Genre: haHA Emo. This is an old rant for me now and increasingly pointless, but there was a time when people got really fucking pissy about Emo. I think in retrospect it is one of those genre labels that is, by its nature, going to cause a strong negative reaction in am american male population before they have heard a note of the music. What is interesting is that the genre got little or no attention until it in some way matched the assumptions its name conjured. Then the record industry could market it. Except that Emo never represented the thing that the industry tried to push, and when they started pushing it all its adherents ran like cockroaches startles by a light.
I guess I should back up a bit. Emo is defined as "Emotionally driven punk rock." It emerged from the hardcore punk scene in the late 80s, early 90s. Some credit Fugazi as the first, though most reject that assertion, possibly because Fugazi talked about other things than emotion and most likely because real punx like Fugazi and they can't possibly like Emo.
The first band everyone agrees on (for the most part) is a DC hardcore band called Rites of Spring. like many hardcore bands they are hard to listen to, partly because of their anti-mainstream ethic, and partly because of the shitty recording equipment available for a band that was essentially only together long enough for the members to discuss the possibility of real recording before breaking up. But their performances are legendary. The lyrics would have emotional intensity born of writing about topics of personal importance to the singer, who would thrash around stage, often finding himself too far from the mic to make his singing cues. So he would scream the lines at the the mic, lending further intensity.
From these beginnings the genre built in the punk underground, which became, over the course of the 90s, the main spiritual counterpoint to the mainstream. By the late 90s this underground had emerged repeatedly under various genred guises to thrust artistic integrity into the spotlight, only for the Industry to coopt and discredit the superficial aspects of whatever genre gained attention. Punk itself became a victim, as by 1999 the pop charts contained a strong contingent of shitty pop punk bands what had as much to do with Minor Threat as they did with Liberance.
Within the underground world of punk Emo represented something that stood against the hard, ideological lines of the genre, and by its nature stood against the macho posturing of much of the hardcore movement from whence it came. Emo became an incubator for a variety of strains of punk that were more interested in artistic expression than meeting some random mob's definition of Punx. The genre included everything from old hardcore style bands, to bands working with synthesizers and exploring melody in a way that was kind of verbotten outside what remained of the pop punk scene. These bands had nothing to do with each other musically other than that they sang with emotional intensity and they did not conform the the increasingly archaic and rigid confines of punk.
Of course, having handsom young men sing sweetly about emotions is, to a record producer, a great way to break into the tingly panties of the teenage girl market, and so that is what happened eventually, and so the Dashboard Confessionals came to define the genre in the public mind, despite having little in common with most acts labeled Emo. Acts which, for the most part, forswore the name by 2001 or so. After that, most bands calling themselves Emo were of corporate manufacture.
So Atom and His Package. Most of the music is about topics that pertain specifically to Adam Goren, the spectacled, slightly doughy Jewish kid from Philly who was for most of the band's existence its sole member. Like songs wishing his best friend's two year old a happy birthday. Or about how he wishes his room mate would quit smoking. Or about how he wishes he could start a private high school for punk kids. The Package is a bunch of music processors and synthesizers that Adam bought so that he could keep preforming music after his last band broke up. As such Adam was one of the early pioneers of the notion that, by the late 90s, the classic rock guitair band setup was actually pretty expensive, and it was way more subversive to cheaply make music on a computer than shell out thousands of dollars for guitars that you will mistreat.
Despite previous membership in a hardcore band, and very clear devotion to the punk lifestyle and aesthetic, the music is very very different from classic punk. It tends to be major key and funny and not all that angry. It is decidedly populist, high energy, and intentionally DIY, but this often results in songs that get halfway through, and then finish out the last verse by quoting a particularly catch 80s pop song. The lifestyle advocated is less live fast and die young, and more crunchy gutterpunk, living in a downtown, eating Vegan, and trying to steer clear of tourists.
Where would I have heard of them: If the above sounds like it is not a recipe for pop stardom you get a doughnut. Atom and His Package toured relentlessly, and gained a large and devoted following in punk and later indie circles, but never ever desired mainstream success. So, you wouldn't have, unless you were a punk or an indie kid in the late 90s, early 2000s.
