Chances are, if you're over drinking age and you've been visiting this website for a while ... you're part of what I'm coining the Drive-Thru Records generation. For a large group of us - this label defined a good portion of our formative years. Reading over the past couple threads about the label showcases just what an attachment so many of us had with this label and their bands. This connection is part of the reason I think so many people are confused about just what the fuck happened to a label that seemed on top of their game. And there's obviously an emotional attachment to the music. These were the records that defined our lives. The albums that became the soundtracks to summers. That shaped our musical journey; changed our tastes. Hell, there are probably countless people that lost their virginity to these bands. I can picture it now ... I mean, Finch is just the perfect baby making music.
Going off of what Adam was writing about earlier, this was the label that I bought every release from - sight unseen. Hell, there was a time that even just signing to the label would mean I'd probably buy a t-shirt without ever having heard the band in question. That was trust. That was kool-aid-drinking-cult-like worship. And maybe it's that level of devotion that led to such backlash as more drama than an 80's band's "behind the music" special spilled out.
Yet, looking back - we've got a collection of records that become a chronological journey through my memories. Times and places set to music. Dreams, fears, loves long lost, all tied to a spinning piece of plastic. So, for today's "Thursday Discussion" piece - I've put together my favorite Drive-Thru Records' albums. Check out the list below - and please post your list and reasoning for each release in the replies. If you're new to the website, or missed this wave of bands -- I've included links to the rdio and spotify streams for each of the albums ... I highly recommend you check them all out.
Note: I've included the albums that were released MCA/Drive-Thru as well. And for the most part I tried to only included one release from each of the bands on here. I usually went with either my favorite release - or the one that first introduced me to the band (in NFG's case). You can check out most of the label's releases here for reference.
1) Riverfenix - Riverfenix
2) Midtown - Save the World, Lose the Girl
3) A New Found Glory - Nothing Gold Can Stay
4) Rx Bandits - Progress
5) The Starting Line - With Hopes of Starting Over EP
6) Finch - What it Is To Burn
7) Home Grown - Kings of Pop
8) Allister - Last Stop Suburbia
9) The Movielife - Forty Hour Train Back to Penn
10) Something Corporate - Leaving Through The Window
There are so many albums that could be on this list. The thing is, as I started looking over the list - I had to include so many of the early releases, that I wasn't even able to get down to Steel Train or Houston Calls. I had no room to include TEN or HIPV, and I had to leave out that Senses Fail EP. I have great Halifax stories too. Shit. I really wanted to include the DVD release, but just flat out ran out of room. Looking over them as I put this together led me to hit play multiple times on songs from the past. I've put together a playlist of some of my favorites that you can find in the replies. What an era ... a generation of Drive-Thru kids.
Now it's your turn ... I hope the nostalgic drive down memory lane can give you similar feelings.
Life In Dreaming is one of my all time favorite records. I still listen to it pretty much daily. "Hot n' Sexy" is one of the best songs that band ever recorded and it should have been on the full album, not just a b-side. If you haven't heard it, you are missing out. HIPV at their best.
Hidden in Plain View-Life in Dreaming
Senses Fail- Let It Enfold You
Halifax- A Writers Reference
The Early November- The Room's Too Cold
All classic 'New School' Drive-Thru Records albums. I still regularly listen to 'Last Stop Suburbia' 'What It Is To Burn' and any Midtown record. I can't write enough good things about this labels catalogue. When they were good they were good. My musical taste today is in great part due to the albums I bought with a Drive Thru sticker on it.
The Early November - For All Of This
Dashboard Confessional - The Swiss Army Romance
The Starting Line - Say It Like You Mean It
Hidden In Plain View - Life In Dreaming
I love all the classic Drive Thru albums, you just get this wave of nostalgia when you put them on.
Cheers, Jason. RX's Resignation would be at the top of my list.
Fun fact - I bought that RiverFenix CD when they opened for Blink at the E factory in 99 or 00, that was the first time I ever saw the drive-thru logo. I played that album to death.
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