Hearts of Gold Can Still Feel Lonely if They Don't Know They're Not the Only Ones

 Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the release of Bomb the Music Industry's last record Vacation in 2011. Lest you think I was keeping track of that, I only noticed this once friends of mine and bands started posting about it on social media and seeing these posts brought back a lot of memories for me around the record. These days, it's hard for to pick an actual "favourite record" and it varies depending on my mood and how the music is hitting me at that moment, but there are probably 5 or 10 I could narrow it down to that take that spot and Vacation is absolutely among those. Since Vacation is sometimes my favourite record, here are episodes from my relationship with this album.

1. Starting in high school, I began a personal ritual in which I would download the new Bomb the Music Industry! record from QuoteUnquoteRecords.com the day it was released and then read along with the lyrics on the website for my first listen through of the record.* The songs and band were so important to me and, as I've explained ad nauseam on here, it felt like they were my own special thing. These listen throughs reading the lyrics were an important part of that relationship and were for sure a major force in me building it. When Vacation came out though, I had to work in the morning and didn't have time to perform that ritual. Instead, I downloaded it, immediately put it on my iPod, and listened to it on the way to work. As a result, it took me a little bit to warm up to the record, and at first it didn't measure up to BtMI's past material.

*It makes me happy that the website still looks the exact same as it always has. Wish I wasn't always so nostalgic, but maybe I should just accept that this is who I am.

2. I saw Bomb the Music Industry! on their Vacation tour in the summer of 2011 and, like Vacation's place in my list of favourite records, I often think of this as the best show I've ever been to. Opening the show, I got introduced to the Sidekicks, who killed it live and immediately became one of my favourite active bands. BtMI! played a long set that mixed all of their wonderful albums and the show ended by them played "Syke! Life is Awesome!" a personal favourite of mine. I stagedove at the end of the set and screamed the ending refrain that I used to write in the margins of notebooks at eye level with Jeff Rosenstock. It was cathartic.

3. During my winter break from school in 2011/12, I returned to Scarborough for the holidays. One night, while sleeping in my parents' basement, I had a really bad night thinking about my life and my future and got really low. I listened to Vacation from start to finish and decided to then do my read along on the website. It made me feel a lot better and that is when it became my favourite Bomb the Music Industry! record.

4. I had a tough year in 2012 and was a particular low point in mid-February. I was listening to the record constantly at this point, but one particular time sticks out when I was walking home from a friend's house in a snow storm. The line "In truth, December destroyed me, January crushed me, by February I was not myself" in "Felt Just like Vacation", while walking in heavy snow, overwhelmed me.

5. In January of 2014, I traveled with Rebecca to New York to see Bomb the Music Industry!'s last two shows. Both shows were amazing and seemed like the perfect way to send off the band. My friends James and Nick travelled to the shows separately and I met them there. So did Dave and James. Rebecca's friend made them wait with all of our coats during the second show. The Slackers opened the first show and that ruled. Even though the sets were lengthy and amazing, something that has always stuck out to me was the band opening with "Campaign for a Better Next Weekend", the first track on Vacation, each night.

6. In January of 2018, Rebecca and I went to their family's cottage with a few friends. It was a really nice and relaxing time. My friend Pat has described it in the past as a formative weekend for him that convinced him of some moves he had to make in his life. On the first night, we cycling through music and he put on Vacation and said something like "I was listening to this the other and thought it really held up." Part of me was like "Duh, I never stopped listening" but part of me was also like "Man, does it ever."

7. In July of 2021 I put on Vacation to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the record. I was feverish, sore, and tired from receiving my second dose of the COVID vaccine. "Felt Just like Vacation" still made me tear up.

 

Man.

They'll Do You Right Up

 I could never tell you why, but I was inspired to sit down and try to learn a RX Bandits songs on guitar yesterday. I was all the way in on the band between grade 12 and my second year of university, but they haven't really been a go-to of mine since then. Not that I think the band is bad, in fact I think the material that I liked (Progress, The Resignation, and ...And the Battle Begun)* holds up way better than most stuff I liked around that time.

*Is it dumb to title your record where you start experimenting and trying new things Progress? It feels pretty lazy.