Anything of Note: I guess that the title of the album is a pretty funny little dig at himself.
Is it good: Atom and His Package can be an acquired taste. The intentional low fidelity and lack of interest in quality songwriting are obviously a turn off. I, however, fucking love Atom and his Package. I have a few of his albums and as he went along each became more catch and fun. I think it helps that Adam Goren seems like a genuinely humble and likable person, and only gets moreso as he stops making fun of his weight as much and focuses on stuff about his life. it also helps that, as technology got better, the fidelity improved, possibly by accident. At its best, AAHP deliver fun, funny, catchy songs with lovable charm. At its worst it is barely listenable, but there are always enough of the good songs to get you through the album. The stand out on this album is "If You Own the Washington Redskins You Are A Cock," but this is a pretty good album overall. It falls in the middle of his career with The Package and is a pretty even split between meh songs and fun catchy music. I don't think there's any really terrible ones on this installment, which is nice.
So, I think this is a good album. I dunno if you will but AAHP is worth a look.
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Sunday, June 1, 2014
Billy Bragg and Wilco - Mermaid Avenue
Genre: Modern Folk, Old School Folk
Where would I have heard of them: Well a few entries back I jizzed all over your computer talking about Billy Bragg, and a few years back the indie scene couldn't shut up about Wilco. They are one of the bands various people were addicted to in 2004. I should also include Woody Guthrie here because these are his lyrics, the music and arrangement are by the other two. Woody Guthrie wrote all the crypto-socialist nursery rhymes you learned in elementary school, like "This Land is Your Land." Woody Guthrie was born in Oklahoma, and was one of the tens of thousands of people who emigrated to California as a result of the Dust Bowl. When he saw the atrotious way the police in California treated the poor, we began a career writing protest music and singing folk songs that became widely successful due to the rise of the radio as a form of mass communication. He also happened to be on hand in New York City in time to participate in the burgeoning folk scene there that began in the 40s and burst into national relevance in the 60s. The songs contained in this disc were written by Woody Guthrie but never clearly set to music. His widow approached Billy Bragg after his death, and Bragg approached Wilco to help him do justice to the material, because of their capacity as a full band, because they were fellow modern folk artists with proven recording experience, and because they were talented musicians who would bring increasing levels of fame to the project that would help ensure a decent return on the investment.
Anything of note: I held off on getting this for a long time. I was not immediately enamored of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the Wilco album everyone went Beatles Fangirl over. The second Billy Bragg album I purchased was Internationale, an album he made singing well known protest songs, and it is alright. Honestly the latter fact made me a bit hesitant about Billy Bragg for a while. After finding that most of Bragg's other material was solid gold, including the recent Tooth and Nail, I figured I needed to give Bragg a chance with this one. After all, I also respect Guthrie, so it couldn't be terrible.
Is it any good: It is, in fact, not terrible. To the contrary, it is excellent. The three artistic poles here meld spectacularly to form a really excellent whole, though Billy Bragg clearly shines through maybe more than anyone else. Which is fine by me. Billy Bragg is the balls.
As we are accustomed to hearing from Bragg, there is a really confident mixture of humor and earnestness here. The fact that these are Guthrie's lyrics makes this rather special. One sometimes has to stop and remember that Guthrie had a sense of humor as scintillating as Bragg's, and the fact that these are the songs he left unrecorded because they were not important enough compared with his political music may help explain how well the two men's styles were able to meld so well, beyond the grave as it were. The fact that there are apparently several thousand of these songs, and Bragg and Wilco were free to hand pick the ones that got recorded, can't have hurt.
That said, I think Bragg and Wilco do a great job painting a picture of Guthrie as a whole person with their song selections. There are the requisite political songs (Unwelcome Guest), but the vast majority are personal and even romantic. I think Walt Whitman's Niece is a great way to start the album for this reason. It is more a humorous diary entry about a flirty, bohemian night spent with a friend and a woman reading poetry out of sight of the causes they may have championed. The fact that the song's structure is avowedly adrift from the standard rock song structure is a bonus, as is the way that the structure is consciously played for laughs. I think the first time I heard Wilco's background vocals, especially at the end of the first, uh, verse I guess you could call it, I had to pull over because I was laughing so hard.
