Trying Hard Not to Smile

A friend of Rebecca's recently sent them a video of a Youtube Guy (and I mean "Youtube Guy") doing a blink-182ified* version of "One Week" by the Barenaked Ladies. I found the guy's voice and demeanor irritating and had to then admit to myself that I just really like the song "One Week".

*You eve notice that the "What if blink-182 wrote _____" videos on Youtube always just sound like All Time Low?

"One Week" is one of those songs tied to a specific memory for me. In January 2009, Brian, Pat, and I drove to Toronto from Geulph so we could see Streetlight Manifesto, A Wilhelm Scream, The Swellers, and The Stich Up play at the Sound Academy. We had recently gotten Brian into Streetlight and were excited for him to see them with us. I also loved taking from friends from Guelph back to Toronto. Everyone at school was from the 519 area and loved to shit on Toronto, so I felt smug that usually anything sick happening required us to go back to my hometown.

In hindsight, I think this show was also a turning point for me in my music taste. This was the last time that I was excited to see Streetlight and I never sought out chances to see them after this. I was just starting to get into, for lack of a better term, "Fest music" and couldn't wait to see both Wilhelm and the Swellers. About 95% of the crowd didn't know those two bands and were pretty indifferent when they played,* so it felt cool and like I was part of a secret club who knew how good those bands were. When we walked in, The Stich Up were covering "Deeper" from Dan Potthast's other band Mu330, and that was an early point in my obsession with that band too. I had been looking forward to the chance to pick up the Swellers' My Everest at the show, and it turned out to be everything I expected.

*Streetlight Manifesto kind of have "Slayer Fan (or NoFX fan or Dropkick Murphys fan) syndrome where they draw a crowd that only cares about the headlining band and are openly hostile to openers. No one cares that you know all the words to "Would You Be Impressed" bro. They're a huge band.

Pat drove us in Brian minivan, Mama Link, to the show because Brian was tired and wanted to just be high in the backseat instead. Whenever we did roadtrips like this night, I would make a playlist on my iPod that we could listen to on the drive into the city. I took making the playlist super seriously and was trying to prove how fuckin' sick my musical taste was, thinking that I would get a "yo, this sounds good" compliment each time a song they hadn't heard came on.

Obviously, that didn't happen. It's not like they disliked the music I put on, but mostly they were indifferent while we drove. The traffic into the city was bad and I was starting to get stressed about getting to the show on time, so that I could see all of those opening bands. The playlist ended as we got off the 401 near Scarborough Town Center and we debated about what to put on next. I turned around and looked at Brian, high as hell behind me and deadpanning, with the glow of his laptop screen light up his face:

"Iiiiittt's beeen"

Every time that I mention this song, I'm also required to mention the last line of the lyrics "Birchmount Stadium, Home of the Robbie" said instead of "It'll still be two days until we say we're sorry". BNL are from my neighborhood in Scarborough, and names and imagery from there are featured in a lot of their music. Shout out to the Real McCoy being in the "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" video. Birchmount is a high school/sports complex near my parents' house. I played house league baseball for the Birchmout Bulldogs and my first lifeguarding job was at Birchmount Pool. Each year, an big invitational soccer tournament is held at Birchmount Stadium called the Robbie. You always see this sign as you drive by on Kingston Road:

Wouldn't Want to if I Was in Your Shoes

I was listening to Saves the Day's fourth, and unjustly maligned, album In Reverie today for the first time in ages. Like pretty much everyone else in the world, I can agree that the album which preceded it, Stay What You Are, is miles better, but I can also see what they were going for on the follow-up. In Reverie leans a little more into contemporary rock territory than the light classic rock feel they dabbled in before and you would think that would lead them to better performance on rock music charts, but it didn't. Chris Conley used a very different singing style on the record because of vocal chord problems, but that can't be it, can it?

Anyways, this post is not about that album. It was only to introduce it! What a sneaky cold open!

