The Loop : Looking Back on 2000 - 2003

So we've reached the end of October and the end of revisiting albums from 2000-2003. Already this has been a tremendous ride, going back through these records, many of which I hadn't listened to other than a few songs here and there in YEARS. Of the 10 years we're going through, these were the most defining and helped broaden my understanding of music, among other things, from an early age. As I touched on in my Five Iron Frenzy post, I was a kid who was made fun of a lot growing up, for no real reason. That coupled with moving to a new state made it hard for me to really connect. But then I had music. So much of these records were my safety during those troubling adolescent times and I will never be able to replace those moments when all that felt right was Five Iron Frenzy.

This was before the MySpace explosion happened and while we were all still finding out about shows through flyers outside of The Nile. It was music's last gasp of being organic and while so much of the internet has advanced music, it really doesn't compare to the hours spent piecing together a mixtape manually, or having someone run up to you and force you to put on their headphones so they could play you a song. I'm amazed to think of how many of my current friends were probably at the same shows I was at and how we didn't even know we'd find that bond later on. It's been cool to hear feedback from friends on some of these records and memories we had in common, which is exactly what I wanted this series to do. I hope you've found something that struck a chord and forced you to revisit your favorite records.

I'm excited to move forward to albums from 2004 - 2006 during November, which involved records from the end of high school and beginning of college. I started to look at music differently as I started "working" in music, which is good and bad, but I think it will make some of these more interesting.

But before we close this chapter, here is a list of records that I wanted to include on this list, but didn't feel I had enough to say except "DUDE, THIS RECORD IS SO AWESOME". And they are. You should listen to them:

• Modest Mouse - The Moon and Antarctica
• Alkaline Trio - From Here to Infirmary
• The Movielife - This Time Next Year
• Finch - What it is to Burn
• The Ataris - End is Forever
• Adam Panic - We All Do
• At the Drive In - Relationship of Command
• All American Rejects - S/T
• Green Day - Warning
• Hot Hot Heat - Make Up the Breakdown
• MEST - Wasting Time
• Kings of Convinence: Quiet is the New Loud
• Nickel Creek - s/t
• The Oranges Band - All Around
• The Rocket Summer - Calendar Day

And a reminder of what we DID go over, in case you want to circle back:

• Saves the Day - Stay What You Are
• Vagrant Records - Another Year on the Streets Vol. 2
• Rocky Votolato - Suicide Medicine
• Limbeck - Hi, Everything's Great
• Midtown - Save the World, Lose the Girl
• Acoustic Christmas 2003
• The Format - Interventions and Lullabies
• Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Hearts of Oak
• Dashboard Confessional - Swiss Army / Places
• Death Cab for Cutie - The Photo Album
• Bright Eyes - Lifted, or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground
• The Desaparecidos - Read Music / Speak Spanish
• Coheed and Cambria - The Second Stage Turbine Blade
• Incubus - Morning View
• Something Corporate - Leaving Through the Window / North
• Ben Kweller - Sha Sha
• The Weakerthans - Left and Leaving
• Taking Back Sunday - Tell All Your Friends
• And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead - Source Tags and Codes
• The Bens - s/t
• Ben Folds - Speed Graphic
• RX Bandits - Progress
• Sparta - Wiretap Scars
• Onelinedrawing - Visitor
• Further Seems Forever - The Moon is Down
• Motion City Soundtrack - I Am the Movie
• New Found Glory - s/t
• Psoma - Fear the Penguin
• Brand New - Deja Entendu
• Codename:Rocky - Infinity
• The Shins - Oh Inverted World / Chutes Too Narrow
• In Memory of Five Iron Frenzy

Here's to continuing on this journey. Cheers!

The Loop : In Memory of Five Iron Frenzy

Five Iron Frenzy

1995-2003

A few of the records on my 2000-2003 list I purposely saved for last, such as New Found Glory and Brand New. However this particular band I wanted to save for VERY last because of how much they meant to me. I'm even breaking my own rules by including albums before 2000, because this bands comprehensive work affected me from the minute I first heard them. They were unapologetic about so many aspects of their careers and truly embody everything I wanted to revisit over these next few months.

We moved to Arizona in 1996 because my mother got a job at a new church working in children's ministry. This was a huge change for us and as my brother and I were both getting into "youth group" ages (10 and 14, respectively) we began getting involved in the youth groups of this new church. I was a little young, but my brother started hanging out with some boys in the group who often went to concerts together, even as a youth group. I had very little understanding of "christian" music outside of hymns and maybe Amy Grant or Michael W. Smith. My brother's friends took him to the "Ska Against Racism" tour in Phoenix (when I was WAYYY too young to go to shows) and saw a band called Five Iron Frenzy.

A few months later, we were up at our grandparent's cabin in New Mexico for Thanksgiving. My brother had the CD and for one reason or another I hadn't heard it and my family wanted to hear it as well. I remember rushing up the stairs and opening up the stereo system my grandfather had wired for the house. We crouched down on the carpet and put in Our Newest Album Ever! and started with the song "Handbook for the Sellout". Instantly I became obsessed with it, something I hadn't really felt for music yet, and I attribute this exact moment to guiding me where I am today. It was that simple.

This band became a part of so many milestones for me. They were my very first concert, which my parents were awesome enough to let me go to at age 11. Looking back, my parents were always cool with my love for music, letting me buy what I want and go to shows with my brother, and I thank them for it. I can even remember what I wore to my first show and that it was at First Baptist Church in Phoenix, in a space they called "Marvin's Place". I got a gnarly bloody nose and everyone thought that I had gotten hit by a crowdsurfer. I've never felt so punk rock. I have images in my head of that entire evening and just how infinite I felt when they played "Every New Day". I remember meeting some of my best friends at Five Iron Frenzy concerts and loving that that world and my church world could come together through this music. I found peace in songs like "Suckerpunch" as a kid who was teased pretty relentlessly for a while. I loved "Handbook for the Sellout" when I was trying to understand the punk rock music scene. I loved that there was a strong female in Jeff the Girl and the female perspective in songs like "One Girl Army" and "Something Like Laughter". I loved that I could feel okay about how I felt about faith with songs like "Every New Day", "On Distant Shores" and "Dandelions". I followed the band for the next six years, catching them live whenever I could, being at the record store the first day their albums came out. This was pre-iTunes at Midnight purchases and I can remember every single trip to pick up these records. I was the world's biggest champion of this band, learning how to draw their logo and telling everyone I could about them.

When I was a Senior in high school, I heard on the message boards that they were breaking up, mostly because the members were all getting older and they were at a good place to let it go. It really came at a poignant time for me as I was graduating high school, and this band was coming to an end. I ended up getting a part-time job because I wanted to save up to fly to Denver to see their last show. Ironically, it was because of that part-time job that I couldn't get off work to fly there (plus, I was 17, how on earth would I have pulled that off??) I ended up going to their last "mega" show (in leiu of my Senior year homecoming dance) at another church in Phoenix where they had a small table with tickets for an additional show the next night. I talked my parents into letting me go on a Sunday night and drove down with my friend Brad to see them at a small church in Mesa. There were about 150 kids there as they played in a small meeting hall. I am so glad I got to experience that show (video below!). The band passed around cookies, talked with the fans and everyone in the audience was a die-hard. I ended up having to go outside before the encore started because I started crying. This band meant so much to me and I even had the chance to tell Reese that after the show. I remember the drive home and Brad and I calling The Edge radio station to request a song during the ska/punk show. We finally got through and told the DJ we wanted to hear more Five Iron and he played it for us. I remember just being so insanely happy, despite that being the last time I'd see them play.