This is an important point. I think it is easy to lose Wilco in this album. Much of this album is definitely an interplay between Bragg as vocalist and producer, and Guthrie, as respected artist and man. Wilco's Jeff Tweedy gets a few songs but mostly this is the Bragg Show from a vocal perspective. But Wilco's musical contributions shouldn't be ignored. Not that Bragg is a slouch musically, but there is definitely a note of Americana in the folk on tap here that speaks more of Wilco than Bragg, and is completely necessary in this context since, you know, this is Guthrie, the Oklahoma Cowboy we are memorializing here. More broadly, i think their wide open style plays well with Bragg's more intimate one. The result is an album full of songs that contain both broad scope and a rewarding richness.
Unfortunately Wilco seem to have also felt that this was a bit too much The Bragg Show and, though there is a Mermaid Ave II, these two artistic poles ended up parting ways before that album was fully in the bag, and Bragg finished it up himself. Which is fine, I plan on buying it. Just a good thing to be aware of here.
Anyway, this is a great album. go buy it. It is very rewarding.
Where would I have heard of them: Well a few entries back I jizzed all over your computer talking about Billy Bragg, and a few years back the indie scene couldn't shut up about Wilco. They are one of the bands various people were addicted to in 2004. I should also include Woody Guthrie here because these are his lyrics, the music and arrangement are by the other two. Woody Guthrie wrote all the crypto-socialist nursery rhymes you learned in elementary school, like "This Land is Your Land." Woody Guthrie was born in Oklahoma, and was one of the tens of thousands of people who emigrated to California as a result of the Dust Bowl. When he saw the atrotious way the police in California treated the poor, we began a career writing protest music and singing folk songs that became widely successful due to the rise of the radio as a form of mass communication. He also happened to be on hand in New York City in time to participate in the burgeoning folk scene there that began in the 40s and burst into national relevance in the 60s. The songs contained in this disc were written by Woody Guthrie but never clearly set to music. His widow approached Billy Bragg after his death, and Bragg approached Wilco to help him do justice to the material, because of their capacity as a full band, because they were fellow modern folk artists with proven recording experience, and because they were talented musicians who would bring increasing levels of fame to the project that would help ensure a decent return on the investment.
Anything of note: I held off on getting this for a long time. I was not immediately enamored of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the Wilco album everyone went Beatles Fangirl over. The second Billy Bragg album I purchased was Internationale, an album he made singing well known protest songs, and it is alright. Honestly the latter fact made me a bit hesitant about Billy Bragg for a while. After finding that most of Bragg's other material was solid gold, including the recent Tooth and Nail, I figured I needed to give Bragg a chance with this one. After all, I also respect Guthrie, so it couldn't be terrible.
Is it any good: It is, in fact, not terrible. To the contrary, it is excellent. The three artistic poles here meld spectacularly to form a really excellent whole, though Billy Bragg clearly shines through maybe more than anyone else. Which is fine by me. Billy Bragg is the balls.
As we are accustomed to hearing from Bragg, there is a really confident mixture of humor and earnestness here. The fact that these are Guthrie's lyrics makes this rather special. One sometimes has to stop and remember that Guthrie had a sense of humor as scintillating as Bragg's, and the fact that these are the songs he left unrecorded because they were not important enough compared with his political music may help explain how well the two men's styles were able to meld so well, beyond the grave as it were. The fact that there are apparently several thousand of these songs, and Bragg and Wilco were free to hand pick the ones that got recorded, can't have hurt.
