On Track

File under: Essential Albums #3

2009-02-05T11:41:00.000-08:00

Essential Album #3: “Neon Ballroom” by Silverchair

Silverchair have always had a mixed reputation. The camps have generally been divided into people who thought they were tortured artists, facing serious oppression head on, and people who thought they were ‘emo’ before the word ‘emo’ even came into popular use as a negative term about style over substance, angst over adulthood, and overexposure over, well, exposure.

And while this album is angst, absolute and unadulterated, I really think it captures something unique and important that other albums in this vein missed.

Daniel Johns would have been about 18 when writing most of this album (released in 1999, the year he would have turned 20 years old). Now remember that this was their third major label release. Frogstomp came out the year he turned 16, followed by Freak Show two years later. They also released an album in 2002.

This means frontman Daniel Johns had four albums under his belt before his 23rd birthday. That gives me about 10 months to release four albums to tie him. Talk about an inferiority complex.

Being simply prolific enough to craft so many albums would be plenty. But Ballroom is more than just ‘finished.’ It is, in fact, a smart and accurate depiction of what it is to be young and troubled.

Most of Ballroom is essentially a love letter to addiction and illness, and the friends they bring you. In the case of Johns, the addiction manifested itself as an eating disorder. “Ana’s Song (Open Fire)” is the most explicit song on this album in dealing with an ED. It details the love/hate relationship Johns had with ‘Ana’ (a common short-form for anorexia), with lyrics like “Please die Ana, for as long as you’re here we’re not...Imagine Pageant, in my head the flesh seems thicker...And I need you now somehow.” They’re eloquent, and not really exaggerated, considering how deadly anorexia really is (
NEDIC quotes studies that found between an 18 and 20 per cent death rate). Nothing about the song feels overwritten.

Now that’s not to say the album always escapes hyperbole, but it’s an endearing kind of hyperbole, at least for me. I may not believe everything he writes, but I do believe that it would have felt quite sincere to me when I was younger. I recall feeling the depths of my teenage despair, and listening to this album, sometimes taking comfort in knowing my ‘suffering’ was shared, other times just feeling the music and lyrics in a way that was entirely tangible to me then.

But Neon Ballroom isn’t all angst-y lyrics. If it were, it wouldn’t be on this list. What is perhaps more interesting about it is the music itself. Silverchair were in an uncluttered genre when Ballroom was released. The guitars take their cues from metal and hardcore, while the vocals are at once melodic and gritty, forgoing the I’m-so-bored aesthetic of the grunge bands before them.

I dare you to find a vocalist quite like Johns, who wails, yells and sings, alternating between a sweet falsetto-like tone and a voice like Cobain with a throat full of gravel. They were, in many ways, a precursor to modern screamo bands like Senses Fail or Kane Hodder (if Senses Fail were a little more believably tortured and Kane Hodder were a little less laughable).

They also weren’t afraid to take risks that other bands in the ‘metal’ section of the day were. Remember that this was back when grunge was on the way out and Korn and Limp Bizkit were hugely popular with their bombastic style and aggressive tendencies. Adding orchestral touches like strings and piano to a hard rock album was a risk in itself.

Combine that with lyrics like “I love the way you love/But I hate the way I'm supposed to love you back” and you’ve got an album that didn’t have a lot in common with most of its shelfmates. And believe me when I say, that’s the highest form of compliment.

It wasn’t just a progression in the genre, it was also a clear personal progression for Johns and Silverchair. In a 2007 interview with Australia’s FasterLouder.com.au, Johns said that he always felt Ballroom was the first real Silverchair album. Frogstomp and Freakshow were “cute...high school band” endeavours, but Ballroom really captures adolescence better than either of them. If Frogstomp is the dark, derivative scribbling of the ‘tween age and Freakshow is the teenage temper tantrum, then certainly Neon Ballroom encapsulates the real and unavoidable identity struggles of the high school years.

The bottom line is that it doesn’t matter whether you attended the school of hard knocks or grew up in privilege, you’ve still felt the weight of youth press on you. The darkest moments and the toughest battles often produce the best art, and Neon Ballroom is proof of just how Daniel Johns struggled to make Silverchair possible.

"Never knew we were living in a world and the world is an open court/Maybe we don't want to live in a world where our innocence is so short/We'll make it up to you in the year 2000/Build it up for you in the year 2000"

-"Anthem for the year 2000" by Silverchair

xoAngiOnTrack

"Look at the sky and wonder in amazement..."

2009-01-15T11:44:00.001-08:00

I know, it's been two months. I said I'd try to keep this up, but I really am terrible at this whole blogging thing. However, there's an amazing show happening that I really feel it's my duty to talk about, so I'm updating, and I'll really try to post after the fact too.