So why does this band mean so much? I don't have time to run through all of their records, but rather discuss what it was that made me feel so at home with them.

A) This was a band that showed me that christian music could rock: I never knew bands like this existed, nor that they were accepted in the Christian world. After hearing of Five Iron, I ended up getting into bands like the OC Supertones, the Insyderz, The W's, Ghoti Hook, Noggin Toboggan, MXPX, etc. It was a nice transition into some of the music I later got into for both myself and my parents to understand.

B) Because of their faith, their music meant a lot more: This band never apologized for being Christian. They would play with "secular" bands and were upfront about what they were about. It wasn't just asking people to consider faith, but moreso showing what faith can do to contribute. Many of their tours had a charity aspect and I recall bringing canned foods to that first show. Their lyrics weren't preachy but rather honest, sometimes tongue-in-cheek looks at organized religion. Reese was a man plagued by some of the shortcomings of his church but also praising them for the good things they have done. It was smart and progressive and encouraged making changes instead of dwelling on the negative.

C) This band was as human as I had ever seen in "rockstars": Weither it was because of their faith or not, this band felt as much like family to me as any band I have ever known. They were often times selling their own merch or in the audience talking to the fans. Reese refused to sign autographs, not because he felt above it, but because he felt it took away from what they were trying to do and putting the band on a pedastal. This was a family of 8 people who traveled in a school bus and who weren't really planning on being "rockstars" but resonated enough in people and recognized that enough to go ahead and go for it. Reese's lyrics were so honest and sometimes so dark and hard to hear. It brought up themes of knowing that the world is messed up and accepting being utterly human.

D) I don't know if I'll ever be as big of a music fan as I was for this band: This band happened before the avalanche of the internet and was as organic an experience as I will ever have as a fan. I found out about their shows through flyers handed out at other shows, not MySpace. I bought their tshirts when i saw them live, not on the internet. I bought every single one of their records in a record store and carried them with me everywhere. I can't even play my copy of Upbeats and Beatdowns. I learned about this band as humans, not as type on a wikipedia page. I jumped in the crowd and had every person's sweat on me and sang along to everything like I was the only one in the room. I will never dance as hard as I did for this music. It may have been my age, but the fact that I started to cry even writing this shows what kind of profound impact this band had on me.

This band existed in the campy ska world where bands were talking about beer and girls and martians from outer space. They embraced the christian scene and the "secular" scene and made no apologies. They were goofy and funny and honest and humble and made solid records with a solid message. Despite what your thoughts are on faith and religion, this band represents not only that, but the kind of music that can resonate in people from all walks and still make a 23 year old girl cry six years after they broke up.

I can't believe this was online. This is from the last show I saw in Phoenix. The quality isn't great, but I'm so happy I found this. My brain just flooded with memories


And even more amazing, a new DVD documentary about them coming out next winter! I can't wait!

The Loop : The Shins - Oh Inverted World / Chutes Too Narrow

The Shins - Oh Inverted World (2001) and Chutes Too Narrow (2003)

Yeah, I'll admit it, I got into The Shins because of Garden State. I realize they were already buzzing in all the buzzworthy parts of the country, but I lived in suburban Arizona and information doesn't travel that fast to the desert (much like water). And honestly, despite the cliche that they've become in describing "coming-of-age" indie film soundtracks, the music just plain WORKED in that context and clearly made an impression on most 20-somethings who stumbled across it.

However, despite immediately picking up the Garden State soundtrack, it didn't really connect for me right away. I was fully content with hearing Caring is Creepy and New Slang amoungst the other lo-fi tunes, not taking that next step to album purchase for one reason or another, just starting school, obsessively listening to Jimmy Eat World's new record instead, etc. . I probably didn't have any reason at all, I was just dumb.

A few weeks after Christmas of 2004 I was playing with my new iPod (which I had purchased for myself), the most high-tech of gadgets I had gotten thus far. Less than a year before that, I was still carrying around a walkman and mixtapes, so this was quite the endeavor. I went over to my best friend Jayme's house at some point while she was home from school in Oregon. We ended up doing a big record exchange and having spent a semester nearby to Portland and all that was "happening" in music, she had picked up some great stuff. She ended up having a compilation of Shins songs, Oh Inverted World and Chutes Too Narrow jumbled up on one CD. I ripped it onto my computer and it sat in my consciousness for a while.

This also started my habit of listening to records on shuffle, something I had only manually done on mixtapes. I had no concept of what song belonged to what record and ended up experiencing all of them as an entire body of work rather than individual albums. I sometimes find myself grappling with that idea and which, as a music fan, should be preferred. I look at a record like Jimmy Eat World's Clarity and I get nervous thinking of it out of sequence. I have a feeling that Mercer and crew probably meant for the records to be experience as albums, but hey, they probably meant for me to discover them outside of the most hipster cliche movie and I failed at that, too.

No matter how it is experienced, The Shins created two records that are so sonically haunting and unlike anything I had really ever heard before. Mercer's vocals are now some of the most familiar while screening my iPod and often times I find a sense of comfort in revisiting some of the songs. The ironic part of this music not reaching Arizona (or at least, me) is that they came from our neighboring state of New Mexico, which is such a mindnumbingly boring state, I have no idea how something so beautiful can come from a state that is so often a pitstop for most bands. But maybe that's just it. Maybe music doesn't have to come from somewhere as bustling as New York, or the community I found in Arizona. It exists in the quiet of a state like New Mexico and in whatever sequence it feels like.

. . . But seriously, from ALBUQUERQUE???

Surprisingly the first time posting a La Blogotheque sesh. These videos are brilliant.

The Loop : Codename:Rocky - Infinity

Codename : Rocky - Infinity (2002)

It's amazing that in this journey through the last 10 years of albums, I have very few ska bands on the list. The short version is that many of my favorite ska records came out before 2000, which disqualifies a good chunk of some seriously influential music. This is sad for a few reasons, namely because what ska meant to me in high school. It wasn't even as much about the music but about the community I found in other ska fans in Arizona. I was able to branch out from simply the kids at my school (approx 3 1/2 of them that liked my music) and meet people in any situation. It was a community of good people who just loved music and spending time together, constantly trying to reimagine what a "scene" was and how best to utilize it. Despite Arizona bands gaining more national attention, it has yet to mi mick the unity encouraged by the AZska scene.

Codename : Rocky was the first band I ever saw in The Nile basement, so that in and of itself holds a place in my heart. I had gotten really into their first album, No Time to Waste through my brother who bought the record after I believe we saw them open for Five Iron Frenzy (?) We had just gotten Infinity a few weeks back and between trading back and forth with my bro and the lack of portability in music back then, I felt like I really only had a few times to sit with the album, certainly not enough for the unadulterated rocking I wanted to do that night.

