Tuesday, April 30, 2013

4/30/13



The last 10 days or so, most of which I spent living in a van amongst musicians cruising the Gulf Coast, I've been inundated with music - new and old, both familiar and undiscovered,  whether comfortable or intriguing. Traveling solo means lots of iPod and Pandora, traveling in a group means CDs on for all to hear and sing to. These travels had both, plus nightly live metal shows.

Among these many, many songs and albums, one that's really sticking with me back at home is Thrice's "Beggars." I've always been a huge fan of Dustin Kensure's songwriting, and I attended a concert of  theirs back home once and their musicianship blew me away. Absolutely stellar performers who really knew how to make their work shine, completely resonating with a crowd beyond any scenester borders despite whatever label may have been pasted upon them at the time. "The Artist and The Ambulance" was a pretty ubiquitous record in high school, and I saw them right on the cusp of the four-album, two-part release of The Alchemy Index, which is arguably among the most complex, artistic endeavors as you'll find in rock music these days. Dustin's solo work since then has been  beautiful.

Yet, as I am ashamed to admit, I sort of abandoned Thrice listening, for reasons I don't really know. Their earlier discography has sat in digital and physical forms in my home, my car and my hard drive, as I hungrily search for something new and inspiring. Their latest releases have sort of passed me by, as Alchemy and Vheissu showed a departure from the heavier sound that drew me to them back when. So over these last 10 days, when good new friends blasted "Beggars" in a busted up van I happened to be traveling in and everyone sang along, I was absolutely smitten to find the Thrice I'd once loved, that had once spoken to me, had never gone away, and had only grown better with age, with time. This album was exactly what I'd needed to hear, haunting and heartfelt and full of stories...some songs felt familiar in passing, I didn't know if that was because I'd heard them before or because Thrice has such a recognizable sound with a heavy rhythm core and Dustin's emotive blend of soft and visceral vocals

I think I actually appreciate this album more now than I may have if I got this into it back when it was released. My ears are much better attuned to hearing guitar riffs, cymbal crashes or nuances in a bass line, and observing  that confluence of parts Thrice so excels at. Beyond the notes, whatever maturity I've managed to hone since high school - hell even since I graduated college -only makes me appreciate their depth more. And of course, album love is a circumstantial thing -- it's quite natural of anyone to attach music to memories and it's actually a pretty frequent habit/hobby/obsession of mine, so there is that.

So when Dustin sings so raw, so righteously, about love and what it means, I think I get it. I may not have got in 2009 when this album came out. Or maybe I would have. All I know is I've grown since then and I'm glad I'm hearing it now.

"There's many who'll tell you they'll give you their love,
But when they say "give" they mean "take."
They"ll hang 'round just like vultures till push comes to shove.
They'll take flight when the earth starts to shake.

Someone may say that they'll always be true,
Then slip out the door 'fore the dawn.
But I won't leave you hanging on.  

Another may stay till they find someone new,
Then before you know they'll be gone.
But I won't leave you hanging on;
No, I won't be that someone.

And come what may, I won't abandon you or leave you behind
Because love is a loyalty sworn, not a burning for a moment.
And come what may, I will be standing right here by your side;
I won't run away, though the storm's getting worse and there's no end in sight.

Some talk of destiny, others of fate,
But soon they'll be saying goodbye.
But I won't leave you high and dry.
Because a ring don't mean nothing
If you can't haul the weight,

And some of them won't even try,
But I won't leave you high and dry;
I won't leave you wondering why.



And come what may, I won't abandon you or leave you behind
Because love is a loyalty sworn, not a burning for a moment.
And come what may, I will be standing right here by your side;
I won't run away, though the storm's getting worse and there's no end in sight.

And storms will surely come,
But true love is a choice you must make
And you're the one that I have set my heart to choose.
As long as I live, I swear I'll see this through.
"

~The Weight
Thrice, Beggars

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

4/16/13

Something about new releases from a longtime favorite band speaks volumes about the confluence of the past and present. On one hand, there's the comfort of the familiar, but on the other, it's a messy meeting, because here you have these expectations and standards and you have no idea what you're going to get this time around.


"The way you pull me in sometimes, I almost feel 
The picture in my head is just too real. 
It's gonna be how it is,
There's some things you don't change 
I'm done with telling myself that story

How slowly we built the walls,
In years they pile on 
I will steal you back 
Funny how the smallest lie 
Might live a million times 
I will steal you back

Here we go, here we go, we'll take on so much pain
To feel secure, or not feel anything 
I only pick a fight I know I'm sure to lose 
So how can I not hold my hope for you?
 