So, the place to be is SAIT's The Gateway bar on Saturday, January 17, 2009 when a little band from Vancouver called Hey Ocean! will be playing not one, but two shows. If you're underage or have the afternoon off, be there at 2p.m. for the all ages show. For those over 18 who have to work during the day (like myself) hit up the 8p.m. show with ID. Tickets are $15 (plus ticketmaster fees) before the show or (I believe) $20 at the door. Minor difference, in the long run, but better to buy in advance as I actually believe it will be a busy show.

However what's more important than that even, is that it will be an AMAZING show, as all Hey Ocean! shows are. They are the BEST live band in Canada, bar none. I came to listen to them, knowing nothing and thinking their recorded stuff wasn't really my cup of tea, but seeing them live changed everything, and affirmed more than anything I've ever done, the power that live music can posess.

Seriously, be there.

xoAngiOnTrack

"Start wearing purple, wearing purple. Start wearing purple for me now"

2008-11-17T23:32:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry. I really am ashamed of what a bad blogger I am. I am really making an effort not to take this long. Really.

I’ve been a believer in the power of live music since I was 12 years old and went to my first concert to see Savage Garden, at the height of their North American popularity.

The more bands I’ve seen, the more I’ve really come to feel that regardless of what a band can do in the recording studio, it is what they can do with a receptive audience in front of them that determines their fate.

Gogol Bordello are just one of the bands, on a long list, who have reinforced this feeling in me.

Despite knowing a total of two songs by this gypsy punk band, the show was one of the most involving experiences I’ve had.

And if you can measure a band’s abilities in crowd enthusiasm — something like:

I spent way too long on that. Really, that’s why I didn’t finish this post until now. Well, that and a host of other factors I deserve no sympathy whatsoever for.

Anyway, IF you can measure a band’s abilities in crowd enthusiasm, then Gogol Bordello might actually be the most talented band I’ve ever seen.

Now, I don’t think you can measure a band’s abilities quite so easily, but I do think Gogol Bordello deserve some serious credit for their ability to make a crowd dance. Having seen bands flounder desperately in a live setting (coughthekillerscough), I expect bands to work at least as hard as the crowd. A screaming crowd should be earned, not just received.

Gogol Bordello had a crowd amassed in front of the stage, chanting and screaming, more than half an hour before they took the stage. Now there is certainly something to the idea that a band can only excite a crowd that wants to be excited. But even a receptive crowd will lose interest if a band doesn’t work to maintain it (again, I have this bizarre compulsion to say "The Killers").

When Eugene Hütz took the stage with a bottle of red wine in hand (I know it was red because almost as much of it came flying out the top of the bottle than actually went into Hutz), the crowd just about lost it.

But really, I want to start a little further back, with where my preconceptions about this band came from. See, a friend of a friend told this little story (forgive me if any details are wrong, but I will try to retell it accurately):

He was in Berlin at the same time that Bedouin Soundclash were opening for Gogol Bordello (whom he had never heard of at the time), but he knew Bedouin Soundclash were Canadian, so understandably, didn’t want to miss seeing a Canadian band playing in a foreign country when he was there.

So he went to the small Berlin club, but got there late, and had already missed Bedouin Soundclash. Well, the club was packed, and Gogol Bordello took the stage and the place practically erupted. Before their set was over, they had their dancers/backup singers/crowd pleasers on stage, and then crowd surfing on a bass drum to the bar to take a shot, and back to the stage again. He said it was one of the most amazing experiences he’s ever had, and I’m not going to lie, I hate him a little bit for it.

But, that story did set the bar pretty high, and Gogol Bordello didn’t fail to impress (though the only crowd surfing that happened was by audience members).

The mosh pit was one of the craziest, and biggest I’ve ever seen, except maybe for some of the mainstage warped tour bands I’ve seen in the past. But certain one of the three biggest I’ve seen at Mac Hall.

It never ceases to amaze me to see a room full of people jump in unison and move en masse like one creature with a thousand working limbs.

Gogol Bordello’s music is rife with messages about what it’s like to be an immigrant in American society, but it’s also about the universality of having fun.

It’s probably also, impossible to explain, so what more can I say except go see ‘em play some time. It’ll be worth the price of admission. I promise. It’s just a matter of time.

“So yeah, hey/Start wearing purple, wearing purple (la la la la la)/Start wearing purple for me now/All your sanity and wits they will all vanish, I promise/It’s just a matter of time”

-“Start Wearing Purple” by Gogol Bordello

xoAngiOnTrack

"I traveled the world looking for understanding of the times that we live in"

2008-10-15T20:20:00.000-07:00

I am still working on a post, but I wanted to have something ready to go within the one week time frame, and I didn't want to just wimp out and just give another essential album.