Getting into the more experimental and proggy side of the RX Bandits hit me at the intersection of two important parts of growing up. First, I was just starting to be interested in playing guitar, as most of my focus had been on figuring out how to play bass before that. I had a cheap Hamer strat copy that I fooled around on while learning "Dammit" (the Slammer Hamer) and I was just starting to be able to play things beyond basic power chords. Playing RX Bandits songs on guitar was fun because there was lots of stuff going on and it was a nice introduction to that most hallowed role of lead guitar playing.

Second, this was also when I felt like I was starting to diverge from my friends and find things that only I was interested in. Maybe I always sort of did that, but when I look back now, I think of a lot of time in my room reading about and discovering new and different music that was important in shaping what I listen to now. The RX Bandits were an easy transition because they used to be a ska band, so I could cover my tracks if I needed to. Nobody else I knew was interested in them, and after a few initial failed efforts to get my friends into them, I started to like the feeling of having my own things, just for me.

I've always had time for music that had weird parts just for the sake of having weird parts and also stuff that sometimes favoured technicality over melody (though that has reversed since), but liking The Resignation raised some important identity-defining questions:

1. If RX Bandits were known for extensive live jams during their sets, did that mean I liked jam bands? (Still don't like the Grateful Dead, but liked them even less then.)

2. If RX Bandits had hippie-ish tendencies, did that mean I had hippie tendencies myself? (I will always land firmly on the "punk" side of the punk/hippie dichotomy.)

3. Is it okay to like non-punk, non-ska music?

Obvious the last question was an obvious yes, but I never got all the way there on the other two. RXB ultimately turned out to be the limit in how far I would get into both of those styles. I can get down with jamming (remember, Fugazi is bold-underlined GOOD), but it has to be firmly rooted in punk and rock. 

As always, I went into this post with no ending and then nothing came to me while I was writing it out, which is the only I know how to write conclusions, so I'll end with this song, which I had fun re-learning on guitar yesterday. It's funny to see this song starting with a really basic power chord progression, because it's almost like seeing the band's progression in real time. Homeboy's lyrics are always a little on the nose and sometimes play as a naïve, but I tend to agree with the base statement in them, which saves them.

Pick Up that Guitar and, uh, TAWK TA ME

Earlier this month, Rebecca and I went away to cabin in southern Quebec for our birthdays so that we could relax for a weekend. I had started reading Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome during the week before the trip, but the novel hadn't really grabbed by that point and I wanted something more light fun that I breeze through while sitting in the woods. For whatever reason,* Fargo Rock City by Chuck Klosterman jumped off my bookshelf at me as the perfect choice and I decided to bring it with me, even though I've read it twice before.

*I've been reading the Number Ones column on Stereogum a lot recently, so maybe their discussions of "Love Bites" by Def Leppard, "Bad Medicine" by Bon Jovi, and "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" by Poison were the impetus?

Though it's kind of embarrassing to admit now, I have to admit that the writing of Chuck Klosterman had a huge effect on me as a young man. I hadn't ever read pop culture criticism, so the idea of someone writing a whole book that very seriously examined something as dumb as hair metal (which, due to hours of watching muchmoremusic, I deeply loved) was paradigm-shifting to me. I devoured the book and I think that it immediately affected how I looked at music and pop culture.

After Fargo Rock City, I picked up a bunch of others and enjoyed them to varying degrees,* but also started to realize that his books appealed to me a lot when I was 19 and a lot less when I was 24. He seemed like a one-trick pony and I liked that pony a lot more when it was running on a hair metal race track than when it was just free to run anywhere. However, despite the (in my opinion) dwindling returns on his writing, I still thought that Fargo Rock City was not just his best, but also a good book, because it was so focused and the central idea was something that nobody else had thought of. Hair metal was undeniably popular, but undeniably dumb and critically bad, so why look at the space in between?

I was interested to see what my opinion of the book would be on this read through, as it had been more than 10 years since I had looked at it. I guess what I found was exactly what I expected. There were parts that were absolutely razor sharp and were up with the best pop culture writing I had ever read. There were parts that were absolutely hilarious. This was nice because it meant that I hadn't been a total idiot while I was younger. There were also parts that dragged and didn't really have anything to say. There were parts that, while not necessarily bad or hateful, aged terribly and wouldn't be included today. There was some pretty dumb language about women, even for a book about hair metal. About equal amounts of bad and good.

