Liner Notes (June 28th, 2025)

Jun 28, 2025

Sun’s out, newsletter’s out. This week's supporter Q&A post can be found here.

A Few Things

I have been enjoying the Low End University YouTube channel.
The “28 Slightly Rude Notes on Writing” was great.

Sponsor

A longtime forum member's band, sleepingbagzzz, has released the new song "Howler." The emo/pop-punk song was written about the ending of a member's sister's relationship and can be found on all streaming platforms.

Music Thoughts

Moving Mountains returned after a decade and dropped one of the best albums of the year so far. It has that "special" feeling. It's the kind of album that's going to transition from summer to fall to winter for me and just cement itself as part of my year's special moments. Pristine production, great lyrics, and walks that post-punk to American Football emo line with quite a few surprises tucked within. I can't recommend it enough.
After a few weeks with the new Turnstile album, my thoughts are becoming a little more locked down. It's good. And it's a fun follow-up that delivers all the goods for fans. However, the interludes disrupt the flow, and it doesn't reach the highs of their last two albums for me. It's still incredible, but where Glow On literally re-kindled a dormant obsession with music for me, it was always going to be tough to live up to those expectations.
I’ve been loving everything from People R Ugly during this run of sunny weather. You can't stop my pop-punk heart.
Scott Sellers is as consistent as a metronome. He cranks out these technical skate pop-punk riffs and songs like nobody else. His latest is full of another batch, and they virtually all deliver. What I love most about this one is the few curve balls tossed in. "Scars" and "Solitaire" are standouts, and I hope he continues to lean into exploring that direction.
I am desperately trying not to overplay The Starting Line's "Sense of Humor" and Yellowcard's "Better Days." The fact that we're getting new albums from both bands within a few weeks of each other is proof that good things can happen in this world.
The new Good Charlotte single is good fun! That chorus has been stuck in my head all week. It also sent me on a dive of the band's catalog, and this song feels like it could slot in nicely with the band's last two albums mixed, maybe, a little with the Madden Brothers' release.
Over the last month or so, I got sucked into the biggest Lagwagon binge. Those first five albums are just so damn good. And the perfect fast-tempo running music. They've always been a band I liked, and I remember a skater friend sharing Lagwagon and Millencolin albums with me way back when, but something clicked into overdrive the last couple months, and I just keep reaching for these albums. Funny how that happens sometimes.

The Stats: Over the past week, I listened to 30 different artists, 50 different albums, and 427 different tracks (555 scrobbles). Here is my Top 9 from last week, and you can follow me on Apple Music and/or Last.fm.

Entertainment Thoughts

Friendship felt like a prolonged episode of I Think You Should Leave mixed with The Cable Guy. Funny. Cringe-filled. And I don't know how I feel about it besides that. (The Subway scene killed me for no good reason. His order was my old go-to in college.)
Predator: Killer of Killers was excellent. I am even more excited for whatever else comes in this world now.
Sinners is why I'll always want more fresh new IP. All the sequels, reboots, and franchises can be fun, but damn, when we get something new and original like this, it's such a celebration.
Similar story with Black Bag; I loved it.
Mobland was good but left me feeling a little empty. Overcompensating was a hit. Funny and heartfelt. Adults was a little hit or miss, depending on the episode, but still mostly a win, with some laugh-out-loud moments.

Random and Personal Stuff

My running journey has continued strong. I'm feeling stronger, enjoying a few longer runs, and have kept it consistent. It's made my daily workouts a little longer than before, but that feels good too.
I think we're close to feeling 90% moved in as we come up on the one-year anniversary (September) of the big move.

Follow more of my writing, photos, and status updates on my blog at chr.us.

Ten Songs

Here are ten songs that I listened to and loved this week. Some may be new, while others may be old, but they all found their way into my life over the past seven days.

Moving Mountains - Everyone is Happy, and Nothing is Good
Scott Sellers - Scars
June at the Apollo - Summer
People R Ugly - The Way I Am
Mark Hoppus - Totally Awesome
Felicty - Codebreaker
Girlfriends - Landslide
Lagwagon - Bury the Hatchet
Lost Stars - One Day
Turnstile - I Care

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 XIII" thread.

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Previous editions of Liner Notes can be found here.

Liner Notes from Chorus.fm

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