Category Archives: warped tour

I guess you call this regression

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I’ve spent this year as a ghost and I’m not sure where home is anymore.

Currently on Warped Tour touting their third full-length album, The Wonder Years is a band of Pennsylvania buddies whose albums progress through a story. This album, Suburbia: I’ve Given You All And Now I’m Nothing is inspired by the rambling poem “America” by Allen Ginsberg, a small snippet of which appears below:

America I’ve given you all and now I’m nothing.
America two dollars and twenty-seven cents January 17, 1956.
I can’t stand my own mind.
America when will we end the human war?
Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb
I don’t feel good don’t bother me.
I won’t write my poem till I’m in my right mind.
America when will you be angelic?
When will you take off your clothes?
When will you look at yourself through the grave?
When will you be worthy of your million Trotskyites?

Their sound is pretty much the same as that of Four Year Strong, and I don’t suppose that is a bad thing. In fact, Alan and Dan from FYS supply guest vocals on track 6, “Summers in PA.” I’m diggin on track 5, “My Life As a Pigeon.” Apparently the cohesive story is supposed to be the band’s complaints about touring, but I still like how some of the complaints can be translated to life.

Click to Enjoy The Wonder Years – My Life As A Pigeon

And with that, I ask you to embrace beardcore. Yes, it is just going to keep happening. We are going to keep subdividing musical genres until everyone gets their identity boxed right up for you. I happily use the term because it was pretty much named for Four Year Strong, a band I will always respect. What the hell, though. We analyze and categorize every goddamn detail of our lives as we try to justify its worth;, we might as well analyze and categorize our art too.

The Wonder Years actually does a very nice job tying this album up and allowing the inspiration from the poem to shine through with more than just an homage in the title. You can find snippets throughout the tracks, song names, and a summation in the final track on the album, “And Now I’m Nothing.”

Click to Enjoy The Wonder Years – And Now I’m Nothing

America this is the impression I get from looking in the television set.
America is this correct?
I’d better get right down to the job.
It’s true I don’t want to join the Army or turn lathes in precision parts
factories, I’m nearsighted and psychopathic anyway.
America I’m putting my queer shoulder to the wheel.

Don’t Want to Have to Call You up From a Pay Phone

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This is supposed to be a post about Set Your Goals, the sixpiece “post-hardcore” or “hardcore infused with pop” band from San Francisco. The band formed in 2004 and was fortunate enough to go on tour with The Warriors based off an EP they had recorded. They ended up signing with The Warriors’ label, Eulogy, and followed up the re-release of their EP with their first studio album, Mutiny! in 2006.

I thought Mutiny! was a decent freshman effort. Someone else must have thought so, too, because they went on tour with Anti-Flag and Alexisonfire the following year. Then in 2008, Set Your Goals played the entire summer on Warped Tour and got a contract on Epitaph Records in early 2009.

Influences such as this should make a dent on a punk band.

But This Will Be The Death of Us, released in July of this year, seems to take a step backwards. There is so much life and energy in Mutiny! that you would think could have been harnessed into excellent, mind-melting guitar riffs and stronger-than-ever lyrics, but it didn’t. I don’t know what happened. Instead, this album is full of lay-it-on-too-thick double bass and lay-it-on-too-cheesy rebellious rants you might hear from a fledgling teenage punk band, but not a bunch of guys in their late 20’s who have been around absolute legends in the punk industry.

[Download Set Your Goals – Summer Jam]

These sugary, anthem-y chants in This Will Be The Death of Us reminded me of another band: Hawk Nelson. This is an energetic punk band from Canada which has been around since 2004. They also happen to be a Christian band, which obviously precludes them from ever being invited to tour along with Alexisonfire or most of the other punk godfathers.

Somehow, though, the boys in Hawk Nelson have managed to polish their craft with every album they put out. They don’t get played on mainstream radio, although they did appear on a major motion picture and did get nominated for a Grammy. They don’t get invited to go on tour with anyone but other Christian bands or Christian festivals.

[Download Hawk Nelson – Long and Lonely Road]

But put almost any of Hawk Nelson’s singles up against any track on This Will Be The Death of Us and the only difference you will hear is a better execution by the Canadian boys. I ask what is the point of putting Set Your Goals on Epitaph at all. Compare “Let’s Dance” from Hawk Nelson and “Look Closer” from Set Your Goals.

[Download Hawk Nelson – Let’s Dance]

[Download Set Your Goals – Look Closer]

That’s how this post which was supposed to be about Set Your Goals becomes a post about Hawk Nelson. Would you like to hear some music that actually makes you get up and jump? Are you really going to overlook a decent band because they are Christian?

Check out some Hawk Nelson. They have a fourth studio album on its way next month, but below you can get the mp3 off the new release.

Ghosts of old loves are blowing in the pines

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Alexisonfire is all growed up. Unfortunately, I forgot to add their older albums in my iTunes rebuild, so I can’t prove it to you. But they released their fourth full-length album, Old Crows/Young Cardinals, just a couple of weeks ago and in it I can hear mature sounds ranging from hardcore punk to newcore screamo.

I even hear a bit of Tiger Army in there somewhere. That’s a compliment. While these boys did hit the scene kicking ass and taking names, they’ve only gotten stronger in the 8 years since the band formed. And it seems that rather than being influenced and inspired by bands they’ve toured with, it seems that they’ve taken something else from all the touring they’ve done.

In an interview with CHARTattack: “I think the big thing influencing myself and Dallas when we were getting off the road was having played a lot and done some touring with some bands that we didn’t like,” says guitarist/vocalist MacNeil. “We knew what we didn’t want and what we wanted to distance ourselves from, and that became equally important as what we were trying to get to.”

Apparently this continues even as they attack every date on Warped this summer. On their own tour blog, they say:

I’d say the most surprising thing about this tour is the amount of bands that are faking it. Straight up lip-syncing nonsense!
To begin with Millionaires don’t sing at all, and the one dude from brokeNCYDE is up there just pretending. I digress………..

Track 2, “Young Cardinals”, is the song I would say shows just how serious they are, and it’s one of the strongest on the album in my opinion. In fact, it blows me the fuck away.

[Download Alexisonfire – Young Cardinals]

The boys do have some good words for other acts on Warped Tour. The Gallows, a band on new dad Brett Gurewitz’s Epitaph label, reportedly “play harder than everybody everyday”. Rapper POS carries himself “like he is fronting for a punk band.” Of course they’re going to have kind words for Antiflag, since they’ve toured the world with them and even sing on their record. Last but not least they cite hometown boy Shad because, well, you’ve got to back up your brothers. So check out these four and maybe watch for us to talk more about them in an upcoming podcast. You are subscribed to the podcast aren’t you?

One more song for your listening pleasure. I like “No Rest” as well. I think it showcases their expertise on their tools and equipment. The lyrics aren’t terribly inspired, and you know what a lyric snob I am… But the execution of this track is impeccable so I am letting it slide.

[Download Alexisonfire – No Rest]

Check out Warped Tour this summer if you can. The day-long festival has barely gotten started, so you have no excuse not to find a show near you (if you’re anywhere in the contiguous yoo-nited states that is – or in Quebec tomorrow). And get in on one of these massive circle pits that Alexisonfire inspires.