Having said all this, I think I also need to acknowledge that Klosterman, and this book in particular, are probably the main influence on how I write. Certainly, a lot of IMU is basically crafted in the image of Fargo Rock City. It's something I'm a little embarrassed about, as I would love to have cooler influences that make my writing sound cooler, but this is who I am now and what am I going to do? Remake my narrative voice at age 32?

While reading the book, I thought about trying to write a post that would forward my interest in hair metal as a sort of tribute. I came up with trying to compare Blue Jays players to hair metal guitarists, but only ended up getting as far as Rafael Dolis being C.C. Deville and gave up.

Let us count the similarities:

1. Both pretty much suck.
2. Both have one pretty below average skill (throwing a fastball in Dolis' case, playing hair metal guitar in Deville's) and get by by dressing it up with theatrics and making it seem better than it is (waiting up to a minute in between pitches for Dolis, just throwing a bunch of neon 80s guitar around for Deville).
3. Both play a supporting role in their group.
4. Both have last names that start with D.
5. Both beat out better people suited for their job (any Major League pitcher for Dolis, Slash for Deville).
6. Both somehow charmed me into caring about them more than their peers.

Could you imagine how bad a full column of that would have been?

Tastes Like Fire

 This week Greyhound announced that they would be withdrawing all of their bus service lines from Canada. Pretty crazy to think of! I can't say that I ever thought of Greyhound buses as the sort of private business that would be taken away as the result of COVID-19, but here we are. As a Toronto kid how never learned how to drive* and who went to school outside of the city, I spent a huge amount of time on Greyhounds as a yute.

*Is my huge volume of Greyhound rides a character flaw? Perfectly normal to ride it so much while you're 19/20, but should I have moved on and gotten a car at 25?

As a dedicated Greyhound rider, here are my top stories from da bus:

This is always the first one that I think of. In the spring of 2012, Andrew W.K. announced that he would be doing a full-band tour to celebrate the 10th anniversary of I Get Wet. I had never gotten the full AWK live experience, having only seen him play to a backing track. (Party) Pat and I were ecstatic at the thought of seeing our party god play live and bought tickets immediately. When the date came, we got on a Greyhound in Guelph to head to Toronto and brought beers to get ready for the show. We heard a guy a few seats in front of us open a beer and laughed that we weren't the only ones drinking on the trip. When we tried to nonchalantly open ours a few minutes later, the guy turned around and said "Are you guys going to see Andrew W.K. too?"

Despite the fact that I took the bus to Toronto from Guelph constantly, I was always nervous that I had gotten on the wrong route from the University of Guelph bus loop. That never happened, but one time the driver started to take a strange route after stopping at Aberfoyle, before eventually stopping and asking over the PA if someone could look up directions for him.

I admit that I can be particular while I'm traveling and get easily annoyed. Usually I avoid this by either listening to music for the entire ride or watching a movie, but there were a few times this was unavoidable. Don't be the guy who loudly talks to a person he doesn't know about DJing for an hour, or the guy loudly going over his Keeping Up with the Kardashians re-watch, or the guy asking me phone his friend in Guelph while he is currently getting off the bus. Just try to be quiet.

I've already told the story of the time that I worked a long and strange night at Nest in Toronto, so I don't need to re-tell that again, but the ride into Toronto that started the night was one of the most memorable (and chill) parts of that night. I rushed to get to the Charles Street Terminal in Kitchener, and then started to listen to How Did This Get Made? for the first time. The first snowfall in Ontario started during the ride and as a result, traffic moved crazy slow for the entire ride. It took about three hours to get to Toronto and I tried to relax and just let the trip happen. Though I'm not one for winter, I will admit that looking out the bus window and seeing roads and hills only slightly covered in snow was relaxing.

It's Book Review and Face the Nation Time

This morning I found out that there was a tribute to Adam Schlesinger last night, featuring both big names, Courtney Love and Chris Carrabba, and personal favourites like Ben Kweller, Justin Pierre, and Matt Caws. I was surprised that I hadn't heard about this, but I don't know that I would have paid for a livestream anyways. This reminded me how bummed I was to hear that he had died early in the pandemic and led to reflect on the year and a bit that we've been living through COVID. 