SO, I am working on an actual, real post. BUT, in the meantime, I will offer you at teaser to the premise of the next post, my own little equation (that I spent far too much valuable homework time on):
Also, Gogol Bordello.

And for everything else, you'll just have to wait a little longer.

“I traveled the world looking for understanding of the times that we live in/Hunting and gathering first hand information, challenging definitions of sinI traveled the world looking for lovers of the ultimate beauty/But never settled in. I'm Wonderlust King!”

-“Wonderlust King” by Gogol Bordello

xoAngiOnTrack

File under: Essential Album #2

2008-10-08T20:02:00.000-07:00

A quick note; I hate myself for taking more than a week to post. If you want a rationalization for it, I had a huge, 30%ofmygrade essay, along with about a hundred other things to do in the last week and a half. But mostly, I just apologize. I'll really keep trying.

Essential Album #2: Is This It? by The Strokes

Before this album was even released, there was a buzz around The Strokes. Critics weren’t just praising it, they were in love. Some critics said it was the rebirth of the New York small club/garage band scene. In New York, club’s like the now closed CBGB, had taken tiny bands and made them famous (unless you’ve never heard of the Ramones, Blondie or Talking Heads).

Basically, the Strokes released an EP called The Modern Age in 2001, which caused a number of record labels to fight over them (I like to think bloody noses and bruised knuckles, but it was probably more like swanky dinners and contracts with a decent number of zeroes). They signed to RCA and released Is This It? that same year. The original UK version featured a different, racier cover photo and contained a song called “New York City Cops” in place of “When It Started ” (the change was a show of respect following Sept. 11).

The first single off the album, “Last Nite,” was pretty much famous before it was even released. There was so much noise surrounding this NYC band, that when the video for “Last Nite” came out, it did quite well, despite looking more like a music video from the early ‘80s, than 2001.

But I digress. When this album was released, 7 years ago tomorrow, in fact, I was just starting high school (yes, you may see a theme start to emerge among some of my essential albums, but I promise, they aren’t all from this era). This album, being the “next big thing” of the day, was a must have for some high-schoolers and most of the early 20s hipster crowd, so of course, I had to have it.

So many albums can’t possibly live up to hype like this, which is possibly the best testament to just how good Is This It? is. With a name like that, and the buzz about it, it could have been the biggest punchline of 2001, but it’s actually on a number of best lists (including Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, Spin’s 100 Greatest Albums 1985-2005 and Q’s 21 Albums that Changed Music). Some of those lists put the Strokes in the same category as The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Bowie, MJ and U2; big company for a debut from a young, American group.

If all that isn’t reason enough to make it essential, I’m not really sure what is. It just needs to be heard. The retro, guitar-driven rock-pop on here epitomizes what dozens of bands were trying to do in the years that followed. Sadly, I think even the Strokes later albums sound like rehashing of similar material, but they just don’t manage it as well. Maybe it’s something about the unassuming, raw, basement-recorded (quite literally) sound of this album; the fact that an album that was so completely unpretentious could be loved by the most pretentious group of all, the critics. Maybe it’s something about the sex appeal of this too-cool, too-attractive group of musicians who seemed as likely to write a song about you as tell you to fuck off. But as clichéd an idea as it may be, I like to think it’s really just because the songs are so well-written, from lyrics to melodies to arrangements, that it’s hard not to like them.

“And all together it went well, We made pretend we were best friends, Then she said, ‘Oh, you're a freak,’ ‘They ordered me to make mistakes,’ Together again, like the beginning, It all works somehow in the end, The things we did, the things you hide, For the record it's between you and I”

-“Barely Legal” by The Strokes

xoAngiOnTrack

File under: Essential Albums Rationale and #1

2008-09-22T22:47:00.000-07:00

Every music nerd has a list. Maybe it’s not written down, maybe it’s not even formalized in their head, but they still have a list in their mind of the albums that are absolutely essential to their collection, the albums that make their collection great, the albums that everyone should own to have a well-rounded collection, albums that define a genre or defy all genres.

Well I am a music nerd, and as such, I have a list. I’m also loud and proud about the music I love, so I’m going to share the list, one album at a time. I’m also going to try to explain why I think that album is so integral to my collection. When multiple albums by the same artist come up, I’ve either chosen the most important to me, or I will write them together if I really can’t pick one.

They’re not in a particular order. I wrote the list, mostly alphabetically, and then randomly picked from the list. But for ease of naming and searching, I’m going to number them. Just know that the number only refers to when I wrote it, not how essential I think it is.
So here goes:

Essential Album #1: Through Being Cool by Saves The Day
It’s hard to explain what makes Saves the Day so important. It’s even hard to pick just one album because their history is actually quite varied. In fact, the first album that got me into STD was actually Stay What You Are, which came out the summer before I started high school. I stumbled upon it online when they had a website up where you could stream the entire album. At this point, I was still listening to mostly top 40 music, and STD were a revelation. I didn’t know anyone who was listening to this music, and I started thinking ‘hey, maybe this is cool, finding bands that aren’t on the countdown.’