The show started and there were a few opening acts, DESA and The Forces of Evil (f/Aaron Barrett from Reel Big Fish ; the ska nerds were in full force that night) Codename:Rocky was technically the headliner and as I recall had a pretty good crowd. This was one of those really awesome show moments where you realize just how much you love a band and their albums. They started by playing several songs off Infinity and I found myself getting worked up with each song that I suddenly knew by heart. I distinctly recall rocking with few inhibitions during "My Heart in Hand" and "Surrounded", dancing with my fellow AZSka friends and not caring what people were thinking. I can't remember the last time that happened for me at a show.

All in all, I appreciated Codename:Rocky in the ska genre because it was much darker, much smarter and much less campy than a lot of the stuff I had been listening to. They seemed to clean themselves up from the last record, not finding an excuse in the carefree nature of ska music, instead creating a solid and rocking record. It was much more Less than Jake and Catch 22 than The Aquabats or Reel Big Fish. Ska always teetered the line between brilliant and cheesy, which I'm afraid polarized a lot of fans and kept it from keeping the momentum of the '96 ska revival. However in 2002 it was fully alive and bursting at the seams in that basement.

Bringing up this album was partly an excuse to bring up the old ska scene, but also because to this day where I have a hard time revisiting my ska records, this one seems to maintain seamlessly within my iPod shuffle, proving that maybe someday it can make a comeback again.

The Loop : Brand New - Deja Entendu

Brand New - Deja Entendu (2003)

This was obviously a record I wanted to hate. Back in the days before the internet really caught on, Brand New experienced a relatively mainstream rise to "fame" within the scene, getting several spins on TV and radio for "The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows" and "Sic Transit Gloria". For some reason that rubbed me the wrong way because I didn't discover them organically like most of my other music, so I passed it off as overrated and went on my way.

The ironic part is that because I was hearing them everywhere on TV and radio, it started to click. I started piecing things together, then downloading "The Quiet Things" after enough repetition had it in my head for days on end. I had several friends who were trying to talk me into this band and I really liked the video for "Sic Transit" so I downloaded that too. Eventually I gave in and purchased the whole record, slowly working it into my life, clips for the tv announcements and mixtapes.

Aside from my original hesitation, this is an exceptional record. Maybe I just felt because it got so popular so fast, it was too easy? Yet it wasn't. It was as complicated and dark as I'd imagine Jesse Lacey is and plays out as a stream of consciousness of a clearly off-kilter guy. But from some of the biggest crazies comes some of the best lyrics, and I can say that Jesse is probably one of my all-time favorite lyricists, which is saying a lot. How can you top, "wasting words on lower cases and capitals", "one hundred foot faces of God's good ocean gone wrong" and "you laugh at every word trying hard to be cute, I almost feel sorry for what I'm going to do." ??? There's a fine line in emo music for being too optimistic or too dramatic and Brand New teeters on that line, not saying things for shock value or exaggeration, but simply making honest observations of just how dark humans can be.

And the music is brilliant, right? "Jaws Theme Swimming" has one of my all-time favorite opening riffs.

If I were in a band, I'd listen to Deja Entendu and wonder if I could ever top a record like this. Or even just a song like "Play Crack the Sky". . . to be honest, not even Brand New has . . . yet.

The Loop : Psoma - Fear the Penguin

Psoma - Fear the Penguin (2002)

You know why I love this record? Because I love Kory McCarthy.

Kory was (and still is) one of my best friends in high school. We met when we were roughly 15 years old through mutual friends/internet. The first time we hung out, we were dancing with the other AZSka folk at The Nile during a Five Iron Frenzy show. From then on, I made my way to South Scottsdale often to hang out with him and the Saguaro boys, which mostly consisted of some variation of playing music, video games, boy jokes and burritos. After growing up with an older brother and family friends with pairs of boys, I felt more than comfortable with these dudes. They were my family. I miss that family. :/

One of my first memories of Kory was his worn in Psoma penguin teeshirt. Upon further investigation, Kory spiraled into, "OMG YOU HAVE TO HEAR PSOMA!". As the girl who usually tells other people what to listen to, it was amazing to have someone tell me I had to listen to something. That's not to say I did right away, though. I'm sure I told him several times that I would, but never got around to it, not to mention it was hard to find. He played me the album at one point in his car, starting me on the song "Naked", mostly because we thought the title was hilarious. He also gushed on the awesomeness of a lyric like "I'm underemphasized and overcomplicated in "PRJ" and how genius the entire record was. After finally convincing me, I remember I had to bring him a blank CD at a show in order to get a copy, and had to wait until the next show in order to get it. I believe we may have made a trade here? I remember being really excited to hear this record because I was so excited about my new family and the idea of sharing and experiencing music. I love humanizing music and putting it into contexts, and when I think of this record, I will ALWAYS think of Kory.

Psoma was formed by a former member of the band Nerf Herder and created an exceptionally early 00's album. It took what was good about the mid-90's and updated it with some cool punk undertones and insanely catchy melodies. It was something that didn't really fit in with the Warped Tour scene, and unfortunately came in at the wrong time post-90's. I have no concept of this band's reach or success, but if you asked Kory, they were the biggest band in the world. I'm glad I wasn't busy quantifying success in any other capacity back then. We should all be able to champion a band so well and hope it sticks like this did for me almost 8 years later. Thanks Kory.

Posting EPK's on blogs is lame, but since their video content is limited, this at least gives you a nice run down of many of the tracks. Plus, check out that early 00's fashion!

The Loop : New Found Glory - S/T

New Found Glory - S/T (2000)

I've spent this entire month going through nearly 50 albums scratched down on sheets of paper that I've carried in my purse. I went in no particular order and as we are at the end of October, I'm down to a handful of my high school/early college records. I've scrolled past New Found Glory's self-titled record several times, rationalizing with myself that I need to save it for a special occasion. Since I wasn't able to post all last week and we're nearing the end of this period, I think it's time to bust out the big guns.

Full credit goes out to my brother for introducing me to this record. I still remember taking his copy, grabbing my disc-man and taking my dog for a walk around the vicinity of 60th Street and Greenway until the record was over. Several of the songs would find their way into my mixtapes and I even took the album booklet and taped it to the inside of my locker (before they took our lockers away . . . nice work, AZ) I investigated all things New Found Glory and participated in various message boards, etc. I remember playing "Sincerely Me" over the phone for a friend because I loved the song so much and thought they would too (this before the days of pointing to someone's MySpace) And the final fan girl move? Writing the lyrics to "Hit or Miss" in white-out pen on my binder.

I had no issue in being this cliche. Now that I'm old and jaded and hang out daily with other old and jaded industry folk, I find myself apologizing for liking certain bands. I've even bypassed revisiting some of this records at work for fear of being made fun of by my colleagues. I'll use New Found Glory as a benchmark for other cutesy pop punk bands and their overzealous fans but you know what? That's because they were at the forefront of all this and they did set the tone for several years of pop punk bands. It's hard to believe that some of these bands now will talk about New Found Glory the way that some bands talk about the Pixies, but you cannot deny their cultural influence with this flawless compilation of pop-rock.

When I thought about "10 Years of Unapologetic Albums", this was #1 (even over some of the ska bands) Laugh all you want, but I'd be hard pressed to find another time in my life where I was MORE passionate about one band or one album. I would rather have the butterflies of revisiting this record and screaming at the top of my lungs at their shows for this one band than 10 bands I only like haphazardly. There should never be anything haphazard about music, or anything to apologize for.

I love this record.

While I think this may have been the Nothing Gold Can Stay version of this song, it has Corey Feldman in it and that's pretty awesome.