That said, I think Bragg and Wilco do a great job painting a picture of Guthrie as a whole person with their song selections. There are the requisite political songs (Unwelcome Guest), but the vast majority are personal and even romantic. I think Walt Whitman's Niece is a great way to start the album for this reason. It is more a humorous diary entry about a flirty, bohemian night spent with a friend and a woman reading poetry out of sight of the causes they may have championed. The fact that the song's structure is avowedly adrift from the standard rock song structure is a bonus, as is the way that the structure is consciously played for laughs. I think the first time I heard Wilco's background vocals, especially at the end of the first, uh, verse I guess you could call it, I had to pull over because I was laughing so hard.
This is an important point. I think it is easy to lose Wilco in this album. Much of this album is definitely an interplay between Bragg as vocalist and producer, and Guthrie, as respected artist and man. Wilco's Jeff Tweedy gets a few songs but mostly this is the Bragg Show from a vocal perspective. But Wilco's musical contributions shouldn't be ignored. Not that Bragg is a slouch musically, but there is definitely a note of Americana in the folk on tap here that speaks more of Wilco than Bragg, and is completely necessary in this context since, you know, this is Guthrie, the Oklahoma Cowboy we are memorializing here. More broadly, i think their wide open style plays well with Bragg's more intimate one. The result is an album full of songs that contain both broad scope and a rewarding richness.
Unfortunately Wilco seem to have also felt that this was a bit too much The Bragg Show and, though there is a Mermaid Ave II, these two artistic poles ended up parting ways before that album was fully in the bag, and Bragg finished it up himself. Which is fine, I plan on buying it. Just a good thing to be aware of here.
Anyway, this is a great album. go buy it. It is very rewarding.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Blues Explosion – Damage
Genre: John Spencer Blues Explosion are awesome and also way
less fun then they ought to be. They attack retro 70s rock n blues with punk
energy and have been doing so for an absurdly long time without mainstream success.
Somehow their music manages to be intensely fun and completely lacking in any
kind of hook. Their albums are also usually a million hours long. Listening to
them can be kind of exhausting, but it is usually fun either in small doses or
when you feel like being all intellectual and unpacking an album. Honestly I
think this approach to the blues is kind of backwards and may explain why they
never got the kind of chart success achieved by similar blues retro groups,
though maybe saying so will call down the indie inquisition on my head. Anyway
they are a lot of fun and I think this album is more accessible than some of
the others I have listened to, though the rap rock on “Hot Gossip” is, uh,
suspicious. All their albums are good for long drives.
Where would I have heard of them: JSBE has had an absurdly
long career in that long and splendid indie twilight where all your peers love
you and start bands but you never get money or true fame. At some point maybe
you heard of them. Or maybe one of your cooler relatives heard of them. Ask
around.
Anything of note: This was the only album they release under
the name “Blues Explosion,” which sparked some elaborate conspiracy theories
that the band was ousting Jon Spencer. Oh also? Jon Spencer is the brother of
that chick from Brassy. So that’s a pretty fun fact.
Is it any good: Yup. Not on my regular rotation list but I
like the band and this album is pretty fun.
Birdland - Birdland
Genre: Punk in the most genre-less way. They don’t sound
like ’77 punk, they don’t sound like Cali punk, they don’t sound like pop punk.
They just sound like someone distilled all these things into one thing. Which is
kind of an achievement though it kind of teeters on the ends of bland if you
look at it too hard. Not that they are bland, they have high energy and good
songs. Just, think Billy Idol: a lot of concern with looking striking and
writing catchy pop tunes without too much wider social impact. Sure Billy Idol
wrote songs that challenged social assumptions about marriage or whatever, and
Birdland wrote songs about cocaine and feeling disrespected by society, but
there is no hint at a wider synthesis or stance on anything other than wanting
to do one’s own thing. Comparing this album to, say “Rocket to Russia” is like
comparing angsty high school poetry to the memoires of a holocaust survivor.
Where would I have heard of them: When this album came out
they were the darling of the nascent British musical press. That said they
broke up shortly thereafter and, though they seem to have an ongoing core of fans,
I don’t think anyone outside of late 80s England would be able to tell you much
about them. That said I guess they were bound up with the Madchester thing and
I guess a lot of people study that like it’s some kind of biblical period. Oh! They
wrote a song called “Rock ‘n Roll Nigger” that people talk about as if it is
important.
