TAG: 1997

The ep was great, but the full length was garbage.

Antarctica, unbeknownst to me, was probably my introduction to post rock/pretty drone. So thanks I guess.

All posts in October will be from bands playing Fest 10 in Gainesville, Florida. Everything will be posted in the order that they are playing. 

Friday, 11:25 at The Florida Theater of Gainesville.

Amongst my friends, there are two camps when it comes to HWM. One believes that the No Idea years were the best and anything beyond Forever and Counting is terrible. The other believes the opposite, that the Epitaph years were great.

I’m firmly among the first group. Firmly. I haven’t seen HWM live in years because of this, but I’d check them out in hopes of hearing some of the old gold. There are at least 4 post-post No Idea albums, though, so who knows if I’d actually get to hear anything I wanted. But Hot Water Music at Fest seems like a no-brainer.

I’m pretty sure I’d leave this show after 15 minutes and try to rush to the Coliseum. A band I actively care about.

I read a youtube comment said this is who the band Young Widows wish they were, and no I can't stop listening to it.

There is a line in the song Stay Positive by the Hold Steady that goes “There’s gonna come a time when the true scene leaders forget where they differ and get big picture ‘cause the kids at the shows, they’ll have kids of their own and the sing-along songs will be our scriptures.”

I’m old enough that this is happening now.

In light of that, I’m going to spend the rest of the year highlighting our scriptures.

Ugh, Mustard Plug. 

I’ve never really liked this band, even during the ska years or living in Grand Rapids, it couldn’t make a dent in that distaste. But this damn song,  goddamn this song. So catching and upbeat. It's perfect. Listen to it and not get it stuck in your head. 

All posts in the month of August will be covers.

Originally by The Get Up Kids

Let's be honest here, I could do like 3 weeks of Coalesce covers. Dudes have done so many covers, including an entire Led Zeppelin covers album.  They even refer to themselves as a cover band in their cover of Amadeus.

Coalesce is one of my favorite bands of all time, and what I love about this cover is how much they own it. Yeah, the Zeppelin covers are good, and Sean's vocals are great, but musically it's still pretty much sounds like Zep. This sounds like Coalesce, top to bottom.

The photo sort of sucks, but good luck finding a better one.

Worst band I saw at Fest 9. Hands down.

There is a line in the song Stay Positive by the Hold Steady that goes “There’s gonna come a time when the true scene leaders forget where they differ and get big picture ‘cause the kids at the shows, they’ll have kids of their own and the sing-along songs will be our scriptures.”  I’m old enough that this is happening now. 

In light of that, I’m going to spend the rest of the year highlighting our scriptures.  

Old Testament.

For me, Slapstick is right up there with OPIV, a complete classic that I overplayed during “the ska years.” Every song from 25 songs is a sing-along classic, but the intro to “There is a Metalhead in the Parking Lot” just makes me feel good.

Not owning this record (in its original, unremixed form) is grounds for excommunication. 

Essential. 

The Bike are my all-time favorite band. This is the first track off their first 7".

This is also the site's 100th post.