The Loop : BRB Internet

So it's that time of year. The annual CMJ Music Festival has begun in New York City and I will be out of commission for the next few days as I hang with my Sony College Marketing staff. I'll be back to finish up this period (2000-2003) on October 26th. I've saved some of the best (and most embarrassing) for last, so stay tuned. . .

-Smashley

PS- Would love to hear what YOUR favorite records were the last 10 years. Post them in the comments or visit our Facebook fan page (search "Seven Watt Media" and post your thoughts under the "discussions" tab.

Please enjoy this baby dancing to "Single Ladies" while you wait

The Loop : Motion City Soundtrack - I Am the Movie

Motion City Soundtrack - I Am the Movie (2003)

In honor of Motion City Soundtrack releasing a new single today, I decided there was no better "folding and hanging up laundry" soundtrack than Motion City Soundtrack.

I wish I had something better to say than, "Man, what a great f-in record", but that's pretty much exactly what I said the minute I turned it on. I've talked about a lot of really good records and really meaningful records, but this is a GREAT record.

It had everything and more of what was expected in the early 2000's. Insanely catchy choruses, lots of spectacle and the sort of awkward charm that won over a whole herd of awkward girls to this genre/scene. However, it's lasted this long because of how strong it was musically and how it stood out because of it's use of synth layered with powerful vocals.

It featured one of my favorite lines of all time, "Singing songs from the balcony as the city crumbles." which I feel accurately portrays the sort of infinite feeling this album gives you.

The Loop : Further Seems Forever - The Moon is Down

Further Seems Forever - The Moon is Down (2001)

There was an awesome period in my life where my brother worked at Blockbuster, had just purchased a Playstation and we got to rent as many video games as we wanted. I've NEVER been a video game person (one of the few boy traits I never got . . . well, and sports) but for some reason I would spend hours on end playing Tony Hawk or Dave Mirra BMX.

I realize this is sort of a dumb/anticlimactic association, but there are a few albums that I'd listen to while playing these games and Further Seems Forever's first record, The Moon is Down is one of them. Hear me out. I'm a big believer in music licensing. I feel like a lot of radio is dead and irrelevant to so many kinds of bands, but there is something to be said about getting it in the "hearts and minds" of listeners. I fully believe that life needs a soundtrack, even if it's just the soundtrack to mindless video games. But that's just it. If I really want to get into a record, but I'm having a hard time, I'll "sleep on it". I'll put on the record while I'm sleeping and eventually I recognize it in my conscious state from my unconscious consumption of it. In listening to The Moon is Down while trying to land some sweet jumps, I ended up making it one of my favorite records.

Aside from whatever that speech just was, I obviously got into the band because of the Chris Carabba association. It was nice to hear him rock for a change, this being before started adding a full band to his records. It crossed over into my Christian rock listening realm, despite being a pretty dark record. Carabba has always been notoriously wordy, but this record he seems to lump in a lot of vocab in a short amount of time. As many people know, Carabba soon left the band to become the emo poster child, and they rotated not one but TWO more lead vocalists before calling it quit. How to Start a Fire was a great record, although much more abrasive than Carabba. Such were the times.

I wish I had a more eloquent way to say why this is one of my favorite records, but you know what? I just enjoyed these tunes while trying to land some sweet jumps. Sweet.

Hey look! You can see the band play the entire record top to bottom. Thanks, internet!

The Loop : Sparta - Wiretap Scars

Sparta - Wiretap Scars (2002)

Those of you who know me know my die-hard allegiance to Arizona, despite being displaced on the East coast. I had my best years there and I doubt would have been the same person or be writing to you from Brooklyn without the community that fostered me there.

However, what a few don't know is that I actually spent the first 11 years of my life in El Paso, TX. My entire family is from there, my parents went to school there, met each other there and got married there. While I literally grew up there, it's safe to say that Arizona raised me. El Paso has it's charm, but I thank my parents every day for their decision for something better in Arizona (no offense, EP)

I spent so much of my time invested into Arizona local music that I sometimes forget that "local music" exists in El Paso. Since I was only 11 at the time, it's beyond me how local bands exists there. I'm totally unaware of the venues and any sort of music infrustructure despite it's proximity to Austin, etc.

But you know what I did know? At the Drive In.

My brother was just old enough when we moved (14) to have been aware of ATDI but still at the point where he was shuffling through Nirvana albums instead. Eventually ATDI became bigger than El Paso, and eventually became bigger than themselves, imploding faster than they were together and segmenting into The Mars Volta and Sparta. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate The Mars Volta in all their experimental glory, but if I want to see someone bang on a vaccum cleaner for 3 hours, I'll take a walk down Bushwick. Sparta had the melodic sensibilities that to this day I find more appealing than whatever "genius" experiemental music comes out of the woodwork.

Wiretap Scars featured the song Cut Your Ribbon, that brought the band more commercial success than The Mars Volta, but isolated the ATDI fans. The tone was still rather dark and Ward broke out into screaming fits, but the guitar arrangements were nothing short of beautiful on this record.

Unfortunately for Sparta, they never broke that glass ceiling that ATDI fans had created for them. Mars Volta continues to bang on vaccum cleaners while Jim plays solo shows under his own name. While Sparta has more or less dissolved, I just wanted to take the opportunity to declare that this record is way better than anything Mars Volta ever did. There, I said it.

Please note : Jimmy Eat World shout out! It all comes full circle, friends

The Loop : Onelinedrawing -Visitor

Onelinedrawing - Visitor (2002)

After crossing over into full blown obsession Junior year of high school, I tried to see Coheed and Cambria TWICE before actually getting to see them play live. The first time we drove all the way down to The Nile to see them open for Juliana Theory, only to found out they had temporarily broken up that afternoon and flew back to Nyack (obviously getting back together shortly after) We then tried to see them open for Thrice at the Bash on Ash, however their van had broken down somewhere in the middle of New Mexico, leaving them with only borrowed acoustic guitars instead of full blown rocking (that was still really awesome though) By the third time when the announced a headlining show at The Mason Jar, I was DYING to see them in their full form. We showed up and all instruments and band members were accounted for, so we were ready to rock.

After the opening band played the crowd was getting antsy. We expected another "rock" act to jump on stage, but instead it was just a dude and his guitar who called himself Onelinedrawing. We joked that he was the "older, awkward version of Chris Carraba" but found ourselves enjoying his music and banter and eventually following up in the "internet" later to find out more about him.

Turns out his name was Jonah Mantranga, and he had gone under several monkiers up to the point where we saw him randomly open for Coheed. He had been the frontman of two cult bands, New End Original (an anogram of Onelinedrawing . . . cute, right?) and Far then later Gratitude and finally under his own name.

To this day, my brother and I still refer to him as simply "Jonah", because regardless of his many personalities, he's just this nice guy who we like to see play. In talking to other fans, he's presented himself in the same way to them, creating a culture of honesty in both his music and his live performance. He sends out e-mail blasts highlighting events in his life and his music and putting hand scribbled notes in place of text on his website (where he also offers the "pay what you want" method for music and merch). Hell, the guy even named his first compilation of music, "Songs I Hope My Mom Will Like". He is as sincere as you can get without crossing that line into going through the "nice guy" motions, and I think it's obvious to his fans that he simply just loves what he does. He is always willing to talk not only after the show, but to the fans during the set. He's one of the few artists I can say creates an actual "experience" at his concerts, be it encouraging fans to sit on the floor with him or playing beats off of an R2D2 doll (which he later retired).