So when I started high school and met someone who did listen to them, I instantly fell in love (with him as well, but that’s beside the point). In so many ways, STD opened me up to a new world of bands (The Get Up Kids, Elliott, Taking Back Sunday, Dashboard Confessional, earlier bands like Fugazi and Braid, etc.). So many of the bands I listen to now have been influenced by Chris Conley’s style of writing, playing and performing, which is really saying something for an artist who’s only 28 even now. Not many artists can say they were already starting to influence other bands at age 19, which is how old Conley was in 1999 when Through Being Cool was released. Now, one day, I’m sure I’ll write a post about STD and their history and how fantastic they are, but in the meantime, I need to address what makes Through Being Cool just so important.

It’s one of those albums that actually seems more important in retrospect, when you look at where STD have gone since then. This was their first big album (Can’t Slow Down was a pretty minor release in comparison), and it really set the stage for what would make their sound and style so influential. If only for Conley’s lyrics, this album could be influential. His way of writing graphic, visceral allegories about friendships and romances has been imitated, but he’s really one of the only people who can do it sincerely. Lines like “Let me take this awkward saw, run it against your thighs. Cut some flesh away, I’ll carry this piece of you with me” are disturbing, elegantly worded and brutally, darkly honest in a way that only a precious few people can get away with after age 14.

And the sound on the albums is probably their most ‘punk’ release to date. Again, this sound has been imitated, but there’s magic in the combination of lyrics, vocals, guitar style and engineering that make this album a classic in its genre (post-punk, 2nd-wave or 3rd-wave emo or whatever one might classify it as). In fact, maybe partially because it’s so resistant to genre classification, it’s an album that you should own and my collection just wouldn’t be the same without it.

"You know what? The next time you see Nick, yeah, tell him I'm gonna stick some needles in his face. Then watch him on his knees, watch him when he sees that I'm not fooling, yeah. 'Cause I'm through being cool. And he keeps telling everyone about me"

-"Through Being Cool" by Saves The Day

xoAngiOnTrack

"Just a girl like you/And maybe just a/Just a guy like me"

2008-09-16T21:24:00.000-07:00

If you had told me 10 years ago that I was going to see Hanson, I would have nearly died of 11-year-old exuberance; had you told me 5 years ago, I would have nearly died of 16-year-old embarrassment. But at 21, when tickets went on sale for Hanson’s first ever Calgary show, I felt utterly compelled to go by forces that I am at a loss to fully explain.

I have a self-imposed rule about not buying tickets that cost more than $40 (which is not to say I won’t go if someone wants to give me expensive tickets). At $34.50 each, plus exorbitant Ticketmaster fees that added over $10 to each ticket, Hanson almost priced themselves out of my market. But I ever so slightly bent my own rules and bought a ticket to see them play Mac Hall on Sept. 12, 2008.

Kicked off by L.A. band Everybody Else, the show was slow to start. Their name was an apt choice because their music was so entirely forgettable and generic, that there’s no use differentiating them from the masses of bands just like them.

Get on the floor, kick off your shoes/You ain’t got a thing to lose
Set off by an enormously loud chorus of high pitched screams, and a gallery of signs with messages like “Taylor, get a divorce and marry me!” (from an actual sign carried by a woman around my age, who seemed half-kidding, at least), Hanson took the stage without any additional fanfare. Unfortunately, the first part of their set was populated by too many ballads and songs too new for many fans to recognize.

But when the first chords of 1997 single Where’s the Love began, the room damn near erupted. Suddenly every 20-something woman in the room (myself included) was 13 again, squealing, sweating and singing her heart and throat out.

That’s not to say that the new material wasn’t excellent, listenable pop that got the crowd dancing, because much of it was. These brothers also seem to know the secrets of involving a crowd — perhaps a product of playing for big audiences for more than half of their lives. Where many bands engage the audience in some clapping along, Taylor got up during the bridge of This Time Around and split the crowd, giving each half a part to sing. Not that singing along seemed to be much of a stretch for the evening’s crowd.

It may have taken them 10 years to get here, but Hanson’s live set is proof that there is something to Hanson’s talent that goes far beyond Mmmbop.

Rock and Roll Razorblade/It cuts so deep they failed to say
I will say, I think people have been underestimating Hanson since the very beginning. While Middle of Nowhere (the album which contained the ubiquitous Mmmbop and Where’s the Love?) sold millions of albums, it also garnered a lot of attention from the peanut gallery, who wrote them off as typical boy band schlock meant to appeal only to tween girls. But already, there were some obvious differences between Hanson and other “boy bands.”

