Sponsor: My Thanks to False King

False King

I never know beforehand what kind of reaction sponsored news posts are going to get, but let me quote some of the replies to this one earlier this week:

This is sleek beak and honestly so good.

And:

Ding ding ding on that RIYL. Will check out.

And the concise and simple:

So good.

If you like bands like Nothing, Pianos Become The Teeth, and Architects, you should check out False King. They just released a video for their new single, “Movements Part II,” which comes from their upcoming split with The Art of Fading titled FALSE/FADING and is due this March.

And, after that, why not check out the video for “Blood Pools” released a few weeks ago? My sincere thanks to the band for sponsoring our website this week.

Read More “My Thanks to False King”

Liner Notes (February 8th, 2019)

Snow

For some reason something is messed up with the login system on the main website right now, so, I’m going to make this version of Liner Notes available for everyone while I try and sort out what’s going on. This week’s roundup includes updates on what I’ve been working on around the website, some thoughts on albums and singles released this week, my usual media diet recap, and a playlist of ten songs I loved this week.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. I’ll be bundled up by the fire trying to avoid the predicted snow storm. The supporter Q&A post can be found here.

Read More “Liner Notes (February 8th, 2019)”

Review: A Day to Remember – Homesick

For as long as I can recall, A Day to Remember have been that strange mixture of incredibly divisive and inarguably popular within the scene. Being a (female) ADTR fan in 2009 looked like this: If people (let’s be real; mostly men) weren’t calling you “soft” for liking the band to begin with, they were heavily implying that you only liked the ~pretty~ tracks, like “If It Means a Lot to You” or “Have Faith In Me” (which are both bangers, by the way). The band apparently were too hardcore for the pop punk bros, and too pop punk for the hardcore kids. To put a finer and entirely subjective point on that observation: then as now, both the pop-punk and hardcore purists were enraged by a band that refuses to call themselves either, yet excels at both. When Homesick dropped ten years ago, I was a senior in high school. While they weren’t my absolute favorite band, they were up there. I wasn’t writing about music yet at the time, but I loved the record. Upon listening as a fully formed adult ten years later, my opinion remains largely unchanged.

Read More “A Day to Remember – Homesick”

Jeff Bezos Reveals Extortion Attempt from National Enquirer

Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos:

Well, that got my attention. But not in the way they likely hoped. Any personal embarrassment AMI could cause me takes a back seat because there’s a much more important matter involved here. If in my position I can’t stand up to this kind of extortion, how many people can? (On that point, numerous people have contacted our investigation team about their similar experiences with AMI, and how they needed to capitulate because, for example, their livelihoods were at stake.)

Holy shit. After reading this piece, my first thought was this scene from The Dark Knight.

Before 1976: How Punk Became Punk

AbsolutePunk Logo Pin

A new video from Trash Theory traces the roots of punk.

Few genres have had the lasting impact of punk. 1976 is one of those seismic dividing lines in popular music. A history destroying year zero. The point after which everything changed. It was the year that The Ramones debut was released, the year that the first singles from the UK Punk scene were set loose upon a unprepared public. And while the punks wanted to remove themselves from the past, burn all that had come before, nothing happens within a vacuum. These bands didn’t appear out of nowhere with the key principles of the genre locked in place. This innovative minimalist, three-chords and the truth, turbo-powered music had to have precedent. There were other artists that lead up to this era-defining moment in music that are either forgotten, ignored or not given credit. This is how Punk became punk.

Read More “Before 1976: How Punk Became Punk”