I think it's important to revisit all of his work, but for the sake of this blog and the time period we're working with, Visitor is his defining work. With lines like "it's time for a bit of in the bed disco", he's kept up his quirky charm in a record that overall feels very dark. Jonah has never taken himself too seriously and built up his fans not because he's always "re-inventing" himself in egotistical ways, but just because he likes music and wants to play it as much as he can, in whatever formation he can.

The Loop : RX Bandits - Progress

RX Bandits - Progress (2001)

I remember the first time I was called "emo".

I was heavily into the Drive-Thru Records roster in high school, bouncing from New Found Glory to The Movielife to Midtown and back again. When I heard that New Found Glory and RX Bandits were touring together and hitting Tempe's now defunct, Club Rio, I exploded. Buzzkill? It was on a Monday night. The rule in our house was that I could only go to concerts on weekends and if my brother was going. My brother was in fact going, but I knew this would be a hard one to get by the parents.

I did everything I could though, finishing all of my homework over the weekend, assuring there were no exams/quizzes/anything the following Tuesday at school. But they stood their ground. No go. Their consulation was that RX Bandits were doing a signing at Karma Records the afternoon of the show, but that just wasn't the same for me. I was fifteen, awkward and hormonal and I lost it. I ran into my bedroom and took the flyer for the show I had gotten a few weeks prior, tore it up and threw it all over my floor. I cried as many tears as I could and my brother came in a few hours later to check in on me. He looks at the yellow paper all over my floor and says, "Dude, you are SO emo!" After finding out what "emo" meant, I agreed, and surrendered to simply shaking Matt Embree's hand instead of seeing him rock on a school night.

I eventually did get to see the band live, although I can't remember when or where because I followed up dozens of other times. I was so upset because I had burned their album Progress into my brain. While I was busy crying and tearing up flyers, they were actually writing music about social change, way more than I could grasp at the time. Like The Desaparecidos, their music was lined with commentary against gentrification and largely against war and injustice. There were a few misplaced love songs like "Anyone But You" and "Infection" between heavy political tunes like "Babylon" and "Nothing Sacred". They teetered the line between ska, reggae and punk rock (as most third wave "ska" did) and found themselves either gaining or isolating their fans by not ever really embracing any genre, to this day.

This record was about as pop perfect as you could get, one of the smarter rock records I can remember from high school. Their live shows would sometimes spiral out of control as they spent about 25 minutes jamming new songs, only really engaging the "ska" audience when they brought out old 3:30 type tunes. The last time I saw them was when I was interning in NYC after my sophomore year of college. I guess even then I felt like I needed to defy "the man" since I had been deprived of their show all those years back. But that doesn't really clear up me being "emo", no matter how hard I try.

The Loop : Ben Folds - Speed Graphic

Ben Folds - Speed Graphic (2003)

One of my favorite memories happened the summer before my Senior year of high school. My brother and I, both die-hard Ben Folds fans, bought tickets to see him open up for Tori Amos during the "Whole Lotta Pianos Tour" at Downtown Phoenix's Dodge Theatre. We probably got there early and saw him play a good hour-long set, which we were thankful for since he was technically "opening". (I didn't see him play a headlining show until last year)

We decided to leave before Tori since neither of us were really fans, but in typical fan-kid fashion, we decided to track down Ben's tour bus and see if we could stalk out an autograph (what does one do with an autograph, anyway?) We were standing there with about 15 other of the dedicated waiting for Ben when I hear "ASHLEYYYYYYYYY!" from the distance. I see my friend Dave Gironda running/skipping down the alley in unapologetic excitement. Dave was always really happy, usually the one to start the dance pit at the ska shows where we had become friends. After waving hello he starts yelling, "BEN (expletive) FOLDS (explitive) BEN (explitive) (explitive) FOLDS!!!" I don't think I'll ever lose that image as long as I live (especially since I tell this story a lot; we should all hope to be that in love with music). We all geeked out when Ben came out appearing to be surprised and I had him sign my paystub. Classy.

A week or so later, myself and some of the other ska kids were meeting up at Del Taco in Mesa before/after a show and I run into Dave. He asks me if I've heard Ben's new EP, which I hadn't. He runs out to his car and gives me his copy straight from his CD player (which I still have, by the way) that had several b-sides and a copy of the EP, "Speed Graphic".

That disc burned a hole in my CD player the next few months. The EP itself kicked it off, with a cover of The Cure's "In Between Days". It was only five songs long, and would become the start of a series of three EP's that he would put out before his next full-length. I feel like this was a big transition from where he was with Rocking the Suburbs and where he went with Way to Normal. Songs for Silverman obviously came in between, but you started to feel where he was moving towards more rock songs and less stripped down piano that he did on songs like "Give Judy My Notice". These songs wove themselves in some of my best memories of my Senior year as I carried them with me everywhere and will always hold a place in setting that soundtrack.

Obviously, this was not how I got into Ben Folds. Clearly an album like Whatever and Ever Amen lit that fire and his solo debut of Rocking The Suburbs solidified that obsession. But seeing Dave so excited, remembering how I felt during that concert and listening to that record is something I haven't been able to replicate since. It was simply special.

The Loop : The Bens - Self-Titled EP

The Bens - Self- Titled EP (2003)

What do you do when you throw three nerd-icon super musicians with the same name in one room???

Well, The Bens, of course.

Seems simple enough, but can you even imagine what that first conversation was like? Here you have three geeky guys [Kweller, Lee and Folds] who have gained success from their individual awkwardness, forming what can only be called a "super group" for nerds. I only bring up the "nerd" fact as much as I have because it truly is what sets it apart from most other super groups. Most of those are led by ego, but I'd imagine this was truly just for the fun of it and for the fans. What was just a fun idea to go alongside an Australian tour of these Bens turned into a short, but thoughtful, EP that for the most part glided under the radar in the US except for some of us die-hard Ben fans (each Ben, respectively).

The tracklist consisted of an original track from each Ben, with the other Ben's backing them up. The first track, "Just Pretend", featured each Ben doing a solo and harmozing in collective geek-dom that is optimistic and makes me instantly happy each time. The other tracks became a treat for longtime fans who could pick out each Ben's musical style as they took the lead. Lee's track "X-Fire" featured some of his trademark synth, while Kweller's "Stop!" brought his more simple, spoken voice tone. However, the standout track was definitely Folds' "Bruised", a beautiful piano ballad that begins with what sounds like a rainstorm and features one of my favorite lines, "The world won't turn until something breaks." It's a track that could have easily been featured on one of his full length record, but I think needed to exist on this record for a reason.

There's really not much more to say. Just wanted to make sure this wasn't forgotten.

The Loop : And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead - Source Tags and Codes

And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead - Source Tags and Codes (2002)

For this band, it was truly a case of not judging a book by it's cover. One afternoon in high school, my brother busts into my room (like he often did) and says "Dude, wanna hear the most ridiculous band name ever I just heard? And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead!" We both got a good laugh out of it and batted back and forth our theories on how they were likely a death metal band and/or wore eyeliner. We then went back to our rooms and listened to bad pop-punk, but I digress . . .

