4/12/15

First bike ride of the season took me on my favorite solo-cruise route - from Millvale along the Three Rivers trail, past PNC Park, around Heinz Field, across the bridge and down to Point State Park. The scenery changes quickly, the path goes from crushed stone to pavement to concrete with varying degrees of incline, and on the first free day I've had in awhile that just happened to the warmest yet, I could not resist putting on my headphones and going for a ride. 

Shuffle did not fail me, starting with a strong run of modern pop punk.

"I'm safe, and who ever thought that was difficult?
My nerves start to feel so frayed.
I'm trying to turn things around, but instead
I'll say 'Why do I feel so invisible?
Good things will come my way.'
I'm trying to turn things around, and I wait

'Till the day when I stop making big mistakes
And the clouds, they roll out of this whole damn state
I believe in a place and I wanna go
Honesty will leave me feeling livable
Once I change.

Now that I've found some time, all the pain won't bother me.
I've wanted to find what my head keeps filtering."~Good Things

The Dangerous Summer, War Paint

The trail was full of so many people - solo riders like me, couples jogging, small groups of  walkers or cyclists - so I knew better than to blast the volume and tune out. Never know when someone's speeding up behind you. I quit dodging the crowds for a bit when I got to the Point, and decided to stretch out and lay on the grass. Like divine intervention, or the mathematical realities of an 8-gig device, a sliver of "Clarity" arrived on cue. 

I laid there for awhile, listening to the same song over and over again. I put the volume up and watched the clouds, watched the fountain, and stretched my feet in time to the staccato strings. I let the rest of the album play the whole ride back.

"I promised I'd see it again
I promised I'd see this with you now.
I promised I'd see it again,
I promised I'd see this with you now.

I said, said, said it out loud over and over
Said, said, said it out loud but it did not help
I'll stop now just enough so I can hear you
I stay up as late as it takes"

~Just Watch The Fireworks

Jimmy Eat World, Clarity

By the time I made my way back to the trail head, I was just sweaty enough, feeling tension-free and exhilarated by the spontaneous ride. I switched back to shuffle and found myself where I started,with "Suburbia" piping through like a boisterous old friend you haven't seen in awhile. Usually, I plan rides for certain early mornings or with friends. It's a scheduled activity. But today, with my bike fresh from a tire tune-up on the back of my car, I decided to deviate from my to-do list in favor of what felt right, and it was worthwhile. What a change of pace, what a pleasant reminder of the control we have over our own destinies. 

I strapped my bike to the trunk of my car. I kept my headphones in.

"I’m not a self-help book; I’m just a fucked up kid.
I had to take my own advice and I did.
Now I’m waiting for it to sink in.

Expect me standing tall, back against the wall,
'Cause what I learned was
It’s not about forcing happiness;
It’s about not letting the sadness win." 

~Local Man Ruins Everything 

The Wonder Years, Suburbia, I've Given You all and Now I'm Nothing

9/21/14

"I took a trip down south and felt the sun on my face,
and it made things OK for a second.
I drew a picture of my problems when I was going insane.
And I focused on the currents.
It's the funny thing about it,
I never seem to worry that every single current's not the same.
It's all about position, and where I choose to lay.
And God, I am going away."

I heard this song for the first time in awhile today, a surprise find on a borrowed iPod. I heard this song with fresh ears today, and it meant all the same that it used to, filtered through a new lens. I think this was one of the first TDS songs I really *heard*, sometime while living in the Finger Lakes racking my brain over how to do better at my job and not fuck up relationships.  That was four years ago. Some things, they don't change - like the constant drive for self-exploration and development AJ Perdomo captures so well. This album, I think, is certainly his best. From the time I first heard it, I remember loving the drama in his voice, the slow-climb guitar parts and the intensity of the minor chords. This song in particular is a lesson in how to build tension with tight patterns and throw grenades in a bridge, a step one example of the kind of pop punk/alt rock made all the brighter and better by its intelligence, thoughtfulness and dig-deep awareness. This song was a good one to hear today, offering comfort to a wild, raging heart and a line of scripture for a tired head, making things OK for a second. 



"Would you believe in my songs
if I gave them all to you?
I can find the strength in my voice
to call you back and say that everything is bad without you
and I'm lost again, oh God believe I'm lost again."
~Weathered
The Dangerous Summer, Reach for the Sun

8/30/13

I am sorry to say I haven't heard the latest LP from The Dangerous Summer yet. I've read about it, I've heard a couple singles, and I don't know if I've just been distracted by other groups newer to my ears, but what I heard just hadn't really *clicked* with me yet. After I heard "Catholic Girls" and "Sins" I didn't really feel a need to hear them again, but at the same time, I really love AJ Perdomo's work and the band's overall sound.