Anything of note: I’m going to assume the name of the band
was an intentional reference to the seminal Jazz club partially founded by and
named for Charlie Parker, pioneer of highly experimental Bebop Jazz. Talk about
shooting high. Also worth noting: oddly huge in Japan.
Is it good: yeah it is. If you see it buy it, or if you are
in the market for some straight up punk n roll try to track it down. It is fun.
Just don’t expect the huge religious experience some people are going to try to
sell you.
Friday, March 7, 2014
Billy Bragg - Tooth and Nail
Genre: American Folk, as played by an ageing British independent musician.Bragg started out as a punk, broke up his band, almost joined the Navy, but started busking on the streets instead. His music combines direct and relate-able storytelling with punchy hooks and inviting melodies. Also he is liberal as hell. This is the man the estate of Woody Guthrie chose to bring the great man's last unfinished songs to the public. The result was a well received collaboration with Indie Folk wunderkinds, Wilco.
Where would I have heard of it: Well it's Billy Bragg? He got a few singles on the British pop charts in the late 80s and early 90s, the most successful being the wonderfully silly "Sexulatiy" off Don't Trty This At Home. Never got much traction in the states though, possibly because of lines like
"The cities of Europe have burned before
and they may yet burn again,
and if they do, I hope you understand
that Washington will burn with them
Omaha will burn with them
Los Alamos will burn with them
But he's really just one of those people who are famous because he has had a long, critic friendly career. Imagine if the 10,000 maniacs had never had another hit, but were still putting out albums that just get better and better. More importantly, I think, he is beloved of musicians, and his fans include punk rockers and folk acts. I won't say his output is perfect, but he has more hits than misses and the hits are religious experiences. I heard of him from a name drop in Chixdiggit's song "Folks Are Gone" off their amazing From Scene to Shining Scene, which led me to pick up Bragg's Talking with the Taxman About Poetry, one of his first albums.
Anything of note: I don't have my physical copy of this yet. It's on the way from the amazon but I got it on the cloud, natch. Its fun to enjoy the convenience of new technologies while listening to songs about the possible hollowness of scientific inquiry.
Is it good: It is hard to describe how good Bragg is without sounding obsessive. what he does is extraordinarily simple. Spare instrumentation with an emphasis on vocals, but what is there is warm and full, providing pop hooks, exquisite playing, and jovial, thumping rhythms. The result is an intimate musical space, the closest thing I have heard in a recording to a session in a small, smoky pub. At the heart of this setting are Bragg's vocals: clever, kind songs about all the problems we face in the world that are beautifully sung with humor and sensitivity. As with all his good albums, there is nothing here I would add or subtract. this is the perfect form of these songs and listening to them is a joy. Bragg is now 56, certainly touch wiser than he was in 1977, but the energy he brings to his music has only improved. The more you listen to Bragg the more you want, and if he keeps making albums like this we will all be able to feed our ravenous habits for years to come. Buy this album. you will not be sorry.
Where would I have heard of it: Well it's Billy Bragg? He got a few singles on the British pop charts in the late 80s and early 90s, the most successful being the wonderfully silly "Sexulatiy" off Don't Trty This At Home. Never got much traction in the states though, possibly because of lines like
"The cities of Europe have burned before
and they may yet burn again,
and if they do, I hope you understand
that Washington will burn with them
Omaha will burn with them
Los Alamos will burn with them
But he's really just one of those people who are famous because he has had a long, critic friendly career. Imagine if the 10,000 maniacs had never had another hit, but were still putting out albums that just get better and better. More importantly, I think, he is beloved of musicians, and his fans include punk rockers and folk acts. I won't say his output is perfect, but he has more hits than misses and the hits are religious experiences. I heard of him from a name drop in Chixdiggit's song "Folks Are Gone" off their amazing From Scene to Shining Scene, which led me to pick up Bragg's Talking with the Taxman About Poetry, one of his first albums.