Schlesinger's death was a weird one for me. I think it's totally normal for you to feel sad when a person you respect and admire dies, but it almost felt like I made too much of a big deal about it to myself, compulsively reading stories about him and the experiences of those close to him. I think that was probably the result of the stress and fear of COVID coming out of me in strange ways. I never really reacted strongly to any of the horror stories around public health or long-term care in Quebec, but then latched onto Schlesinger's death like crazy. In hindsight, those two things are probably related, right?

Sidenote: I can't remember if I said this during my in memoriam post, but there was one time that Duff and I were talking about our pie-in-the-sky producer picks for Beat Noir. I said Schlesinger and Duff reacted like that was the worst choice possible and didn't fit all. Him working on Sovereignties is a laughably weird fit, but I still stand by it? 

Anyways, a year later I'm still sad that he died as a result of this pandemic, especially as someone who was relatively young and still producing great music. When I think about him and Fountains of Wayne, I find myself still in awe of his talent as a songwriter. He was the first person related to my interests who died during the last year, and that sits as a strange post in my COVID experience. It having been a year since he died is a reminder of how long this has been going on and it's sad to think how bad things still are. Maybe it's nice to think about vaccines being readily available Canada now. I don't know. That's nice, but I also can't say I'm confident about things going back to normal like everyone else is. I still never really know how to feel about the pandemic and now the music and death of Adam Schlesinger is weirdly tied up in that. Strange feeling.

Okay, two things related to this:

One is that as part of the tribute, a reformed Tinted Windows performed. Tinted Windows was a super-group featuring Schlesinger on bass and as the principle songwriter (awesome), Bun. E. Carlos from Cheap Trick on drums (IMO the coolest CT member, also awesome), James Iha on guitar (not a huge Smashing Pumpkins fan, but he's undoubtedly the coolest member), and Taylor Hanson from... Hanson on vocals*. I was so excited to learn about this band because it was this joining of forces around this specific type of pop-rock that I absolutely love, but isn't for everyone. Sadly, the album didn't really stick with me, even though I REALLY wanted to like it. Apparently the band had discussed making another record, which I still would have absolutely listened to. It's sad that never happened.

*I can't say I'm a fan of Hanson's music, but I do have respect for them continuing to put out records this far into their career and being committed to pop-rock. Lifers.

I found it touching that this band reformed as a bass-less three-piece to perform for this night.

Second, I discovered that a tribute album to Schlesinger came out and I listened to that immediately. I think it really speaks to his preternatural talent to pair vocal harmonies with words and chords to hear the songs in so many ways. Maybe this is a nice thing I need.

Postscript: I just found that this compilation was released on my birthday last year. What a coincidence.

Bad Operation in My Mind

 Well, I had a plan to write a blog every day this week, but then I promptly let that plan fall apart last night, since I hurt my back skateboarding and ended up lying down and watching TV for the whole night. Does it still count if I blog seven times in one week? Am I fee to change the rules, or are they set in stone once I make them?

I've gotta admit that I'm pretty bummed I've hurt myself skateboarding yet again. Though I was pretty indestructible as a teenager, that's really not the case anymore. The first injury came in 2016 and since then I've consistently hurt myself almost once a year:

1. 2016: Partially torn ligament in my left ankle.
2. 2019: Partially torn ligament in my right ankle after getting hit by a car.
3. 2020: Pulled a muscle in my lower back.
4. 2020: Re-aggravated that same muscle.
5. 2021: Re-aggravated that same muscle.

The first two were accidents that weren't fully my fault, but the last three have been the result of me getting older and not keeping my body in good shape, which sucks. I was skateboarding to the market near my house and all of a sudden my back tightened up and started to hurt. I was kicking around trying ollies in a parking lot and one landing made my back do the same. I then end up having to spend a few days lying in bed to rest my back, which shoots my productivity into the ground. It sucks.

This most recent injury has made me think about if I'll be able to keep skateboarding, because even aimless fucking around seems to have a high risk for me. I guess I can commit to regular stretching and exercise, and maybe that will help, but it also sort of feels like skating is legit something I won't be able to do anymore.

