Liberties, Vol 9

When you are worried about something dying, like I am with Liberties, you have to turn to that which cannot die. In music, the only thing that can't die are riffs.

Hammers

Skateboarder Jim Greco, a founder and member of one my favourite teams Deathwish, recently released his newest short film Jobs? Never!!



I guess that it is technically still a skate part/video, but I also find it interesting that he chooses to call it a short film instead of a "skate part", but it's also evident why he does that. Rather than the tried and true method of pairing a skateboarder's footage with popular music the skater in question enjoys, Greco takes a more narrative-based approach.

On one hand, it's a stark contrast to basically every skate video that every company puts out and Jobs? Never!!, shot on 16 and 35 mm film, seems like an Italian movie from the 70's in comparison. This is further emphasized when you compare Greco's white collared shirt and jacket outfit with the uber-hip current skate fashion that almost everyone under 30 wears today. On the other though, the shots of Greco casually skating through Los Angeles remind me a lot of Lance Mountain's solo scenes in Powell-Peralta's first-ever video from 1984, The Bones Brigade Video Show, so at once Greco is diverging himself from the norm while also firmly rooting himself in the history of his discipline.

I really appreciate that Greco is trying hard to innovate a medium that, while immensely enjoyable, hasn't really evolved that much stylistically since the early 90's (Spike Jonze's contributions notwithstanding). Also always have to show love when somebody puts Tom Penny in a video in the 10's.

In the City There's a Thousand Things I Wanna Say to You

One of the few benefits of working a desk job in an office is that it allowed me ample time to check out music, whether it be new releases that friends are hyping up or old things that I haven't gotten around to yet. It was nice to let my interests wander and devote full days to checking out things I wouldn't have guessed that I would like, like as well as giving things a chance and knowing that it's not for me, like Todd Rundgren.

I don't have as much of a chance to do that anymore, now that I'm not on a computer for the entire day. As a result, it feels like my 2018 listening is starting to lighten (it's not, really), but there's been a bunch of newer releases that I've been into that I thought I would share.

Nothing, Dance on the Blacktop



I don't really have time for most gaze anymore, but since I loved Tired of Tomorrow so much, I figured I would be into this as well. I was right and am returning to this one regularly lately. I like that the band's interest in early British stuff isn't just limited to My Bloody Valentine; the volume, layers, and space is there, but so are Britpop hooks and a big Factory Records vibe too.

Doe, Grow into It




Punk and emo's obsession with grunge blindsided me when it happened. Doesn't everyone else realize that Pearl Jam and Soundgarden suck? That being said, I do appreciate that it made some bands centre their songs around big overdriven guitar riffs. Most make that boring, but this band Doe does it great. Nice, tight package of poppy rock songs.

Joyce Manor, Million Dollars to Kill Me




Yet again, Joyce Manor releases another gem and move further up my list of all-time favourite bands. As much poppier as Cody was than Never Hungover Again, this one is that much poppier than Cody. I purposely didn't listen to any of the songs they released ahead of the album, to save the surprise, but they announced on Instagram that they had been working with Rory Phillips (who played in two big-time Timbo favourites The Impossibles and The Stereo) as a songwriter and produced, I was bursting with anticipation. I really feel the Rory vibe on the album and love it so much. Just keep cranking 'em out boys, and I will keep loving them.

Living With Lions, Island




The older I get, the harder it is to listen to pop-punk. I find I can still return to old favourites like blink, Fireworks, or Set Your Goals, but find that most of the stuff I was an ardent supporter of in 2009-ish, I just can't get into at all anymore. Every now and then though, I get an itch that only big production, catchy pop-punk can scratch. When that comes, I like returning to a band who were once my favourite. LWL are back with, yet again, a new singer, but it still works.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, one of the best parts of having time to check out music is not just staying up to date on new things, but also getting around to old stuff that has been deemed significant in hindsight. The latest case: The Jam! Lifetime recently posted a live video of them playing "In the City" and since then, I've been on a kick, with In the City and All Mod Cons getting the spins.

I, Musical Genius, Vol 2: Tales from Toronto Ska, 2004-2007

As I intimated (I chose that verb because Lil' Wayne just used in "Demon" on Tha Carter V, my current listen) in my last post, I just finished my second zine, named the same as this post. When I started to work on zines in the summer of 2015 (boy, was the first one a long time coming), I thought of them as tangible versions of the writing I do on I, Musical Genius, which is why I've kept the name on them. This site is a timeline of my life and of my progression as a writer and creative person, so it feels great to channel all of that into neatly folded blue paper booklets.

Like the first volume of the zine, this one is a collection of short memoirs dealing with one of my principle interests. This time around the theme is ska music, specifically Toronto ska in the mid-00's. There's two old IMU stories that I've spiffed up here, but also two new entries that you won't find anywhere else. I'm proud of the stories and hope that readers get some nostalgic pangs while they go through them and think about different things that meant as much to you.

As with last time, you can click on the image in the right side bar to read about getting a copy.

-Timmy

Liberties, Vol 8

As Liberties enters its 8th week of existence, Timmy's mind skips a beat while he works every day of a weekend. As he focuses on a current exhibition ending and printing and assembling zines, Liberties falls back in his mind's queue. Timmy is reminded of this on a Sunday afternoon at the gallery and immediately starts to brainstorm ideas for a possible theme for the 8th edition. Thinking of the songs "9/10" on Jeff Rosenstock's album POST-, he immediately relates it to the Antartico Vespucci song "Losing My Mind" on their debut album Leavin' La Vida Loca, thinking of "spacey, synthy songs". The rest falls into place and Liberties survives for another week, hanging on by its fingertips. But will Liberties make it out of this one alive? Make sure to tune in next week on I, Musical Genius.

