Always Summer: A Farewell to Yellowcard

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Yellowcard

The first time I heard Yellowcard was sometime in the summer of 2004. I think my sister and I were packing for our annual trip to visit my grandparents in New Hampshire and I had the radio on. (This event is notable because I can legitimately not remember the last time I had the radio on of my own accord.) I had my radio tuned to the local “modern rock” station, which played about 50% Staind and 50% everything else. They also had this feature called “the Buzzcut,” where they’d play an up-and-coming song from an up-and-coming band and ask listeners to call in with feedback. If listeners liked the song, it got added to the playlist. If they didn’t, it never got played again.

The Buzzcut song on this particular morning was “Ocean Avenue,” Yellowcard’s breakout hit single. At this point in time, the song was almost a year old, because it inexplicably wasn’t the lead single from the album of the same name. (More inexplicably, Capitol Records officially released “Ocean Avenue” as a single in February, the least appropriate month of entire year to be listening to “Ocean Avenue.”)

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Nostalgia Tours: Reviving Careers or Denying the Inevitable?

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Jonathan Diener, writing for Alternative Press:

“Play the old stuff!” is something musicians will hear from hecklers in the crowd or trolls on the internet on a regular basis. It’s a complicated thing to hear when you’ve had years of improvement in songwriting and your overall craft since the earlier, naive music you created. How many times have you heard bands say, “This is our best album yet,” in interviews about their new material? They mean it. That’s why it can sting when fans don’t care for it and worse yet, don’t even know it exists. I used to take it as an insult before I realized it’s really just the fans expressing their love of part of your career. To them, that era was what connected with them the most. So why not cater to their requests?

Chris Sorenson of Saosin Reflects on the Self-Titled Album

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Chris Sorenson of Saosin talked with Substream Magazine:

The way the EP was written was basically separated by time and place, and Anthony came in and laid multiple ideas over the top and it was kind of “created” on the spot. It was like a long demoing process with time in the rehearsal space. It was more, “Hey, we have these songs and we’re looking for a singer; do you have some ideas to throw over the top?” And that’s kind of how it happened. With the self-titled, we had not only a lot of expectations—with the success of the EP and “Bury Your Head,” years of touring and signing to a major label—but also, we had a few more egos in the bunch. I did not write a note on the first EP, but I did exclusively write the music for “Bury Your Head,” so it was kind of this weird dichotomy of history with a fresh perspective. Cove and I were relatively close and would write the most together. Cove had some huge shoes to fill as well, and there are moments on this record where he was completely confident and others where he was scared shitless, and I think that really comes out in the songs of this record. It’s all truth.

The Secret in Shipping: Fake Boxes

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A bike company in Amsterdam has a pretty genius way of making sure that when they shipped their product it got to their customers in good shape:

Since we started shipping bikes eight years ago, here at VanMoof we’ve struggled to find shipping partners that give our bikes the same obsessive love and care that we do.

Trust us, we’ve tried them all.

The big ones.
The niche ones.
The expensive ones.
The start-up-ey ones.

Yet no matter who was doing the shipping, too many of our bikes arrived looking like they’d been through a metal-munching combine harvester. It was getting expensive for us, and bloody annoying for our customers.

Garth Brooks Breaks Record for Most Diamond Albums

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Mary J. DiMeglio, writing at Billboard:

Already America’s best-selling solo artist, country superstar Garth Brooks is now the first musician with seven diamond albums.

The Recording Industry Association of America announced last Wednesday (Sept. 21) that Brooks’ 2007 The Ultimate Hits has sold 10 million copies. The two-CD compilation with bonus DVD of music videos joins his six previous diamond albums: No Fences, Garth Brooks, Double Live, Sevens, The Hit, and Ropin’ the World.

Brooks has surpassed The Beatles, who have six diamond releases, but the Fab Four outrank him in total number of certified units sold.

Teespring Teams Up with Bands to Create Limited Edition NFL Shirts

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Teespring teamed up with a bunch of bands and artists to create limited edition t-shirts for their favorite NFL teams. Fall Out Boy, Underoath, All Time Low, and more are all featured. The full list of bands can be found below. There’s no way in hell I’m buying a OneRepublic shirt though.

For the first time ever, a select group of artists have joined forces with the NFL, each representing their favorite team and city through unique, official NFL gear. These limited edition shirts are perfect for NFL fans to show their pride in their city’s football and music. These will be available for a short time only and after that, they’ll never be sold again.

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Adele’s ’25’ Goes Diamond

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Adele’s 25 has gone diamond.

On the strength of the seven-times platinum single “Hello” as well as hit singles “Send My Love (To Your New Lover)” and “When We Were Young,” 25 reached diamond in a little over 10 months. Her previous album, 2011’s 21, propelled by hits “Rolling in the Deep” and “Someone Like You,” took almost two years to hit diamond in November 2012