Anything of note: I don't have my physical copy of this yet. It's on the way from the amazon but I got it on the cloud, natch. Its fun to enjoy the convenience of new technologies while listening to songs about the possible hollowness of scientific inquiry.
Is it good: It is hard to describe how good Bragg is without sounding obsessive. what he does is extraordinarily simple. Spare instrumentation with an emphasis on vocals, but what is there is warm and full, providing pop hooks, exquisite playing, and jovial, thumping rhythms. The result is an intimate musical space, the closest thing I have heard in a recording to a session in a small, smoky pub. At the heart of this setting are Bragg's vocals: clever, kind songs about all the problems we face in the world that are beautifully sung with humor and sensitivity. As with all his good albums, there is nothing here I would add or subtract. this is the perfect form of these songs and listening to them is a joy. Bragg is now 56, certainly touch wiser than he was in 1977, but the energy he brings to his music has only improved. The more you listen to Bragg the more you want, and if he keeps making albums like this we will all be able to feed our ravenous habits for years to come. Buy this album. you will not be sorry.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Blessed Union of Souls
Genre: Cowpunk. Apparently cowpunk was a thing and it is responsible for "alternative" going from Nirvana to Train in less than a decade. Other notable cowpunk acts include Everclear. To be fair, it was more the slide of the "scene" onto the pop charts that morphed it into alternative country. Cowpunk also includes The Cramps and The Violent Femmes if you go by Wikipedia, and alternative country also includes Calexico, so once again I can't get away with a blanket condemnation of a genre. but fuck, man. This album just sounds like the part of 1995 that you neither actively hated nor ignored.
Where would I have heard of them: They got some serious mainstream success with the single "I Believe," off this album, and "Leonardo (She likes me for me)," the song that is not about Leonardo, New Jersey.
Anything of note: This is one of those bands. I thought they had done "Counting Blue Cars." Turns out that was Dishwalla. Dishwalla is famous as that band that did "Counting Blue Cars," not that band that made the music video with the girl with the bee. That was Blind Melon. So no. Absolutely nothing of note. this band is fucking boring. Their wikipedia page is just a list of albums. Not for lack of trying. someone tried to dig up interesting things. all they got is that a band member toured with Ozzy once.
Are they any good: Good is such a relative term. I often find myself in a store, listening to such of the modern top 40 that whatever corporate entity felt they could sanitize enough to make into an official corporate playlist. And it is horrible. It either sounds like kids bop or like something that was put together in an hour on fruity loops between interviews. It makes me miss stuff like this I grew up listening to stuff like Blessed Union of Souls. And boy did I hate it. Except for the odd single, this is meaningless garbage. There is some feel-good racial politics thrown in, but this is the most sanitary crap ever. On the other hand, this is recognizable as music. I don't mean that they played instruments, I mean that this has both rhythm AND melody, both, at the same time! there's even some pop hooks. In the pop music. That don't even make you want to die. Like somehow now? What passes for a hook is a noise that just gets your attention. Like we are so addled by ADD and the omnipresence of free music that anything that can make us pay attention to the background noise for more than five seconds counts as a success. But back then? a hook required an interesting lyric, or an unexpected melodic development, possibly both. Wow. they don't make uninteresting crap like this anymore. Like sure, this is boring. But it doesn't sound like it is trying to come out of the stereo to hurt me, while also being boring. So that is a plus. This is pretty pleasant, all told.
So there you go. If you take modern top 40 as your threshold, this is like fucking Bach. Otherwise it is boring as hell. I hope they got laid a lot for this but I bet they didn't. I bet they just had wheat-grass flavored yogurt and went to bed early.
Where would I have heard of them: They got some serious mainstream success with the single "I Believe," off this album, and "Leonardo (She likes me for me)," the song that is not about Leonardo, New Jersey.
Anything of note: This is one of those bands. I thought they had done "Counting Blue Cars." Turns out that was Dishwalla. Dishwalla is famous as that band that did "Counting Blue Cars," not that band that made the music video with the girl with the bee. That was Blind Melon. So no. Absolutely nothing of note. this band is fucking boring. Their wikipedia page is just a list of albums. Not for lack of trying. someone tried to dig up interesting things. all they got is that a band member toured with Ozzy once.