Eventually, this band started following me everywhere. My brother would frequent the ASU record store, Hoodlums and pick up some of the swag they had around the counter and low and behold, there was a huge sticker for Trail of Dead that he brought home for me. I liked the design and still found the band name funny, so I stuck it on my briefcase (yes, briefcase, I was really awesome) and took it to school. At that point, the boy who I had a major crush on (who shall remain nameless as he and I are Facebook friends. Basically, he had sideburns at 15 and I loved him) came up to me and started talking about the sticker and how much he loved the band. Having not heard them at all, I hope I did a good job faking that I loved them too.

Later on I saw the video for "Relative Ways" on Subterranean and was blown away by how they WEREN'T what I thought at all. At some point during a miscellaneous record store trip, I ended up stumbling upon the record and buying it. Oddly enough, a big reason being that I liked the cover.

Needless to say, the record blew me away. It was complicated and dark while feeling unpolished and sometimes muted. The force behind having a set of dueling drummers instead of just one set a tone for some incredibly heavy songs that to this day feel so complex that I find new sections I hadn't heard before. Their follow up record, Worlds Apart was an even stronger record, but this is clearly the album that pushed this band into the forefront and created an indie rock frenzy that still packs some pretty large rooms to this day.

However the only thing I was dissapointed with was when I finally saw them play live in college. Despite all the complexities, they seemed to just be phoning it in. They were so wrapped up in the sequence that it almost felt like they were just going through the motions. I might have just caught a bad night, but I think that coupled with the fact that they have yet to really be defined has created a disconnect that has kept them hitting a glass ceiling all these years.

However, this record did connect with an entire legion of fans who were thankfully not stupid like me and gave this band a chance, despite their complicated name.

The Loop : Taking Back Sunday - Tell All Your Friends

Taking Back Sunday - Tell All Your Friends (2002)

I highly suggest any of you who were even remotely involved in the early '00's emo/punk scene to see a film called "Bastards of Young". Looking at it from a critical perspective, it's not anything groundbreaking, but it fascinates me in that it serves as a time stamp to that culture before it was completely inundated by the internet. The same goes for the book, "Nothing Feels Good : Punk Rock, Emo and Teenagers" by Andy Greenwald. These were documented in a pre-MySpace world! None of these bands were justifying their existance by their friend count or the amount of plays they got, which I feel has led the music industry down a shallow path. While those kinds of things are a great monitor of a band's reach, I'm far more compelled by how they interact with the fans. And in the Warped Tour/pop punk / neon wearing scene, you have the opportunity to reach fans who are actively reaching out to YOU. That is, until they get too old and too cool and stand in the back of the venues on their Blackberry's instead of in the front getting trampled (I'm looking in the mirror myself here too, friends) At any rate, I posted the trailer for the film below the TBS video, it's on NetFlix instant play if you're interested.

I bring up this film and my rant because Taking Back Sunday was one of the main bands that was focused on. Their scene began outside of a record store where they were supposed to do an in-store, however were forced outside by the fire-marshall because a fan's mom called the cops when her daughter couldn't get in because of capacity. (seriously) They set up their PA outside and played acoustic to fans in the parking lot, many of which had adorned themselves in tshirts with their favorite songs and favorite lyrics. Their fans were like that across the board, relating so heavily to what were some actually really sadistic lyrics.

But at the risk of falling into a pun, this band thrived because everyone was "Telling All Their Friends" (har har har) It was the word of mouth that that scene thrived on for so many years and Taking Back Sunday was one of the lucky ones to have a really great record to back it up. Say what you will about what a characture the Warped Tour culture may have become, this is a fantastic album.

It was a lot angrier than the happy-go-lucky ska or the heart-on-my-sleeve singer songwriters I was ingesting at the time, almost taking me back with bittersweet (and now infamous) lyrics like "You could slit my throat and with my one last gasping breath I'd apolgize for bleeding on your shirt." Heavy stuff for a young-skewing band.

This band didn't apologize for their anger and sometimes tongue-in-cheek music. It was honest (although occasionally melodramatic) but allowed the listener to just face that sometimes love sucks and people are cruel and no matter how much we try and reason with ourselves, life just happens like that sometimes. At least now there's a soundtrack for it.

I was hoping to find the clip from "Bastards of Young", but no dice. But this has Flava Flav and that's still pretty sweet:


Trailer for "Bastards of Young":

The Loop: The Weakerthans - Left and Leaving

The Weakerthans - Left and Leaving (2000)

When I was 20, I moved myself to New York for the summer for an internship at a record label. I tend to be an impulsive person, and while it was several months in the making, the week leading up to me moving felt like I was diving into something I really wasn't prepared for. I had never lived away from my family and friends and I'm not sure I fully comprehended what I meant to be gone for two full months like that. But I'm stubborn and stuck through and well, here I am (freezing) in New York today.

Before I left, I was trying to find a fully appropriate "I'm leaving!" song to feature on my MySpace profile (yup, cause that's what I should have been worried about.) I asked my friend Benn if he knew of anything and he suggested "Left and Leaving" by The Weakerthans. I quickly read through the lyrics and deemed it profile-song worthy, eventually playing from my page over and over and over without actually committing to the album.

Fast forward a few weeks and I see tickets on sale for The New Amsterdams playing with The Weakerthans at Webster Hall. It was my goal to run a summer marathon of shows and since I was a big fan of New Amsterdams and liked that one Weakerthans song, I bought tickets (like you have to do for EVERY show here. Oof) The week before the show I ended up getting really sick and that day I had to go to urgent care. The doctor prescribed me anti-biotics that made me ultra hyper sensitive to EVERYTHING and normally I'd take that as a cue to stay home, but I had already dropped 20 bones on this ticket so I ended up going.

It may have been the anti-biotics, but that set is still burned in my memory as one of my favorites. I didn't know the rest of their songs, but I felt every single note, all the way from John's acoustic opener of "One Great City!" I recognized "Aside" from a movie and watched as the audience lost their minds during "Plea from a Cat Named Virtue". I felt completely undistracted by the crowd and everything going on, my focus was their's.

I quickly came home and bought their records, eventually kicking myself for seeing their entire set and not being able to rock at full potential since I didn't know the songs. Despite falling in love with all of their music, I circled back to where I started with "Left and Leaving"

The Weakerthans in general are such a strange contradicition, being a heart-on-your-sleeve rock band fronted by the lead singer of the politically charged Propaghandi. It kept the balence though by simply drawing abstractions to love, not gender specific, which was refreshing since I typically had to change all the "she's" to "he's" whenever I wanted a love song to relate to me. This change of pace shows that music can be all across the map, as many of the tracks fully rock while many of them strip down to simple honesty.

While the album Reconstruction Site probably has more spins on my iTunes, Left and Leaving holds a place for me in that it truly is my New York City album. I struggled a lot that summer with my choice to move there and what it really meant and one simple line from that song validated everything I knew I had to do:

"Back with the streets I know will never take me anywhere but here."

This album struggled with home and what it meant to be home, and Sampson says most of it more eloquently than I've tried to do here.

In fact, I'm just going to let the song speak for itself. Lyrics first, then watch the video.