For starters, when they rose to fame, they actually were boys. In May 1997, when Mmmbop was on its way to charting #1 in countries all over the world, Isaac was 16, Taylor was 14 and Zac was just 11. They also played instruments and, even at such a young age, wrote much of their own material.

Compare this to (arguably the most successful “boy band” ever) ‘N Sync: Even at their earliest success in 1998, Justin Timberlake was 17, but the other members ranged from 20 to 26 (and the height of their fame wasn’t really until ‘00/01 anyway). A few of their songs include co-writing credits by various members, but none of their big hits were written by the band. They didn’t play any instruments and I doubt any of them, with the exception of Timberlake, would have been winning any dance-offs with their skills. I don’t mean to say there’s anything inherently wrong with any of this, but it does illustrate some clear differences.

The other thing that makes Hanson different is their staying power. I don’t care what anyone says, if you’ve been releasing albums and filling concert venues for over 10 years, there is a reason beyond heart throb status or nostalgic appeal; you’ve got to be damn good at what you do.

While the Backstreet Boys and New Kids on the Block have recently mounted comeback albums and tours in the hopes of recapturing the fame and fun(ds) of the mid ‘90s, Hanson haven’t had to do that. They’ve released a new studio album about every 3 years (for a total of 4 major albums since ’97) plus a Christmas album plus approximately 5 albums of live, acoustic or re-released material.

They have also toured steadily, while still maintaining private lives, which says something in the age of paparazzi stalking celebrities like wild game. All three brothers are married and have children — Taylor, married since 2002, has 1 daughter and 2 sons, with a 3rd on the way, Isaac, married since 2006, has 2 sons, and Zac, married since 2006, has 1 son — as well as coming from a family with two parents and four non-famous siblings. The fact that none of them have their own MTV show is enough to earn my respect.

But what really gets me is the fact that people want to reduce this band to Mmmbop, a song written when they still had to ask Mom for rides to the mall. I loved Middle of Nowhere when I was that age, and then I outgrew it, yearning for more complexity and intricacies to my music.
So did they.

Even their record label didn’t understand that growth was inevitable. Middle of Nowhere was released on Mercury Records in 1997, but around 2000, Mercury merged with Island Def Jam. This happened to be around the same time that Hanson released This Time Around. It depends who you ask whether This Time Around was poorly marketed by the label, or was actually unmarketable material. Either way, it didn’t sell like Mmmbop and the label even went so far as to pull funding for the supporting tour, which forced the brothers to fund it themselves.

Then the story goes that Island refused over 80 new songs by the brothers and, most fans believe, wanted to keep Hanson in the vein of other boy bands of the day, who were still selling out arenas.

These brothers wouldn’t have it, so they split with Island and formed Three Car Garage, most often seen as 3CG, and started releasing their albums independently. A few years later, when the market became oversaturated, the trend passed and “boy bands” became as passé as voting in municipal politics, but Hanson had already separated themselves from the scene.

Have no fear when waters rise, we can conquer this great divide
I bought their 2004 album Underneath long after the three blond brothers stopped appearing on Tiger Beat and Teen Bop covers. Don’t get me wrong; Back in the day, I bought many a Teen Beat with Taylor Hanson on the cover. But my point is that if people could get past their preconceived notions about Hanson, they might recognize that Underneath is actually a sophisticated pop album, with more in common with ‘60s blues and soul than with any BSB album. The instrumentation is genuine; clean, simple guitar licks, lush piano and smooth harmonies. And the lyrics and hooks are catchy, at least, if not life-altering. I have to admit my ignorance. I’ve only heard a few songs off their latest The Walk (I haven’t been able to find it in stores here), but those few songs seem to carry the same vibe.

Here’s the bottom line: It would be easy for anyone to write them off as brain-rotting nostalgia of an era that ended when Justin Timberlake decided to have a solo career. But they proved years ago that the easiest way isn’t always right, so maybe they’re worth another spin anyway.

“You can’t say I didn’t give it, I won’t wait another minute, We’re on our way this time around, and we won’t go downAll I know is that fear has got to go this time around”

-This Time Around

xoAngiOnTrack

Because you're so smooth

2008-09-15T00:26:00.000-07:00

When my Dad won tickets to Santana’s show on Sept. 10, 2008, I knew that if nothing else, legendary acts of his calibre rarely disappoint in a live setting. I have to admit my ignorance when it comes to Santana’s music. His career dates back to the mid-‘60s, but my knowledge of him basically began with 1999’s Smooth (Black Magic Woman and Oye Como Va notwithstanding, because I knew them vaguely, but never paid any attention until recently).