Liberties, Vol 7

I just got a new phone, my first smartphone since the days of Blackberries being popular, and something that immediately excited me was the ability to use music as my alarm in the morning again. No more shrill flipphone tones! I chose four songs to upload to my phone for use as an alarm in the next couple of weeks. The thought process behind picking a song you won't be annoyed to hear every day for the near future was interesting to me and the four I chose made up the basis of this playlist, while the rest was filled out by songs I've used to wake up in the past. Behold, 10 songs that make me excited to take on the day.

Liberties, Vol 6

To go along with the essay about blink-182 that I wrote this week, I've also devoted this week's edition of Liberties to what I feel are the band's best deep cuts, though Spotify doesn't have They Came to Conquer... Uranus, so I couldn't include "Wrecked Him". Also, why does that release have an ellipsis in it? It doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.

It may seem silly to include "Carousel" as a deep cut, as it's one of the band's most beloved songs, but am I to assume that you all are blasting Cheshire Cat on the regular? Also, I make the rules around here, so too bad. Blink are a band that deals in hits and most of the singles bang, to be sure, but I think what sets them apart is how great most of their output is, so here you go.

A whole lot of blink-182 content this week. If you aren't into that, all I can say is that you have absolutely come to the wrong place.

We Take the Road Less Traveled On

The band We Are The Union recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund their forthcoming album Self Care. I was incredibly invested in this band's music when I was a little younger, so I though I would take the opportunity to promote their efforts in putting out some new music.

We Are The Union was my entire world for a couple of years during my undergrad degree. I discovered the band through MySpace just as I started school and immediately took to them, specifically their album Who We Are (available as a free download at the time), which dominated my listening that year and was my "Album of the Year" in a time before IMU existed. The music was a synthesis of things that were new and exciting to me at the time, like Mutiny!-era Set Your Goals and Self-Titled-era Lifetime, with the ska-punk I was already familiar with and will love for the rest of my life. It took me many babysteps to get into hardcore and those examples of SYG and Lifetime were the first of those. Finding a band that happened to be combining the things I was just getting into with what I was already comfortable with seemed too good to be true.

The lyrics on that record were also a huge part of why it resonated so much. There were angsty breakup songs that I loved because I was just starting to wade into the dating world and was extremely confused about that process, but what really stuck with me was the album's overall themes of self-reliance and anti-conformity. At a time of transition and self-discovery, that being 1st year university, those ideas felt empowering.

A quick sidenote: Being a good ska-punk band is a delicate balance. Every member needs to be:

• A good and capable musician. Moreso than most punk or rock band members.
• A true appreciator of ska music in all its forms. Even if you mostly like newer stuff and want to play 3rd wave, your band will mostly likely suck if you don't have an understanding of 1st and 2nd wave.
• A fuckin' punk. That level of energy and aggression and defiance needs to be there or everything will fall flat.

It's a hard thing to maintain. Even bands who absolutely nail it for an album or two don't maintain it for a whole career. We Are The Union nailed all of these.

Following the release of Who We Are, the band quickly became "my guys" and I hyped them up at every opportunity (here's a real bad post from the archives doing just that). I followed all of the members on Twitter and eagerly watched updates from their tours. In particular, I remember watching a livestream of one of their shows from Memphis, I think? Some small punk market. When they announced a follow-up record in 2009, my excitement was at a fever pitch. I was all over their studio updates and was trying to piece together what the album would sound like from brief unmixed clips playing in the background. In my mind, they were the best band working and the album would be the best thing put out that year.

Ultimately, I remember being a little disappointed by Great Leaps Forward. Not that it was bad, but that it didn't live up to the monumental expectations I had for it. In the years after that, my listening to the band gradually slowed. I still loved them and eagerly checked out new releases, but my investment wasn't nearly what it was when I was in 1st and 2nd year university. In the last couple of years especially, I haven't paid much attention at all.

When they started promoting the new Kickstarter campaign, I went back and dug out my vinyl copies of Who We Are and Great Leaps Forward, as my record player was serendipitously repaired for this listening. WWA still has a special place in my heart for how much it meant at one time, but I found that it didn't quite resonate as much as it used to. To my surprise though, I found Great Leaps Forward much more palatable now. It's fast and it doesn't let up for the whole play through. Maybe I've relaxed a bit about getting dumped. I'd like to think that I still care just as much about being who I am though. I don't think that will ever leave me, even if I've found different ways to say it now.

While I was re-listening to the records, I dug through my t-shirts to see if I still had my old "I'm Like John Cusack"-themed one. I still do, sort of, in that I cut the front out of it to include in a quilt of old band t-shirts I'm going to make. I guess that symbolizes a lot of the music I was into at that time: Maybe I've moved on a little bit from some of it and maybe I like some different things now, but I'll never let go of what this stuff meant at one time and the fire it lit inside of me.

Blink

I've been neglecting IMU here and only giving you short Liberties posts. For this, I apologize. It's because I've been working on a couple of other writing projects, one of which I just finished. Over on the "serious" site, I just posted an essay about blink-182 and masculinity. Give 'er a go.

I Wanted Everything, I've Got and Now I'm Gonna Throw It Away

Liberties, Vol 5

This week's edition of Liberties follows a pretty simple premise: I was listening to Deafheaven's new album Ordinary Corrupt Human Love recently and decided that the opening track would make a great score to a skate part. What followed was the full soundtrack for the skate movie that I will never make.