Left and Leaving
My city's still breathing (but barely it's true)
Through buildings gone missing like teeth.
The sidewalks are watching me think about you,
Sparkled with broken glass.
I'm back with scars to show.
Back with the streets I know will never take me anywhere but here.
The stain in the carpet, this drink in my hand, the strangers whose faces I know.
We meet here for our dress-rehearsal to say, " I wanted it this way"
Wait for the year to drown.
Spring forward, fall back down.
I'm trying not to wonder where you are.
All this time lingers, undefined.
Someone choose who's left and who's leaving.
Memory will rust and erode into lists of all that you gave me:
A blanket, some matches, this pain in my chest, the best parts of lonely,
Duct-tape and soldered wires,
New words for old desires,
And every birthday card I threw away.
I wait in 4/4 time.
Count yellow highway lines that your relying to lead you home.

The Loop : Ben Kweller - Sha Sha

Ben Kweller - Sha Sha (2002)

When I came up with the concept for The Loop, one of the first records I thought about was Sha Sha. Over the past few weeks, I'd scan my list of records to revisit and I'd talk myself out of reviewing Sha Sha because I almost wanted to save it for a special occasion. But you know what? It just sounded really good for a long trek home on Monday night.

For what little spectacle was involved in circling back to this record the other night is what little spectacle is involved in this record as a whole. Amdist all the noise of my high school years, Kweller was such a refreshing change of pace, riding parallel to some of the jangle pop rock I had started to gravitate towards post-punk rock phase. I don't fully remember how Kweller came into my consciousness, although I do remember my good friend Ryan screenprinting a picture of himself brushing his teeth like on the album cover onto a tshirt, so maybe it came up in coversation.

This album is such a storyteller's record. I first owned the album on a mixtape my brother made, where the opening title track was cut off. Missing that part of the record is like missing the beginning of the story. Kweller performs with such child-like simplicity that it's impossible to place him on this rockstar pedestal. It's carried so much by his honest lyrics and some really fantastic melodies. His albums that followed also had some really catchy tunes, but this one exists in a place where my over-analytical music mind doesn't have to dissect it into a million pieces. It's just plain good, and that's okay, right?

When I think of this record, I think of this song.

The Loop : Something Corporate - Leaving Through The Window / North

Something Corporate - Leaving Through The Window (2002) / North (2003)

In honor of seeing Mr. McMahon play a solo show tomorrow night, I felt I needed to revisit two records that may not have made this list if I had kept ignoring them. This was definitely a band that I outwardly didn't like, and I still can't remember why.

I recall first hearing them when the song "If U C Jordan" was on a Drive Thru Records compilation I got in high school. I remember listening through the whole disc and almost always skipping over that song (which come to find out was their most successful mainstream single) I was so engrossed with bands like New Found Glory that hearing Something Corporate just sounded like a knock off (they even mention New Found Glory in "I Want to Save You")

Then they kept circling back to me. It started with going to Target with my friend who bought North and us listening to it in the car. Then it was really liking "Space" when it hit rock radio and throwing it on a few mixes. Then it was downloading "Ruthless" on what I called the "Radio Mix" that I ended up using at my Senior year choir banquet. Then it was listening to Andrew's new project, Jack's Mannquein at least 1.900 times while driving to, from and in Los Angeles with my friend Allie. Somehow, over all those years, this band just kept coming back.

It wasn't really until I moved to New York for my internship that I really sat with either record. I've put them both on one because I never really separated them. One day I decided I should listen to this band and I wanted to listen to everything, so I just put it on shuffle and ran with it. It carried me through some pretty rough times in living away from home for the first time, a brutal break-up and overall transition. They spoke from the perspective of a girl a lot and I was able to relate even though i was used to adapting the lyrics of a traditionally boys club.

Despite myself, this band has been a part of my life for a while. These records still have a place when it's late at night, I'm on the train and craving the west coast.

I realize this is totally boring, but this is my favorite song and this band was a tad too early for YouTube so deal:

The Loop : Incubus - Morning View

Incubus - Morning View (2001)

While it broke my heart to disqualify Make Yourself since it came out in 1999, I have no problem gushing a bit about the follow-up to that record, Morning View.

Incubus is one of those rare rock cases where they exist on two ends of the spectrum. They developed fairly organically, hitting the road and, according to my brother, passing out mixtapes before releasing two very experimental albums, Fungus Amongus and S.C.I.E.N.C.E.. Fast forward to 2009 and they are selling through large arenas and amphitheaters, with the audience ranging from hippies to bros, old fans and new fans who are still discovering them. Over the years I've been impressed to find so many of my hipster friends have no qualms about admitting that they grew up on these records and earmark them in the same way I did.

Make Yourself drew me in in middle school, primarily through hearing "Stellar" on the alternative radio station. My brother and I venutred through their older records and I felt similar tones in the writing and the music. However, Morning View took a different turn. Some might take the easy way out and say the band formed a more mainstream sound after mainstream success, but when I listen to this record, I just feel like they simply felt peaceful. A big selling point of the record was that the band recorded it on the beach and to this day I still see the west coast when I listen.

The band's experimental tones in S.C.I.E.N.C.E. sometimes came off as harsh and spastic, and in Morning View, they turned that instrumentation into an ambient collection of sounds (aren't you proud of me that this is the first time i've used ambient this whole series?) While the music seems more tame, it actually becomes incredibly deliberate in how it plays out in the song, encompassing the listener without them really even realizing it.

There are of course a few songs that rock out, "Wish You Were Here", "Warning" and "Nice to Know You" became radio hits, while the rest of the quieter album tracks such as "Echo", "11 AM" and "Aqueous Trasmission" become cult favorites, something that seems almost ironic for a band who has become such a household name.

Incubus is a lucky band in that while young fans in high school are still discovering records like this, their old fans have remained loyal and unapologetic about a band that has earned such respect in constantly reinventing themselves.

I had totally forgotten about this show, but I definitely remember going out of my way to watch it when it premiered on MTV. Remember when MTV had music? This was really awesome (and in it's entirety! thanks youtube!)

The Loop : Coheed and Cambria - The Second Stage Turbine Blade

Coheed and Cambria - The Second Stage Turbine Blade (2002)

It really boggles my mind how I used to have so much disposable time. Before I was old enough to work and didn't have a car, money or understanding of anything happening outside the suburbs, I can't honestly figure out how I filled all that time outside of music and napping.

However, I did spend ample amount of time at the mall. Normally one parent of my group of friends would drive everyone to the mall, and another would pick us up. Usually, this would be about 6 hours later, and we'd spend what money we had on candy, Starbucks coffee we didn't even like drinking and sales at Claire's. (this is going somewhere, I promise) However, one of these endless days I ended up venturing into the old Tower Records at Desert Ridge to try and track down a copy of the Alternative Press that featured Dashboard Confessional on the cover. It had come out quite some time before but I thought I'd take a shot. To my dismay, they didn't have any on the stands, so I went ahead and browsed the CDs. As I'm walking through, I see the exact copy of the magazine I wanted wrapped up nicely above the T section.

I got home that night ready to cut out clips of my favorite pop punk bands to add to my wall when I realized that the magazine was wrapped because it had a sampler CD of a band called Coheed and Cambria. I'm fairly sure it just featured the dragonfly and only had three songs ("Junesong Provision", "33" and "Everything Evil", I believe) I listened to it on repeat until my brother broke down and bought it.