I typically try to listen to a band’s music in some detail before I see them live. It’s just easier to get involved with music when you’re at least vaguely familiar with it. But I didn’t have that chance this time, because the tickets only came up at the last minute. So I tried to go into the experience free of expectations.

Opener’s, the Salvador Santana Band, fronted by Carlos Santana’s son, failed to impress. Sometimes nepotism reveals that talent runs in families, and sometimes it just opens you up to unflattering comparisons. In their defence, getting a Saddledome-sized crowd comprised mostly of 40+ year old Santana fans excited about music other than what they came to see would be a feat for any band. But really Salvador, either hire a keyboardist who can’t significantly upstage you vocally, or just stop singing. And rap-like shout-outs aren’t likely to win you friends among your Dad’s fanbase.

Santana played about as beautifully as one might expect. He can get his guitars to do things that thousands have imitated but none have nailed because his style remains distinctive to this day.

The stage was also set up well for the venue. A huge screen hung above the band, letting even the nosebleeds see the faces of the band. The backdrop was studded with lights that eventually lit up, suggesting a field of stars.

But a bloated percussion section nearly ruined the show for me. Three percussionists are arguably excessive for anyone, but letting every one of them go off on their own 5-minute-long tangent while the rest of the band disappeared offstage was too much. At some point, encouraging the crowd to cheer and clap goes from involving and fun to egotistical and wankerous.

The entire show lasted about 45 minutes longer than it should have. The encore, in particular, was too long, lasting at least half an hour (including a “drum solo” which seemed nearly endless).

Ultimately, Santana fails to really connect with me because at heart, I’m a punk-rocker who loves two-minute long songs that end with gear-destroying fits, not a hippie who can wax poetic on the benefits of the psychedelic jam. But clearly Santana deserves his status as one of the essential guitarists of the last 50 years.

And really, when else am I going to have the chance to see someone who played Woodstock?

"And it's just like the ocean under the moon, It's the same as the emotion that I get from you/You got the kind of loving that can be so smooth, yeah, give me your heart, make it real or let's forget about it"

-"Smooth" by Santana and Rob Thomas

xoAngiOnTrack

"Lace up your shoes (A O A O ah)/Here's how we do"

2008-08-23T09:42:00.000-07:00

Alas, volume two on warped tour. I know it took forever to post. I was on vacation, and working like crazy. Oh who am I kidding, that's no excuse. Anyway, here it is; the second half of my warped 2008 adventure.

Oh, and if you haven't already read it, go here first to read part 1.

Another short break before I caught Florida band We the Kings playing the Hurley stage. They were a fun band, and a good set of performers. I think this band is one to watch because they really have the right recipe for serious popularity; swoon-worthy lyrics (“We’ll write a song that turns out the lights, when both boy and girl are suddenly shaking inside”), young, swoon-worthy band members (particularly red-headed, singer/lyricist Travis Clark who probably never thought he’d be a heartthrob), and the kind of pop sensibilities that make radio play a (relatively) simple endeavour.

Their album sounds like summer for a teenager, almost in love, and desperate to know what the future holds while still hanging onto the past. It’s new music to me, and yet it makes me utterly nostalgiac for high school because it’s both familiar and beautiful.

After another break, I headed to the mainstage for the first time in the day, to see part of The Bronx’s set. I actually heard them first from the Snakes on a Plane soundtrack, but they are significantly harder sounding that that song lets on. I enjoyed their set, but had to skip the better part of it to set up for the next part of my day.

By mid-afternoon, after waiting at a specified meeting place, it was time to go backstage to wait to go on with Angels & Airwaves. Being on the side of the stage, and seeing the dedication of that crowd, shouting, dancing, throbbing and clapping back at Tom Delonge’s every word was truly one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever had. If I couldn’t before, I would certainly now be able to understand how addictive that feeling is, of having a crowd of people all looking to you for that moment’s happiness. It’s truly a beautiful thing.

But of course, all too soon it was time to leave. The next mainstage band was Gym Class Heroes, who I had first seen perform at Warped '06, and was impressed by them then. However, frontman Travis McCoy’s intoxication would have been obvious even if he hadn’t told the audience how drunk he was, and maybe I’m just getting old, but I’m really not impressed by slurring drunks undoing their pants onstage, even on their birthdays.

Besides, The Audition and Mayday Parade were both playing at the same time as GCH, and I really wanted to make an appearance at both of their sets. First, I hit up The Audition’s set at the tiny battle of the bands stage. I was just glad they were playing at all because they weren’t listed on the main board, despite the website listing them as playing for the whole tour.

