I gotta throw out a rec here of a band that I'm shocked didn't get more publicity during their lifespan. I guess we're all a little to blame, because I threw these guys aside until after they broke up, giving them only a couple chances. This band is one of the few good bands of the late Victory Records shit days.
The rec is The Junior Varsity. All of their album are terrific and are must haves for the scene. If you are new to this band, then I'd recommend you just go in order in getting started with their albums. Start with their debut, The Great Compromise, move onto Wide Eyed, and then if you like those grab their career finale Cinematographic.
I feel like they have a number of influences, but two of the bands that I see closest similarities to are pretty unrelated musically but still two of my favorite bands; that is Bayside and Park. They are not as dark or caustic as Park with catchier hooks as well. They are atmospheric and at times a bit spacey for the genre, which is something I love personally. Their guitarist now plays in the band The Dear Hunter.
Music video for "Get Comfortable" off of Wide Eyed.
If you don't hear some Park in that song then I think you're crazy!
I really like these guys and I hope you check em out if you haven't heard them. They could have been a staple in this genre, but somehow never made it huge.
The Great Compromise
Wide Eyed (reminds me of Harry Potter haha)
Cinematographic (if you're interested in these guys cause of the Bayside comparison maybe grab this first)
I recently decided to rediscover the Straylight Run six song demos for the first time since high school. I remember when they were releasing these, they started with three demos, all of which were amazing, then went on to add another demo every couple weeks for three more songs. Of course all of those were incredible as well, and all six of those songs cohesively to me is the greatest thing that these guys have released in their careers. I'm pretty sure the first full length sold pretty well, but that's only thanks to the "scene" getting into these demos. If they had just released the demos as an EP then whatever their first full length was would have sold amazingly, even if it disappointed. Now it seems that they are fading apart, after these finals EP's they release. What could have been.
Either way, at least we got some good music from them, the best being the six demo songs for me. I have high hopes for John Nolan's solo album, though. Let's hope he keeps it rough like these demos!
Well today is something that I haven't experienced since my age was a single digit number; a Rockets playoff game in the second round. Tell me this video doesn't give you the chills! What an amazing song that is to play to the most beautiful team basketball in the world.
Now we're all in this together. There seem to be a lot of Blazers fans around AP, but the first round is a thing of the past. Pull for us everyone. I know that all of you that aren't Los Angeles Lakers fans want them out of the playoffs. We lost 4-0 in the regular season, but I have a feeling that if I smoke a joint right before the start of the game we'll win.
Well it's been over three weeks since I last did one so I figured I'd check in with a new top ten for now. And yes... it is a top ten now (not a top nine). Leave shit talk in the replies (or good talk) I'd love to hear it. The last time I made a list I was anticipating The Dangerous Summer. Now that I've finally heard that, I'll be craving two of the classics over the next (possibly many) months; Brand New and Blink 182. In early 2009, there were still reports coming in to this site that Blink would never release another album according to sources. Now they're releasing one this year. CRAZY FUCKING SHIT.
The first number is the ranking, the second is the previous position. Just like power rankings haha.
1. (1) P.O.S. - Never Better
2. (3) Kevin Devine - Brother's Blood
3. (-) The Dangerous Summer - Reach For The Sun
4. (2) New Found Glory - Not Without A Fight
5. (4) Mansions - New Best Friends
6. (8) Ace Enders And A Million Different People - When I Hit The Ground
7. (5) Thursday - Common Existence
8. (9) Manchester Orchestra - Mean Everything To Nothing
9. (-) Two Tongues - Two Tongues
10.(7) The Appleseed Cast - Sagarmatha
New additions: The Dangerous Summer, Two Tongues
Fallouts from last list: Move.Meant
**NOTE: Click one of the tags to view both lists so far from this year.
So it's turning the clock to become 4/20 as I realize I'm getting to old for this crap. I'm gonna try to stop smoking after tomorrow. We'll see how that goes for me. I've been really depressed lately, and I find that I'm usually way less depressed when I'm not smoking. So hopefully this is the turnaround in my life. I need a spark. And it all starts with not being such a burnout.