So today, the "Sins" video was released, and I gave it a watch and a listen, and I think the pieces finally clicked. What I thought was a disjointed structure is actually a rather disguised weaving of verses and choruses - you'll catch this at the very end. His vocals take on the shrillness and urgency we've heard before, but it's more aggressive this time, and the lead guitars resonate over velvet-heavy drums and rhythm parts, adding a lightness.

 The whole song almost feels like a bunch of tension without a release, and I think that's why it was uncomfortable for me at first, but I realized then that's what the song is about. The execution mirrors the story. Looking forward to hearing the full record when I can get my hands on it.



"Was I wrong?
Didn't have you for myself
Even if you're still abroad
We will fuck with consequence

'Cause our lives will still be ours
I wanna carry you and
Take your fallout and
See when I follow through
Yea, hold me harder and

I'm living away from our love
I'm living away from our love

To belong
To the wind won't take us from
The fire we hold inside
Won't you rest your tired eyes
'Cause a lifetime will be hard

And when I stare at you
I feel my arms open
The tide is pulling through
To take our walls down and

I'm living away from our love
I'm living away from our love
I'm living away from our love
I'm living away from our love...
The current's strong
There's a void where we both sleep
I'll take you out of there
I'll take you anywhere for good

It won't be long
We will find a place by the beach
And days will cascade
Then days will start again for good

I turn my back on the rope tied to my ceiling
To reason I won't go there anymore
So I thought for once that death might bring me healing.
The Atlantic washed over in Cape Town, in London.

'Til we wash away your sins, and the lives that we once lived."
~Sins 

The Dangerous Summer, Golden Record

2/4/12

"When you hardly have a heart. But you need it just to break. When I haven't let my guard down. Just give me time to think."



This is one of my favorite tracks off of "War Paint" from The Dangerous Summer. What is it about songwriters that makes wandering such an enticing subject matter? It's something we all must feel at one time or another, the want to get away. The Dangerous Summer are masters of capturing this, encapsulating the feeling of sinking so far into your own head that it takes cold, unfeeling realities to snap you out.

Lyrically, I think it's beautiful. We must not overlook the allusion to their first album title in the chorus, a hidden thread and reminder that what they play is what they feel.

Speaking performance-wise, I think this song goes above and beyond what you'd expect to hear from a band like this. The pace is measured, it rises and falls. The lead-in to the first chorus, and well-timed "yeah" is a reveal, same with the extended line before the second chorus. The lead guitar does beautiful, beautiful things throughout. The drum hit before the last two choruses is one of the more well-executed rock ballad moments that, again, you might expect to hear from a band like this. I could listen to this song over and over again and just get lost in it. I'm pretty sure I just did.


"I’ve seen my words carved
In the arms of a stranger as they let me know
They watched their love die
But picked it up later when they found that rope
Some say you need to bleed to believe in hurt
Some say you have to scar to belong to her

I’ll live alone and find my peace
I will slip into a coma
Found somewhere north of Florida
But just south of Tennessee
‘Cause the sun I finally reached it
Give me reason to move on now
But there’s something in this heart I lost
Somehow

I’ll set it down for you
I wouldn’t lie to you, now would I
I built that road from the beginning with my hands
When you decided to take it
What did you take from it?
Was it worth the heart involved
The obstacles, the chemicals
I need to know what you’re trying to see

I’ll live alone and find my peace
I will slip into a coma
Found somewhere north of Florida
But just south of Tennessee
‘Cause the sun I finally reached it
Give me reason to move on now
But there’s something in this heart I lost
Somehow

Are they slipping through
All those messages I sent
I will cart across to every single city and their states
When you hardly have a heart
But you need it just to break
When I haven’t let my guard down
Just give my time to think
Well does it start to murmur?
It just needs some time to breathe
And in the light of murder
What if it carried me
Just to find that water

(I found the patterns release in me)
Just to find that water
(I found the patterns release in me)
Can I find that water?
(I found the patterns release in me)
Can I find that water?
(I found the patterns release in me)

I’ll live alone and find my peace
I will slip into a coma
Found somewhere north of Florida
But just south of Tennessee
‘Cause the sun I finally reached it
Give me reason to move on now
But there’s something in this heart I lost
Somehow"
~Everyone Left
The Dangerous Summer, War Point

12/31/11

Amidst scanner traffic in my right ear, and the dull static of muted televisions in my left, a variety of songs are running through my head. They are comforting, but I am cynical in spite of their hope.