I can only figure that the reason they were relegated to a stage like this was a personal vendetta, a grievous error on someone’s part, or just the 28 month break between their fantastic debut and equally fantastic sophomore albums. They are an amazing live band, and I can’t believe they haven’t taken off in popularity to rival other Chicago bands like Fall Out Boy, Rise Against and The Academy Is... . The small group of fans that gathered to watch them were obviously devoted (myself included) and knew the words to their songs perfectly, helping Danny Stevens sing them out, though he definitely didn’t need the help. Please see this band, buy their albums and support them. (This is where you can tell I’m not trying to be fair and unbiased)

I tore myself away before their last song to see another band I’d never seen perform, Mayday Parade. It figures that they would be playing the same set time halfway across the venue from one another. Luckily, I caught the last 10 minutes or so of MP’s set, and I think they were competent performers with the necessary stage presence to keep an audience well entertained. Derek Sanders was obviously a talented singer, and I was particularly impressed by guitarist Alex Garcia’s solos.

All Time Low were the next band I stayed around for. I first saw them play Warped when their Put Up Or Shut Up EP was out, and thought they were great performers. Alex Gaskarth is one of the best live vocalists out there. He has no trouble hitting the high notes from the recorded versions of their songs, and doesn’t pull any punches. They obviously love what they do, and they do it well.

Back to the mainstage and it was time for legendary punks The Vandals. If I could only say one thing about this band, it’s that they really know how to pick a set list from their long catalogue of songs. They played favourites Oi to the World and My Girlfriend’s Dead, and covered Sheena is a Punk Rocker by the Ramones and Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen. I have high expectations for any band that has existed since prior to my birth, because if they haven’t figured out how to perform well yet, they usually don’t continue playing. The Vandals met those expectations, and I’m so pleased I got to see such an enduring band play live.

I saw a little bit of Relient K and they were their typical selves; fun, a little bit dull, and talented enough performers. Unfortunately, nothing to write home about.

Up next was Motion City Soundtrack. They are another band that knows how to pick a set list, playing songs from their first album (including My Favourite Accident and The Future Freaks Me Out) all the way up to new material. I was also surprised to realize, when I got home, that I had caught Moog/Keyboard player Jesse Johnson doing one of his trademark handstand/kick/insanity moves on video (viewable on my youtube account).

Say Anything was next and they also didn’t fail to meet expectations. Max Bemis performs like he records; loud, brash, swinging wildly between almost too sarcastic and almost too honest, and yet oddly endearing all the while. Bemis is like so many other wildly talented people in having struggled with mental illness and drug addiction, and my only hope is that he will persevere, because I know we’ve haven’t seen the depths of his potential at only 24 years old.

I stood back to see parts of Rise Against’s set. It was late, and I just wasn’t willing to force my way through the enourmous crowd. Tim McIlrath is another alumni of the Chicago Hardcore scene from the ‘90s, and that experience seems to have served him, and so very many others, quite well (everyone from Fall Out Boy to Alkaline Trio to The Lawrence Arms, let’s face it, the list of current bands who hail from Chicago is miles long).

By this point, I was exhausted, but I only had one other band on my list that I hoped to catch, so I waited until Cobra Starship, the second last band of the day, took the mainstage. I’ve been listening to Gabe Saporta since Save the World, Lose the Girl, and was sort of morbidly curious about this band, that I really thought was a ruse that would last about as long as Snakes on a Plane did in theatres.

But to be honest, I was actually fairly taken by this band’s set. They were a little over the top, but at least it was a self-aware over the top. They were all strong performers, and I particularly enjoyed the guest spots during “Snakes on a Plane,” including We The Kings vocalist Travis Clark taking on William Beckett’s part (though why Beckett, of The Academy Is..., and Travis McCoy, of Gym Class Heroes, didn’t perform themselves is a mystery given that both were on the tour as well).

They played a fun set, though I can’t say I cared for Saporta’s childish attitude. When he asked the audience members to raise a fist with him, he taunted those who didn’t, including a teenage boy near me who flipped him off. Rather than acting his 28 years, Saporta sunk to the kid’s level, and lower, calling him a fag, and making empty threats. I think it’s all too easy to forget, you’re always one misstep away from being right off the stage and back in the audience, and that even when you don’t feel like it, in the public eye you should act the part of a role model, not a spoiled child.

Anyway, that was about when my day ended. It took me hours to get from my parking spot to the highway (note to self, don’t stay until after 8 next year, and expect to be home before 10). It took a lot of soap to wash off the dirt, sweat and leftover sunscreen, but I’m still basking in the glow that Warped 2008 left with me. And no, I don’t mean, my sunburn.