In the meantime, let's roast the blunts. Happy 4/20. Here's some of my favorite songs to smoke bowls to and my playlist for the day. It's not really stuff that flows together as a cohesive playlist really, but it's a group of songs that I grew up smoking to and most of these songs have a real special meaning with me. Some of the songs on this playlist get me really emotional.
I put some thought into this and these ones were all special to me, but they are also all incredible songs. If you like any of the songs on the list, then I recommend to you everything that you haven't listened to on the list, because they're all songs that have such powerful meanings to me.
Well it's time that Jason Tate and I are now enemies. The fact is I can't stand the Rockets not getting to the second round of the playoffs again this year. So Jason, ya boys are going down. The only time the Blazers have beaten the Rocket's in the last eight games was when Brandon Roy turned .8 seconds into 1.5 seconds and made an incredible shot displayed in this video.
I know you guys have home court advantage Jason, but I'm sorry, you'll be seeing too much Rockets to win this one. They looked bad against the Mavs in the finale tonight, but they have a team with a lot of chemistry. I am a near seven year user of your site. I've been waiting for the Rockets to get out of the first round for almost double that time.
The last playoff series we won was this one.
This has become too painful. If the Blazers beat us... I won't ban myself from this site... but I'll kill people... in my dreams.
Sorry Jason, you're gonna see a little too much of this (minus TMac and Rafer, plus Lowry) in the playoffs this year. Next year you guys advance.
Ever wish that Coheed & Cambria made music, but made it sound good and appealing? Meet Fire In The Hole. Better guitar work than Coheed in my opinion, and much more bearable overall music. This would be classified in the genre of rock music, and skeptics of the genre would be unlikely to call this emo because the Claudio voice isn't there. The guitar work and instrumentals overall are amazing, but there are no annoying vocals, which is the main irk people have with Coheed.
This band SHOULD be huge. Unfortunately, they probably never will.
Music video for Hot Pursuit by Fire In The Hole. Watch it through the end. You'll see what I mean by the end of the video that their guitar work is outstanding. It's like this the entire album.
You can buy their album Love & Malice on iTunes. And you should. Bands like this need to sell well on their debuts to continue on to excellent sophomore ablums.
As you can see below, I got my first triple double of the NBA 2k9 season in an online game, very late in the season. The game did go to double overtime and I'm not sure which overtime the triple double came in cause I play with the volume off and listen to music. He cheesed his way to 56 points with LeBron, but LBJ had no assists, and the great teamwork of the Rockets out lasted the Cavs.
I'M THE MOTHEFUCKING MAN, DON'T FUCK WITH ME IN NBA 2K!!!
Was gonna do ten, but realized I don't have a number ten yet. Hopefully I can hear The Dangerous Summer soon, cause if it's Tate approved pop-punk, it will most likely be pretty decent. I guess the Kevin Devine and Manchester Orchestra albums being there shows that I download leaks, sorry. Feel free to tell me how I have shitty music taste in the replies, or to let me know what albums you're digging from my list.
1. P.O.S. - Never Better
2. New Found Glory - Not Without A Fight
3. Kevin Devine - Brother's Blood
4. Mansions - New Best Friends
5. Thursday - Common Existence
6. Move.Meant - Meant To Move
7. The Appleseed Cast - Sagarmatha
8. Ace Enders & A Million Different People - When I Hit The Ground
9. Manchester Orchestra - Mean Everything To Nothing
This band needs more attention so badly. It really annoys me that the kids aren't checking out pop-punk these days the way that we did when I was a 14, 15 year old lad. I realize that the ratio of good to bad pop-punk bands is waaay lower than it was when bands like Midtown were ruling the pop-punk scene (these days there are far more bad pop-punk bands than good ones). This is no reason to just let the genre die though. Their debut full length Chase The White Whale came out last year and is still going completely unnoticed. Hurry up and get this CD, before the band calls it quits due to not selling albums.