"These things will change....
Can you feel it now...
These walls that they put up to hold us back will fall down..."
~Change
Taylor Swift, Fearless

"Till the day when I stop making big mistakes...
And the clouds, they roll out of this whole damn state...
I believe in a place that I wanna go...
Honesty will leave me feeling liveable...
Once I change..."
~Good Things
The Dangerous Summer, War Paint

I'm feeling changeable. Maybe it's the new job. Maybe it is because it's New Year's Eve. Maybe it's because I don't like the changes this year brought.

I think we need songs about change, especially when we're going through it. We want to know that there is another side to our present, that there are new seeds to be a sown on a yet-undiscovered field. It makes it triumphant, it gives you something to stick your chest out for, but really it's all for show. Really, change is frightening.

I just know I had what I wanted and it all changed. Now I have nothing but time, plus boatlods of frustration and sorrow to channel into something creative, a life's mission I've done everything in my power to avoid having to succumb to completely.

You can change everything about your life - your job, your friends, your community, and you can mark time all you want with days, weeks, months, years. But you can't change who you are, and you can't run away from it.

I can tear down all the barriers I want to get to where I say I want to go, but it won't change these desires. It won't make them go away.

7/10/11

This song feels so damn good. I'm still getting used to the album, the first two tracks and the last are my favorites so far and a couple others, like "Siren" are good. I still really enjoy "Reach for the Sun."

EDIT: After a few more listens, I feel this will grow equal in time.

But the structure of "War Paint," the song, is really well done. The opening chords are great and loud and majestic and full and they hit with you a great verse and chorus before bringing everything down and letting it all sink in. Some of that desperate fighting spirit stuff. It's a good time.

Lyrically, you don't hear bands this honest too often. Which is a shame in some ways. But we don't live in hones times and it makes it twice as hard. So give me the metaphors of breathing and escape and suns and wars and something I can relate to, because it's evident that these songs are written with nothing but hearts and minds behind them.

This band does a great job at capturing frustration in suspension, and hope in resonance. I could see how someone could very easily underestimate them as another now-scene band (are we in a scene? is there still one? who is in it? I don't understand anything anymore) upon first listen. But I hear more patience and care in this band than just being loud. Cause when it comes down to it, you gotta think a song through, and it needs all those right little details/sounds/words, that make it just right.

"I was starting to shake
From the days I’ve been up
There’s a lot on my plate
And the ones I loved stopped answering
They left me to find my self
In my own hate
I work all alone with cynical taste
And the day I get out
Is the day I’ll be made
I was cut out of stone
And carved with a blade.
Head down with all of my hardships
There’s nothing too strong
That I can't face
Don’t stop ‘till you finally have it
It should be more like a habit
Come down
All the fighting’s over
I let you breathe your own air
I will set my arms down in a corner
When I turn around
You will tell me how you’re up now
From your dream of clovers
Said, 'not a thing will compare
To the sense you give me, and disorder
When you turn around
And i can’t breathe.'
There wasn’t a trace
Of the war letting up
And the days went on late
I struggled
And I fell to solid ground
It led me to my escape
Now here I am outside of your gate
I was hoping you could
Come down
All the fighting’s over
I let you breathe your own air
I will set my arms down in a corner
When I turn around
You will tell me how you’re up now
From your dream of clovers
Said, 'not a thing will compare
To the sense you give me, and disorder
When you turn around
And I can’t breathe.'
Well, I came to say sorry
I shouldn’t have left
But my bitterness got to me
Before you did
And now I’m laying in gardens
Where we start over again
I know that you got me
And this is it
Come down
All the fighting’s over
I let you breathe your own air
I will set my arms down in a corner
When I turn around
You will tell me how you’re up now
From your dream of clovers
Said, 'not a thing will compare
To the sense you give me, and disorder
When you turn around
And I can’t breathe.'"
~War Paint
The Dangerous Summer, War Paint

7/8/11

Dangerous Summer.War Paint. All day. Win.

"I don't want to hear it,
I've seen soul in every little feeling you fought,
and maybe it's enough to move us on from where we started off."
~Waves
The Dangerous Summer, War Paint

6/7/11

I have a new obsession,and they're called The Dangerous Summer. It is my understanding they have a 2011 release that is coming up soon, so I'm catching up with "Reach for the Sun." Which is awesome. Kind of reminds me of Gratitude (who I am now going to Pandora).



"Am I wrong, or is this really what you want to happen?
When all I want to do is have this, I'm not strong enough to stand.
'Cause I've been pushed around before.
I felt the burn from every inch of my heart,
but it's worth it to never feel alone."
~Never Feel Alone
The Dangerous Summer, Reach For the Sun