"Run baby run, don't ever look back/They'll tear us apart if you give them the chance/Don't sell your heart, don't say we're not meant to be/Run baby run, forever will be you and me"

"Check Yes Juliet" by We The Kings

xoAngiOnTrack

"The needle dropped/The track was hot/We began to rock/Our eyes were locked"

2008-08-10T20:52:00.001-07:00

My mission: to actually maintain a music-centric blog for a sustained period. I am forever wanting to, and never actually doing it, so this is, in a way, an experiment for me. Since I've spent the last week writing an intense and long ode to this year's Warped Tour date, I will start slow and post half of it (giving me something to post in a few days, given that I'm ridiculous enough to start this when I am unbelieveably busy and procrastinating like there's no tomorrow. So, without further ado:

Oh, Warped tour. Nothing makes me feel more high-maintenance than spending an entire day outdoors on dirt and pavement with nothing but tap water out of a truck, dust in your eyes and port-o-potties.
And nothing is quite as much fun.

My day started early. By 9, I was waiting to meet Lisa, the Warped Reporter who held the fate of my day in her hands. Once she found a group of us, she sent us out to collect answers to marketing related questions on palm pilots. The surveys were awfully long, and I almost feel badly for the people who got suckered into answering all those questions just for me to get a wristband into the show.

But not badly enough to give up my wristband.

Anyway, we got led in around the crowd about 10 minutes before the gates were opened, picked shows to go onstage for in small groups and then we were free to get warped.
The first band I went to, I must admit, I hadn’t even heard of just two weeks before the show. But I was visiting my 15-year-old cousin in Regina, and showed her the list of bands playing, and one of the ones she immediately picked out was Family Force 5.

As they were the only early band I had any real interest in, I headed to the Hurley stage (basically the acts not quite big enough for one of the mainstages, these are often the acts who will see mainstage action next year), for what Soul Glow Activatur (a.k.a. Solomon Olds, FF5 lead vocalist) aptly called the “coffee and doughnuts show” of the day, 11:15 am.

While mildly disappointed with the lack of coffee or doughnuts, I was, without a doubt, impressed by this band. Though they may look the part, they are not like so many bands out there; fresh high school drop outs who grabbed some of their friends and made a myspace page which rocketed them to massive fame. Not that I’m referring to any particular it-band containing, say, a famous country singer’s tattooed stepson, or anything.

With their Skelanimals t-shirts, long, dark hair and tight jeans, they certainly seem to subscribe to the current “emo” aesthetic, but that’s where the similarities end. Because while the new crop of emo bands tend toward sad and angry songs about being wronged by girls, dumped by friends and misunderstood by adults, FF5 don’t even venture in that direction.

In fact their songs are all designed to get your ass up and shaking, combining extremely diverse influences into funky dance songs. If I had to describe their sound, I would say start with one part Kanye West, and remove the egotistical ridiculousness, before putting it in a blender with one part hardcore screamo band and one part funky bass.

They describe themselves as crunk rock influenced by the Power Rangers, and though their sound is hard to describe, it’s infectious, addictive and the perfect start to a day of summer punk rock fun. Their stage show is filled with the right mix of bravado, dancing and leaping around like animals to make it damn near impossible to sit still. I was, and still am, thoroughly impressed by them.

When their set ended, I headed to the Horrorpops at the Hurley.com stage. I will admit that I am biased strongly in favour of Patricia Day, if only because I really think we need more kick ass women who aren’t afraid to be feminine and punk at the same time, and who have actual talent to back it up. She certainly proved she is all those things, and they played a great set.

After a short sunscreen reapplication break, I watched Ludo’s set. Again (I will say it a few more times yet), I was very impressed. Having discovered them through seeing them play on The Tonight Show, I wasn’t sure what to think.

You see, with lyrics like “Kill me romantically/fill my soul with vomit then ask me for a piece of gum/bitter and dumb/you’re my sugarplum,” I felt it was integral to know, are they serious? Because if they wrote lyrics like that without so much as a smirk, then I would have a lot of trouble enjoying their music. But as luck would have it, seeing them play live has convinced me that this band isn’t likely to write much without tongues firmly in cheek and an eyebrow raised. And that’s just how I like it.
They were energetic showmen, with lead singer Andrew Volpe providing all the swagger punk rock needs, lead guitarist Tim Ferrell providing all the talent punk rock sometimes lacks, and the rest of the band providing the balance that punk rock certainly deserves.

That's about enough for today. There's still another half day to come, but I'm going to hold off. Besides, I know it's far too long. It's like a bloody feature article, but with no voices but my own. Ah well...until then...

"'I love your song'/'Yeah, girl, sing along'/She said "DJ's make my heart ache,' I said 'Baby, watch the place shake like an earthquake.'"

"Earthquake" by Family Force 5

xoAngiOnTrack

PS: Now that it's posted, you can go here for part 2.