's there was this little pop punk outfit called SR-71 that seemed to have some minor success with a few singles according to their Wikipedia Page which isn't really much of anything really until you encounter the odd little bit of Trivia that is that they're responsible for one of the more amusing little Pop punk numbers of the early 2000's in the form of one 1985...

Wait I bet you're telling yourself that didn't Bowling For Soup do that song and you'd be right but if you look at these guy's they look pretty much exactly like Bowling for Soup minus one really heavy set member but even then that still doesn't really get us anywhere so let me inform you of something.

Yes we are all aware that Bowling For Soup had a good sized hit with 1985 but what's interesting was that it was written by SR-71's Mitch Allan and originally recorded by the band just before Bowling for Soup covered it and proceeded to make it a good sized hit by basically changing a few lyrics around but keeping the song pretty much the exact same as it was originally recorded.

So yeah today's a cover but I'm pretty sure it's obscured enough to were most of you didn't know that to begin with so like I do with it all I'm going to post the two versions down below and you can tell me what you think and of course like I enjoy doing make sure to go check out The Official Facebook Page where you can get updates every time I post...

SR-71:




Bowling For Soup:

Lost Great Albums Vol. 3: Pretty. Odd. Things to Panic! about....

You ever sit back and get reminded of a time when any particular band was hot shit then seemingly out of nowhere just kind of fell off the face of the earth as everyone kind of grew up, moved on, and decided to listen to other musical endeavors?

Well a few days ago I was hanging out with a buddy listening to some random shenanigans on Pandora and upon just general interest of the songs being played I was reminded about the band Panic! At the Disco, and while I do recall covering one of their efforts in the form of a song of the day with some sense of being impressed by them returning to a mildly electronic heavy but familiar sound of power poppy emo goodness that we all fell in love with when, “A fever you can’t sweat out,” was released but I kind of just ignored the effort released and realized they’re still making records and people do still in fact listen to this band albeit the tunes aren’t really that spectacular but this isn’t really a piece to bash what’s honestly a band that never really went to shit like their contemporaries but in the process of looking back I’m fairly inspired to do another edition of Lost Great albums.

Pretty. Odd. Its’ an interesting record that upon doing my research beforehand seemingly didn’t seem to get as well received as it’s processor but upon actually giving a listen while writing this article seems to rather strongly stand up at the very least in the first few tracks which kind of abandoned that familiar new-wavey feel of their earlier record in favor of what was a very Revolution-Era Beatles inspiration in the form of a series of natural instruments and kind of semi-psychedelic sounding tunes that are in some way’s straightforward pop tunes that do their best to try and be very lyrically imaginative and for the most part that really does work.

I’m not saying these guy’s hold a candle to the fab 4 themselves but in terms of looking at this as an attempt to beat the sophomore slump it’s strong especially in tunes like, “That Green Gentleman,” which is really a very amusingly bouncy number that treads a fine line between power pop and early to mid 60’s baroque pop, you have an album by a band who decided to do their best to not be another emo group and it’s kind of a shame because this record didn’t get too much praise when it came out and from the looks of it like Panic! It’s just faded into obscurity.

SO if you’re looking for the attempt of another myspace-era group to actually break the mold and make a very well crafted kind of Beatles inspired tunes that are both strongly done and that hold up a million times better then the album that came before I’d advise you find yourself a copy of this either amongst your old CD’s from High School or maybe in a random CD store if those are still around and you kind of enjoy yourself what James Montgomery (asQuoted from the Wikipedia  page) Said, “Give this one a decade…We could have another Pinkerton on our hands,” and in all honesty we just might….

Lost Great Albums Vol. 1: The Great Power Popaganda

You know world record stores are the greatest gift to grace this fine planet of ours and upon randomly deciding to both make a stop and brows through the bargain bin I’ve stumbled across what is truly the lost great Power Pop record of its time in the form of Head Automatica’s Popaganda so today I’m going to explain to you guy’s why this is truly an amazing find while it’s feelings of poppy alternative bliss are at their most pleasureful.....

Now before I get to explaining how from the larger tehn life feelings of tunes like Graduation Day, to the hollowing dark subtleness of Cannibal girl, and the utter Cars inspired She’s not it I got a story about that first song that’s why this album has some significance for me personally, you see here this album came out 6/6/06 which was more a publicity stunt then anything else because well why the hell not so it was released when I was a freshman in high school so they were one of many kind of pop punkish emo groups that where an object of desire that still in some sick twisted way bring joyful memories of that time of discovery and it was the last day of school and for whatever reason I got up at the ass crack of dawn for whatever reason so I decide to say fuck it and go to my living room and turn on the tv to the music choice channel because it’s like radio with no commercials and a specific variety of tunes and this song was the first thing that came on and at that very second it was the most awesome thing of all time so because of that this tune’s kind of anthemic opening of Graduation Day and it’s very teen movie vibe make me smile any time I hear it and it’s kind of the best way to express how from the first song you’re going to end up hearing the best new wave album in a long time.

Like I said this album is just larger then life poppy cut after poppy cut with plenty of strong guitar work especially prevelant in tunes like She’s not it which is a fine balance of do-whopy sing along gold and well performed rock and roll.

There’s absolutely no loss of energy at any point in this album which just keeps everyone in high energy which is the strength of it all because Daryl Palumbo as a vocalist is quite strong when he’s channeling his inner Rick Ocasek finely balancing a blend of Doo-Whop and rock which this album is chocked full of.

So what I’m trying not to repeat all over is that this album’s damn good people and the fact that the company decided it’d be a smart idea to tack on Beating Heart Baby as a bonus track is just a cherry in an already amazing Sunday so if you’re going through a clearance sale or just on Amazon/iTunes/ect. Get this damn album it’ll make your life that much better…