How slowly we built the walls
In years they pile on 
I will steal you back 
Funny how the smallest lie 
Might live a million times 
I will steal you back"
~I Will Steal You Back
Jimmy Eat World, Damages

Personally, I'm excited for new Jimmy Eat World. Something about this track sounds very Bleed American to me, something very familiar in those chords getting held out and those straight-talk lyrics. I also love how guitar-heavy it is, glad that hasn't changed. But is it recycled? I'm not sure of the reaction this track is getting from their fan base so far, but I recall Invented seem to kind of fall on deaf ears (though I really loved it). A band that means a lot of things to a lot of people always will, but it doesn't mean they'll relate to the latest effort. I find I'm able to in this case, though. There's something mature about this track, a balance of impassioned frustration met with restraint and perspective. Although come to think of it, JEW has always had that feeling mastered (see Clarity). 

Still, this isn't the same Jimmy Eat World from the early 2000s, because their sound has definitely evolved from its pop-punk roots to something far more adult, far more alt-rock and dare I say mainstream (in a good way!). But hey, let's face it, I'm not the same either, we've all grown. I almost love this band more now than I did then, knowing the growth and change between their albums is parelled in me.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

4/9/13

In love with this guy's playing, and how the recording seems to pick up the wind in the background...


His fingers are so fast. He knows just the right notes to hit. His style is soft, effortless, speaking to the softness of the heart with an intimate, quiet, nearly classical approach. Here's more that's not live but exceptionally pretty. I have been quite interested in learning how to pick more and so far I'm a total disaster so I can't help but watch and learn and want.

"Darling you're with me, always around me.
Only love, only love.
Darling I feel you, under my body.
Only love, only love.
Give me shelter, or show me heart
Come on love, come on love.
Watch me fall apart, watch me fall apart.


And I'll be yours to keep.
A wind in the shadow, a whale song in the deep.
A wind in the shadow, a whale song in the deep.

Darling you're with me, always around me.
Only love, only love.

Darling I feel you, under my body.
Only love, only love.
Give me shelter, or show me heart
Come on love, come on love.
Watch me fall apart, watch me fall apart."

~Only Love
Ben Howard, Every Kingdom

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

4/2/13

"I'm feeling like I'm falling behind"



Sometimes context happens when you're not expecting it.

It's not exactly deja vu, it's not exactly fate or a message from the heavens, but it happens when you're alone with your thoughts just enough - not enough to drive yourself crazy but enough to find yourself still. Maybe your eyes close and your skin shivers just so and your mind clears just enough that you see yourself from 10,000 feet, your present life in all its context.

Head on the desk, ear next to the speakers, new Wonder Years blaring and stirring my soul, context is key. There's a familiarity to this, to contemplating aimlessness and mediocrity and ambition and all the world's pains and possibilities. It's been there through it all, all the heart-versus-heart decisions. All the family trials, and nostalgia of  knew-them-when friends, all the lessons in the arts and sciences of self-control. It's all felt very real to me, all of it, but it is all very fragile, like vapor drifting through my fingers. I can see it, but there's no chance of holding on. It will vanish, and give way to something else, just like the wisps of hope and love and fear and faith before it.

I'm not sure if there's anyone out there, actively recording and popularizing their music, who captures mid-20s existentialism with as much fury and anger and hope and perspective (or better bass riffs) than The Wonder Years. Yes, they throw down incredibly hard, and yes, if there is a pop punk scene worth examining in full these days, these are the guys are holding up the epicenter, gang vocals in tow. But lyrically, there's so much to uncover, for more than fans of the genre. Each listen brings out another metaphor, another pattern, another reference. TWY lyrics have a very conversational structure, offering a comfortable disguise for the literary, as they are metaphorical and measured enough to give shape worthy of a story. Just absolutely biting my tongue to see what the rest of "The Greatest Generation" holds after falling in love with this track (and the band all over again).

"Well I'm terrified, like a kid in the 60s
staring at the sky, waiting for the bomb to fall
And it's all a lie, what they say about stability, 
it scares me sometimes, 
the emptiness I see in my eyes 

And all the kids names I've ever liked
Are tied to tragedy
I don't my children growing up to be anything like me

I've been looking tears in the screen door
(tears in the screen door)
I've been waiting for another disaster
(another disaster)
I was kind of hoping you'd stay
I was kind of hoping you'd stay

I keep a flashlight and a small knife in the corner of my bedstand
I keep flashlight and the train times
But you wouldn't understand
How could you understand? 

Jesus Christ, I'm 26 
All the people I graduated with
All have kids, all have wives
All of people who care if they come home at night
Well Jesus Christ, did I fuck up?

I've been looking for tears in the screen door
(Tears in the screen door)
I've been waiting or another disaster
(Another disaster)
I was kind of hoping you'd stay
I was kind of hoping you'd stay
I was kind of hoping you'd stay."
~Passing Through a Screen Door
The Wonder Years, The Greatest Generation

God Save The Wonder Years. I am so unbelievably stoked to hear this album, the rest of their catalog has only gotten better with time in my eyes.

(Sidenote: I participated in AP.net's live chat with TWY this week, and Soupy answered my question! Well, one of them. He did not weigh in on liquor privatization in Pennsylvania, probably because he is straight edge and thus unaffected by the availability of alcohol. I knew it was a longshot, but just throwing this out there so I'm on the written record about it.)