To be honest, that scares me, because skateboarding is something that I consider integral to my identity. I don't want to turn into a "guy that used to skate" and my first reaction to any of the injuries is that I'll just keep dealing with them because I'm willing to keep getting hurt if I can keep skateboarding. I can't say I really feel the same as I'm bedridden now, but the thought is still in the back of my mind.

I don't know. Getting old is a trip and it really sneaks up on you. I don't want to act like I've already resigned to giving up on how I was as a young person, but what do you do when the proof starts piling up?

In the Morning We'll be Fine

There's been a slew of great music releases of the last couple of weeks, which to me signals that the most blessed time of the year has started: The point in spring and summer when the Actual Good Records start coming out.

There's a been a few things that I've enjoyed so far this year, but to me the sign that 2021 in Music had started in earnest was the release of Origami Angel's Gami Gang last Friday. I'm not sure exactly what it is about the release, but it stands out more than the other good stuff I've heard this year, like Another Michael and Glitterer. It could be the warm weather creeping in around its release and letting me know that all the good stuff is about to come. It could be people I know getting excited about it. It could be a lot of things. I feel like one of these releases that reinvigorates my desire to jump into new music has to come every year and this is it.

That being said, it is good, but not perfect by any means. In terms of 4th (are we on 5th?) wave emo revival, it hits all my spots, but is too polished by half. I need it to feel a little more like everything is about to fall apart and it's a miracle that the band is staying together in the song. I also need a lot more off-key screaming. I'm also not one for video game references and there are a lot here. 

It also weird in that it's sometimes almost too honed in on my interests. The promo pictures feature the members in a Bane hoodie and a throwback college basketball jersey, which is about as close to a perfect summation of my aesthetic in two articles of clothing as you can get. On top of that, it's a shreddy emo album with a lot of breakdowns and basketball references. How did I get so directly in this band's crosshairs? Is that my fault or theirs?

Anyway, Gami Gang is good and Counter Intuitive Records kicks ass. Sure is weird that I always feel the need to describe things I don't like about things I like, right?

Got a Photograph Picture Of

 It's funny that I mentioned how happy I was with New Tone ska in my last post, because last week a major thing in that genre happened when We Are the Union's singer Reade Wolcott came out as a trans woman. I've been a fan of We Are the Union for a long time, and even considered them my "favourite band" for a bit, so I was glad to see Reade feel comfortable enough to come out and live more comfortably as herself. My listening of the band has risen and dipped over the years, and I definitely prefer the old stuff, but I still listen to everything that comes out and will for sure always rep the band. The band always claimed ska through years when it was extremely uncool to do so in punk music* and will always have my utmost respect for that. Seeing them be a cornerstone of the new generation of ska bands warms my heart.

*They toured with A LOT of notable easycore/pop-punk bands who benefitted from their draw early on and then didn't return the favour later on. Jabronis, all of them.

The first single from their forthcoming album Ordinary Life, which will detail Reade's experience coming out, has been released and I've been listening to it a lot. Also, the moment when Jeremy reaches out and touches Reade's arm was very touching in an unexpected way?

I've been reading a lot of Stereogum this week and my favourite piece was this entry from their Number Ones series, which chronologically deep dives on #1 singles, on Billy Ocean's "Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car". I love this song, mostly because of funny memories of it being the theme song to Matt, Brian, and I smoking weed in university, so it was fun to read about the creation process and context of it's release. Craziest of all is that it was produced by Mutt Lange, an arena rock producer most famous for AC ⚡ DC's Highway to Hell and Back in Black, as well as all of Def Leppard's big 80s records. That makes a lot of sense when you listen to the song, but it still doesn't make sense why a mix of 80s pop, arena rock, and New Jack Swing goes this hard. You never know!

Anyways, I will honour Lange by posting this song, which is and will always be an insanely sick jam

1. Pyromania is vastly better than Hysteria. Is it bad to say that bands was better when the drummer had both arms?
2. How high is Joe Elliot's union jack sleeveless shirt on the ranking of All-Time Rock Outfits?
3. Everyone associates the headset microphone with Britney Spears and *N'Sync, but I feel Def Leppard were the pioneers? They somehow had two members rocking them in the 80s. Two members who could have easily used mic stands!