They make energetic pop-punk with a sort of swagger to it that just screams summer time. They have horns intertwined with the standard pop-punk riffs of the early 00's. Even with being that standard type of pop-punk, it's as original as the genre is ever going to be anymore. It really pains me that bands like this are true to the genre, and so many power pop bands are taking over the genre. Give these guys a try; I swear if you like pop-punk at all you will not be disappointed.
Music video for the song Temple Of Doom
Music video for the song Two Words Mr. President: Plausible Deniability
In a generation of music with (my favorite genre) pop-punk fading, I wanted my first blog entry to be a feature that highlights the bands doing it right. This is not an entry for bands like New Found Glory, Punchline, and The Graduate, who most of AP.net knows about. This is to highlight the lesser known pop-punk acts that are doing pop-punk the way it ought to be done, yet not getting the recognition they deserve. I hope that through this feature you can a new favorite pop-punk band to brighten up your mood with the weather turning to Spring and shortly to Summer. Their are so many bands spewing out bad pop-punk right now, that many of you choose not to check out the bands that are being true to the genre. At least click on the myspace links and see what you think of these bands. It's my first blog entry, so make it mean something to me... I'm working hard on it.
Without further ado...
1994 - 1994 [EP]
If you let this hideous album cover turn you off from checking this band out, then you're making a big mistake. These guys are making fun, catchy, and fast paced pop-punk in the vein that got many of you into pop-punk in the first place. If "heartthrob pop-punk" is a genre, then this is the band that fits into that genre. Even if you hate the genre, it's hard for anyone not to tap their toe to these guys tunes. And the lyrics are much better than a lot of the crap you'll find these days from this type of band. This one may be hard to find, simply because of the generic band name, so those of you who can't find it in stores, check it-leaked, and hopefully their next release is a bit easier to find. If there's anything that bothers me about this band, I wish they picked a name that would make them easier for people to simply google up and find (but whatever, Brand New picked a bland name and it worked for them).
Myspace Page
Live video of Stay Where You Are by 1994
Looks To Make History - Looks To Make History [EP]
This EP has been described by a friend of mine as "what Hit The Lights wish their new album sounded like." That's a very fair assumption. It could certainly be a Hit The Lights EP, but I think that this has a little bit more oomph to it than anything Hit The Lights have released. This is right along the same lines as the first band I posted (1994), and is easily accessible. The band has disbanded, but that's no reason not to give a listen/purchase/download of their EP. Soooo damn catchy.
Myspace Page
Live video of Sing With Me by Looks To Make History
This Time Next Year - A Place For You [EP] and The Longest Way Home [EP]
A much more well known band than the first two, hence why I posted them last. However, if you still have not hopped on the bandwagon of these guys and you're a fan of the genre then hop on fast, cause it's about to take off. It's not too late yet. These guys are the fast paced type of Drive Thru pop-punk that everyone in my generation (currently age 19-26 grew up loving). They are currently working on a full length and will be bursting out (at least in the underground scene) as a band to keep an eye on. Read Nathan Lint's review of their first EP here. Seriously, if you have not yet gotten into these guys, it's not too late yet, but hurry up. Underground pop-punk gems like these need attention in order to get the opportunities they deserve. Fans of Set Your Goals, New Found Glory, Blink 182, The Movielife, and Midtown will eat this shit up. Incredible pop-punk.
Myspace Page
Live footage with the song Sweetest Air by This Time Next Year
If you got to the end of this, I can hardly express my gratitude for you reading this whole thing. Please leave your comments (positive or negative), as seeing that people are actually reading this will help determine if it's worth my time to keep doing blog features (and it took a surprising amount of time). Thanks guys!
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