After In Reverie finished, Saves the Day's Self-Titled started playing automatically in my iTunes.* I don't really have much of a bond to the record, but it does take me back to a time when they were one of my favourite bands and I was absolutely all-in on everything they did.

*I actually think this album is okay. There are a couple of pretty fun, poppy rock songs ("In the In Between", "The Tide of Our Times", "Stand in the Stars") that almost make you believe the band is on some next level late-career renaissance shit, but there's also enough slow boring stuff to convince you they should hang it up. All told, it's at least a good creative direction for a band who's been active for over 20 years. I can respect a band for still trying new things and "doing it" as opposed to just rehashing their most successful sound in a pandering way, like blink did on California.

I saw Saves the Day play at Pouzza Fest in Montreal the summer before Self-Titled came out. They played a new song at that show and I remember being pretty stoked on it, but that can also be chocked up to me seeing one of my favourite bands for the first time and having an all-around amazing time. Later that summer, they released "The Tide of Our Times" and my hopes were high on them putting out a solid follow-up to Daybreak, which I loved. As a fan of the band's entire discography up to that point, I was convinced that this would be another addition to a storied career. When it did come out, I gave it a decent amount of listens, but eventually found that it just didn't resonate with me like all of their past material did.

However, the feeling of anticipation I had before the record came out is exactly what I chase as a music fan. Watching an artist operate at the best of their abilities and put things out that matter to you is special. It's even more special when it's a lesser-known band and you get to have this relationship privately, just you and the music. I know that Saves the Day is a huge band, with singles that are a touchstone for the genre and nine full-length albums, but I got that feeling a little bit while waiting for Self-Titled to come out.

Today, I started to think about who I'm currently "all in" on. The obvious first one is Oso Oso, who I won't spend another post gushing about right now (I will take an opportunity to link to their newest single though, it's great!). Tony Molina is another. Since Bay Dream came out, I would say I'm getting there with Culture Abuse, as their "Police on my Back" cover, "Goo", and "Wartime Dub" have all been excellent.

This brings me to Baggage, the new(ish) band of Jono Diener, who was the drummer and one of the songwriters in IMU sentimental favourites The Swellers. So far, they've put out two excellent EPs that continue the 90's alternative/punk hybrid that The Swellers were moving towards on their last two albums. Maybe Jono's vocals were the secret sauce to me loving that band? Highly recommended!



Baggage recently signed to Smartpunk Records and are going to release their first full-length album later this summer. So far, they've released two songs from the record, "Horseshoe" up above and "Misophonia" below, and I find that I've been looking forward to the record more than many others that will come out in 2019. In terms of being all in, I'm not sure if I'm there with them yet, but a good record for me to blast while I'm all alone in a new apartment in Montreal will almost certainly put them there. Here's to hoping.

Let's Leave and Be Runaways Tonight

I decided to take a break from social media this week, mostly Twitter, because I felt like I was spending too much time on it and it was adversely affecting my mood (did my last post give you a hint?). A great side effect of this is that small thoughts I would have maybe turned into a tweet are now turning into a slightly bigger IMU post. This makes me think that social media breaks are an extremely good thing that I should do more, because it makes me write more and that's way better than wasting time reading things that I don't even find interesting.

I can't believe that humanity spends most of its time doing that now! It's actually really Mest up when you think about it!

I put on an old favourite, the album Good For Me by The Swellers, and it immediately took me back to the place I was at in my life while I was super into it in 2011. The album came at exactly the right time and hit me in exactly the right spot and I listened to it constantly in the summer of 2011. I even put it on my End of Year List that year. I had kind written the band off after not enjoying their previous effort, but then they blind-sided me with this mother fucker and I was in love all over again. It somehow walks the tightrope of mixing skate punk, pop-punk, and alt rock and then sticks the landing masterfully. The songs all go to exactly right place songwriting-wise and then all of a sudden you're on the last song before you even realize it. The band should be really proud of creating a super tight and interesting album.

Even though music is always the first place I turn, it's important to remember that when you feel crummy, revisiting an old friend like this can be comforting and exactly what you need.