It's Been a Long Time since I Could Look in the Mirror and Fake a Smile

Something that has warmed my heart over the last 2ish years is the growing community of new ska bands and the scene they've fostered online. Pretty much all of these bands are involved in some way with Bad Time Records, who have done an amazing job of proudly trumpeting new ska bands, and then move towards being proud of playing ska has been so necessary.

 About five years ago, Duff made a joke to me that every new ska band that started was a clone of either Reel Big Fish (the most popular), Sublime (the least ska), or Operation Ivy (the best version of this, but still not great). This is a hyper-simplified way to sum up an entire scene, by someone who's not remotely involved, but it mostly tracked. There were definitely new bands that excited me, like the new permutations of the Bruce Lee Band, Dan P and the Bricks, and the Nix86, but those were vastly outnumbered by white kids from the suburbs who were starting a band that sounded like RBF and wrote joke lyrics. I hate that people rip on ska without giving it a chance, but there were also many bands that weren't doing them any favours.

Jeremy Hunter, A.K.A. Skatune Network, A.K.A. JER, who has also played a huge role in the recent growth of ska, touched on this issue in many interviews over the last couple of years.* Ska has always been good, but so many people are hung up on the big bands from the 90s and still only supporting them, rather than seeking out new bands to see what is developing. Another problem is that what has historically a diverse genre, featuring mixed races and genders in bands, was boiled down to its whitest version. The saving of ska will rely on bands featuring POC and queer members emerging and everyone supporting that.

*I've read a bunch, but I feel like I remember their interview on blink-155 the best. It's at the end here. 

That's been mostly borne out in the last few years around Bad Time Records and I love it. People are constantly asking "When will the fourth wave start?!" (puke), but Bad Operation gave this movement a great name by calling themselves New Tone. I really fuck with that term, so here are my favourite New Tone releases:

Frightnrs

Out of all these records I'm about to list, this one qualifies least as "New Tone", as it came out in 2016 and doesn't have any of the punk influence that the others do. It is an amazing trad ska/reggae/rocksteady album in the vein of New York's many masters of that style, like the Slackers, David Hillyard and the Rocksteady Seven, and Inspector 7.

Grey Matter

Grey Matter reminds of a a tonne of bands that I would try to listen to in high school, but find too abrasive and not understand. I would understand that they were cool and that there was interesting things going on, but was too conditioned to only like things that sounded like blink and NOFX. Fortunately, I am now ~mature~ enough to appreciate Grey Matter.

Bad Operation

Bad Operation popped up out of nowhere and immediately started promoting singles for a forthcoming album. My favourite thing about them is how different they sound from every ska band I've heard for the last 15 years. It's "Ghost Town" by the Specials filtered through DIY punk. And they coined the term "New Tone"!

Kill Lincoln

My favourite active ska band. Poppy and upbeat ska combined with super catchy pop-punk. All the best parts of Anthem and B is for B-Sides. No ska band since ASOB has put out two back-to-back releases like Good Riddance to Good Advice and Can't Complain. If ska were a wrestling promotion, they would be the Television Champion, and I mean that in the most respectful way possible.

JER

Skatune Network has been the loudest and most important voice in ska over the last few years and I truly appreciate all the work they've done. Their covers are fun, especially the excellent Pick It the Fuck Up!, but all they've done has made me eager to see what sort of original music they could make outside of We Are the Union. JER is their solo project and it fulfilled that promise. Can't wait for the full-length.

Other enthusiasms!

One of the most relaxing things during the pandemic has been watching skate videos. Like everything else in the world, it's found a home on Youtube and most companies now just just upload their stuff to stream online, instead of selling it. The Thrasher series Homies has been my favourite series this year bar none. It follows a group of skaters as they hang out and film for a day and I love the vibe of skaters not caring about getting tricks and just having fun. It also helps that skaters I love to watch, like the Deathwish team and Ishod Wair are front and centre.

I have heard through the skateboarding gossip machine that it is apparently no longer fashionable to like Toy Machine, a company that I've always loved. Vaccine is the company's first video in a little bit, it kicks ass, and it features a lot of new faces. Tyshawn Jordan is the big signing, but the supporting cast of flow riders and Braden Hoban really show up too (I also still love DanLu, Axel, and Leo). Fuck the haters. I'll continue loving Toy for as long as Ed Templeton runs the show.