Are they any good: Good is such a relative term. I often find myself in a store, listening to such of the modern top 40 that whatever corporate entity felt they could sanitize enough to make into an official corporate playlist. And it is horrible. It either sounds like kids bop or like something that was put together in an hour on fruity loops between interviews. It makes me miss stuff like this I grew up listening to stuff like Blessed Union of Souls. And boy did I hate it. Except for the odd single, this is meaningless garbage. There is some feel-good racial politics thrown in, but this is the most sanitary crap ever. On the other hand, this is recognizable as music. I don't mean that they played instruments, I mean that this has both rhythm AND melody, both, at the same time! there's even some pop hooks. In the pop music. That don't even make you want to die. Like somehow now? What passes for a hook is a noise that just gets your attention. Like we are so addled by ADD and the omnipresence of free music that anything that can make us pay attention to the background noise for more than five seconds counts as a success. But back then? a hook required an interesting lyric, or an unexpected melodic development, possibly both. Wow. they don't make uninteresting crap like this anymore. Like sure, this is boring. But it doesn't sound like it is trying to come out of the stereo to hurt me, while also being boring. So that is a plus. This is pretty pleasant, all told.
So there you go. If you take modern top 40 as your threshold, this is like fucking Bach. Otherwise it is boring as hell. I hope they got laid a lot for this but I bet they didn't. I bet they just had wheat-grass flavored yogurt and went to bed early.
Autopilot Off - Looking Up
Genre: late 90s/ early 00 pop punk. Think New Found Glory meets Fenix TX and you are basically there.
Where would I have heard of it: If you are like me you bought it because you confused the original band name, Cooter, with Custom, a band with some notoriety at the time. They started to get some buzz on the back of touring with Sum 41, MXPX, Goldfinger...everyone from that time period really. Then they got involved with a lawsuit with another pop punk band with the same name and a similar amount of fame. This pretty much killed their career, as it took a long time to resolve and by the time it had pop punk was over. They went on indefinite hiatus in 2005, reformed in 2011, put out an album, and went on hiatus again in 2012.
Anything of note: nah.
Are they any good: Yeah they're fine. I mean, if like me you still own baggy jean shorts because you don't know what else to wear during the summer, this band will probably make you feel happy. On the other hand there is literally nothing to distinguish them from anyone else from this genre and time period. I really feel like I am listening to an album by a different band when I listen to this. I can't put my finger on who, but I sure liked them a lot at one time. Listening to them is an odd act of nostalgia, listening to music from your youth that you never actually listened to at the time.
I'm not sure if i am keeping this. I don't hate it, but I don't love it either. I just know some day I am going to want to go on a pop punk binge and I will get through all my standards and wish I had more. That is when I will pull this one out.
Where would I have heard of it: If you are like me you bought it because you confused the original band name, Cooter, with Custom, a band with some notoriety at the time. They started to get some buzz on the back of touring with Sum 41, MXPX, Goldfinger...everyone from that time period really. Then they got involved with a lawsuit with another pop punk band with the same name and a similar amount of fame. This pretty much killed their career, as it took a long time to resolve and by the time it had pop punk was over. They went on indefinite hiatus in 2005, reformed in 2011, put out an album, and went on hiatus again in 2012.
Anything of note: nah.
Are they any good: Yeah they're fine. I mean, if like me you still own baggy jean shorts because you don't know what else to wear during the summer, this band will probably make you feel happy. On the other hand there is literally nothing to distinguish them from anyone else from this genre and time period. I really feel like I am listening to an album by a different band when I listen to this. I can't put my finger on who, but I sure liked them a lot at one time. Listening to them is an odd act of nostalgia, listening to music from your youth that you never actually listened to at the time.
I'm not sure if i am keeping this. I don't hate it, but I don't love it either. I just know some day I am going to want to go on a pop punk binge and I will get through all my standards and wish I had more. That is when I will pull this one out.
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