I talk a lot about "front to back albums", where you have to listen to the album in it's entirety and in the same order. In this case, you really HAVE to, because the music is literally telling a story. Once upon a time, when I had disposable time, I used to read up on the Coheed message boards and follow what was going on, but I've never been one to a) follow sci-fi or b) have an attention span, so I lost track. However, the story line is what has kept them a DIEHARD following of fans.

For that reason, the album carries like a rock and roll musical, chronicaling the story of Coheed and Cambria, the two fictional lead characters. The music was heavy and complex, more metal influenced than anything I was really into at the time. It was all still so catchy though, and kept you even more captivated by trying to piece together the clues in the lyrics.

I tried catching them at TWO shows that were canceled before I saw them play for the first time acoustic (their van had broken down the town before with all of their equipment so they had to play unplugged) Honestly, I feel like it was the best way I could have seen them, away from the theatrics and down to the bare bones of the story. That's what makes this record special, alongside being a soundtrack to one of the most challenging times in my life. They exist in a world where it's okay to be nerd and they make NO apologies for it.

In case you're curious, here's how Claudio describes the album on his blog. . . .

"Man and wife Coheed and Cambria are used as the centerpiece to enable Supreme Tri-Mage Wilhelm Ryan's attempt at destroying his archrival Mage, Mariah Antillarea. Due to a memory swiping years ago, the couple are led to believe that their former lives have now come back to haunt them. They’re told by General Mayo Deftinwolf (Ryan's Right hand) that they were long ago implanted with a great threat to Heaven’s Fence, The Monstar Virus. A virus with the ability to turn its host (Coheed) into a being powerful enough to drain the Keywork's energy sources to spark Armageddon, while their dear old counterpart, Inferno was given the only means to unlock it. Through more lies, they are led to believe their children have genetically acquired a mutated form of the virus, the Sinstar. This new strain only requires its host to mature to a certain age, and has no antidote unlike the Monstar. Their children cannot be saved and time will not side with them. Coheed and Cambria are faced with an unimaginable dilemma: to murder their own children or face Armageddon"

The Loop: Desaparecidos - Read Music / Speak Spanish

Desaparecidos - Read Music / Speak Spanish (2002)

I just read that the name "Desaparecidos" means "The one's who disappeared", which is remarkably poignant considering this band was as quickly gone as they were here.

Junior year of high school, I met two of my closest friends and music buddies, Ryan and Sterling. As the music culture started to take a more concrete shape, we eventually found each other amidst suburban Arizona teens and found a bond through music (so emo) We were constantly digging through artists, eventually even dominating the Horizon TV announcements by picking OUR background tunes, me hosting a music segment and them creating D.I.Y. music videos set to artists like Pavement. We spent a good portion of our time comparing our interests and exchanging music, which is how I got Desaparecidos. We all had a mutual love for Conor Oberst, but I was unaware of his "side-project" until Ryan brought it up. We agreed to do a mixtape trade (seriously, actual tapes) : I would make him a tape of some of The Format's music and he would give me Desaparecidos. I still remember loading it in my walkman and holding Ryan's scratching of the track titles.

Previous to that, I had considered myself punk rock. Come to find out, I wasn't even CLOSE. Since we're going through my high school years, I feel the need to point out that I was 15 or 16 years old, which I suppose goes against the theme of this being "unapologetic". But there were also things I just WISH I could have understood, like the directon of Read Music / Speak Spanish. This was the manic end of the spectrum for Oberst, who fluctuated between that and happy during most of the Bright Eyes albums. However this was truly an outlet for a kid who grew up in Omaha and had a lot to talk about for such a boring city.

While "punk rock" bands like The Ataris were still singing mostly about girls, this album follows a heavy theme of the fear of gentrification, especially in what I would consider would be a fairly untainted Omaha. It has some of the dialogue clips Bright Eyes was known for, only this time featuring interviews of girls in "what they look for in a guy" and two guys talking sarcastically about how great it will be to have a new Starbucks in their local mall. This entire album follows a trend of satire, luckily with Oberst's incredible smart wordsmanship at the helm.

The music is punk rock too. It's incredibly raw and really really fuzzy, but has just enough good production for you to catch the melodies and make it easy to make out the lyrics. It's as loud (and sloppy) as Oberst gets vocally and finds it self very keyboard and bass heavy. And heavy in general. It polarized some of the critics who were keeping a careful watch on Oberst to begin with.

I'm not about to go on here and discuss the political tones and what I agree or disagree wtih, because I doubt that's what they would have wanted. Each song describes a certain state of being and how commericalism has affected that, and it's sarcastic tone, while swaying you a certain way, obviously, also let's you decide for yourself by painting these pictures. For only being 9 songs long, it certainly had a lot to say, I only wish they could have pulled together long enough to say a little bit more.

The Loop : Bright Eyes - Lifted or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground

Bright Eyes - Lifted or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground (2002)

As is clear by the 14-word album title, this album is nothing short of "complicated". Appropriately so, considering it's main songwriter, Conor Oberst, is a notoriously complicated man, in all of his variations. But more on that later.

This was one of those glorious, "hey, what is that you're playing?" record store finds. Full credit goes to my brother who, while browsing at the late Karma Records, heard this album and bought it on the spot. I still remember when he brought it home and I got to keep it for the night, immediately giving it at least five good spins before going to bed.

This album truly reads like a story, pieced together with sound bites and dialogue that became trademark for Oberst. It runs a staggering 71 minutes (again, not surprising considering the length of the album title) However, what binds this book is actually how drastically the mood changes throughout. Knowing what I know about Conor, it almost feels like a manic episode : happy to sad to hopeful to in love to bitter. The lyrical themes follow a similar pattern of isolation but go from : " The sky, the trees, houses, buildings, even my own body. And each person I encountered, I couldn't wait to meet." to "I want a lover I don't have to love, I want a girl who's so drunk she doesn't talk."

The most manic of all the songs most defintely has to be "Waste of Paint", which tells about six different stories of people he may or may not have encountered, ending with him parked outside a church "where the floodlights point up at the steeples. Choir practice was filling up with people.I hear the sound escaping as an echo.Sloping off the ceiling at an angle.When the voices blend they sound like angels. I hope there’s some room still in the middle." It battles God and love and flows like a stream of consciousness with no real verse nor chorus. I used it in a "poetry presentation" my Junior year of high school (and yes, made my classmates sit through nearly 6 minutes of song) and it almost brought my teacher to tears. It's a track so pulled back and forth by words that it can exist with the simplest of musical themes.

In the overall scope, the album tends to make illusions and metaphors on life in stationary things : a book on a shelf, a bowl of oranges, paint, etc. The word count must be insane, but I guess that's what you go for when you're truly telling a story.

Aside from all the metaphors and nerdy stuff, it explodes with instrumentation with an endless list of contributers, either orchestrated in this mess of folk-infused sound or sometimes dropped out completely. Oberst has since tweeked around his lineups, becoming more of a "band", even when he dropped the "Bright Eyes" moniker. However its undeniable how much of this comes from his brain, and in this album specifically. For a guy with a huge amount of work to his name, before and after this record, this seemed to be the turning point of when Conor Oberst truly grew up.

A lot of these themes were more grown up than I could ever understand at 16, but maybe the length of the album title reflects the length of time it takes to appreciate a record like this.

I strongly encourage you to watch this in it's entirety: