Liner Notes (June 12th, 2020)
In this week’s newsletter, I share very early thoughts on the new albums from The Lawrence Arms and Ruston Kelly, talk a little about current and future website projects, and go through my regular media diet rundown from the past week. And, as always, there’s a playlist of ten songs I enjoyed this week as well. This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.
Four Things
On Wednesday of this week, I continued my march through re-ranking albums from my past. This week was a re-look at 2006 and touched on how not all nostalgia is fun and enjoyable to look back on. I tried to reevaluate the musical shift that was happening at the time and all the big swings bands were taking, but I also had to talk about the elephant in the room: Brand New’s The Devil and God… I struggled over what to say all week, and I did the best I could. I’ve been struggling with how to put to words how I feel about everything related to that band for almost three years now and fail every time. I’ve enjoyed this weekly mental exercise, and I think it’s a fun way to revisit some of the core years of AbsolutePunk, but I’ve heard from a few people that have discovered bands from it as well. They weren’t old enough at the time to be getting into music, so they’re finding some of these lesser-known bands that they had never heard of. I find that fascinating and a real joy. I’ve also enjoyed sitting down each Wednesday, like I do on Friday, and knowing I’m going to be writing today. After months of being in the weeds of coding while I redesigned the website, it’s nice to be able to stretch these muscles again. I missed it.
I had someone ask if I had thought about turning the weekly articles, or even this newsletter, into podcast episodes. It’s not something I had thought of; I figured if someone wanted the information in the articles/newsletter, they would read it, but with the back and forth, I kind of understood the point: not everyone is reading things these days, let alone anything long-form. Does this make sense? Would anyone want that? Publish an article Wednesday, narrate it, push out a podcast of basically the same content, and then to something similar on Friday? I guess I could expand and ad-lib more with the “In Case You Missed It” portion and talk about the bigger news stories of the week. I don’t know how all that would work or if it would even work at all. It’s something I’m thinking about, though; I may record a test episode or something to see how I feel about it. In a world where not everyone reads or even visits websites anymore, being able to share some of the stuff I write in audio form may be worth exploring.
The next website project I need to tackle is obnoxiously unfun. I need to look at fixing some issues with the ads in the forums and have them better display on all devices. I figured out a few better ways to do ads when I redesigned the main website, so I’m going to be taking what I learned there and applying it to the forum. Anything dealing with ads, banners, anything like that, is just so not exciting to work on. It’s my least favorite part of this business, but unfortunately, it still ends up being about 45% of my income each year, so it’s still very needed. I’m hoping to highlight better the benefits of becoming a supporting member (should I rename this?) and bringing the weekly website sponsor to the community as well in hopes of making that spot even more valuable. All business-y and hard to get motivated to do work, but that’s what I have on the docket for next week.
I’m still not really sure what to do with the Chorus Instagram account. I’ve been using it to highlight album anniversaries and the big stories/articles from the website each day. I’m realizing very quickly that social media is not my bag. I find all the “brand” stuff on Twitter exceptionally off-putting, and my little spit out headlines every 15 minutes thing is clearly awful for the algorithm and “engagement.” I do like reminiscing about older albums, though, so that’s been fun to post about now and again on Instagram. If anyone has better ideas for our social platforms, please, email me, I’m all ears.
Sponsor
Babygotbacktalk are a violin-powered, coed, multiracial D-I-Why?-because-we-gotta punk quartet from New York City. You might dig them if you’re into bands like Meet Me @ The Altar and Free Throw. The band’s latest single and music video is “Back to Before,” a timely, fist-pumping anthem about seizing the opportunity for a cultural reboot.
Check out the single on all streaming services and look for the band’s upcoming full-length album, Genre Reveal Party, will be released to streaming platforms on July 17th.
In Case You Missed It
Music Thoughts
This week is an odd one for music. The album I was most looking forward to hearing from The Aces got pushed back until next month, so I haven’t checked anything else out yet from today’s releases. That dovetailed nicely with getting two advance albums this week that I’ve been highly anticipating. The first is the new record from The Lawrence Arms. In my opinion, The Lawrence Arms are the best pop-punk band that no one talks about. Mainly because when we talk about pop-punk, we’re usually talking about pop, then punk, and this is punk, then pop. And that little distinction makes a big difference. It’s an album, much like their previous Metropole, that is filled with hooks, melodies, and at times a little Americana vibe all tossed together with just enough piss and vinegar. 14-songs, coming in just over 35 minutes, and an album that shifts well between various energy levels. On first listen standouts include “Ghostwriter,” “Dead Man’s Coat,” “Lose Control,” and “Pigeons and Spies.” I’ve been working on my “best of 2020 (so far)” list (which will run early next month), and this is going to make a late play for a high spot.
The other notable advance from this week is the new one from Ruston Kelly. Ruston’s first album, Dying Star, was a look at an exceptionally talented and honest songwriter that tackled addiction and the road to sobriety. His cover EP, where he gave stripped-back takes on Blink–182, Saves the Day, Taylor Swift, and more, put him more squarely onto the playlists of many that read our website. I fell in love with this one immediately. Maybe it’s the hopelessness I’ve been feeling at the world. Because not a day goes by where I don’t see at least one push notification that teeters me right on edge, but these songs feel like a tightrope walk of anxiety and hope. Once again showcasing a songwriting tour de force, this album sits at the perfect spot between country and emo. Not quite country, not quite Dashboard Confessional. It’s out at the end of August and one to keep on your radar. I’ll put “Brave” in this week’s playlist as an introduction.
Next week is Phoebe Bridgers week and I’m very excited to see reactions and comments about that once it’s out. It’s remained in constant rotation over here and is in pole position for my favorite album at the mid-way point of the year.
Next week is also new New Found Glory week and I’m very curious how that’s going to be received once it’s officially out.
I listened to a lot of Glacier Veins and Momma this week, and I am very much in on the new Midnight single. Oh, and that Mansions song was pretty good as well.
Entertainment Thoughts
We finished season two of Dark this week, and I’m trying not to be overly hyperbolic when I say it’s probably my favorite season of television I’ve seen in quite a while. I am still thinking about it and can’t believe they pulled it off in a way that worked. The third, and final, season starts up in a few weeks, and I am beyond excited. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like this show, I immediately wanted more or, hell, anything similar. But there’s nothing that gets quite to this level.
Hannah is gone this week (and next) taking care of her grandmother, so I needed something to watch by myself. I couldn’t decide on a new show after Dark because nothing could live up to it, so I am back on a Riverdale binge. I’m in the middle of season three now, and it’s ridiculous, over the top, and yet still oddly bad-good.
Hannah’s birthday was last weekend, and she wanted to re-watch Birds of Prey, which held up as a shockingly fun film on second viewing.
I listened to the Reply All: The Crime Machine podcast episodes this week, and they are highly recommended. It’s two episodes that tell the story of how the police system has become designed to lead to harmful, racist behavior. Definitely worth your time if you’ve never heard them before.
I finished reading The Cactus League, which was only alright. It made me miss baseball, but the way it was written made it hard for me to sink into the characters. After that, I read The Sun Down Motel, which I really enjoyed. It’s a ghost-mystery that has two timelines playing at the same time, one in the past, one in the present, and I thought it worked. It was sufficiently creepy, and I could see it being a movie or mini-series someday.
Random and Personal Stuff
With Hannah away this week, I’ve been trying to stay busy. The hardest thing for me lately has been the motivation for health-related things. I’m still working out each day, that’s been a habit that’s just there now (I sure am getting tired of resistance band workouts though), but I have absolutely no internal motivation to eat remotely healthy. Last night at like 8pm I was like, you know what, I want a hot dog. Like, why? I think it’s a combination of being couped up inside and not seeing anyone, lots of overcast and rainy days, a rats nest of catastrophe going on with my hair, and well, everything and more happening every single day all the time with no end in sight, that I’ve felt very much in an “oh who fucking cares” mode. I’ve gotta re-find the guardrails on this one.
Ten Songs
Here are ten songs that I listened to and loved this week. Some may be new, some may be old, but they all found their way into my life during the past seven days.
Ruston Kelly - Brave
The Lawrence Arms - PTA
Happy. - Sick is the New Sane
The Republic Tigers - Mind Over Matter
Tijuana Panthers - Pull the Chute
Mansions - PPV
Glacier Veins - Everything Glows
The Midnight - Dance with Somebody
Willa J - Like it or Not
Peter Gabriel - My Body is a Cage
This playlist is available on Spotify and Apple Music.
Community Watch
The trending and popular threads in our community this week include:
The most liked post in our forums last week was this one by Wharf Rat in the “General Politics Discussion VII” thread.
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Previous editions of Liner Notes can be found here.