Month: January 2022

Sponsor: Bad Beginnings to Release Debut EP

Bad Beginnings
Sponsored Post

Bad Beginnings will be releasing their debut EP, Hoping For The Best, this Friday, January 21st.

Bad Beginnings are an Atlanta, Georgia-based pop-punk alt-rock band/duo formed in 2021. Their fast-paced and melodic sound was born from their experiences growing up with 90’s alt-rock (like Gin Blossoms and The Offspring) while learning to play along with early 2000’s pop-punk (like Blink-182 and Avril Lavigne).

You can follow the band on Spotify, and stream the title track “Hoping for the Best” to get prepared for the Friday release.

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Review: The Lumineers – Brightside

Adam Grundy

Coming off their perplexing third studio album, the aptly titled III, The Lumineers have returned with a more radio-ready sound on Brightside. On this record that feels almost like an EP, since it clocks in at just over 30 minutes over a nine-track span, the indie folk rockers relocate some of that early magic they captured on their debut record and Cleopatra, as well. This set of songs was recorded in Sun Mountain Studios by producer David Baron, with some additional producer credits by Simone Felice. What the band does best on Brightside is coming to terms with who they are as musicians and songwriters for one of their most accessible albums to date. Led by the trio of singles including the title track, “A.M. Radio,” and “Big Shot,” The Lumineers feel like they’re ready to take the next steps forward.

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iOS Music Player Showcase

Apps
Jason Tate

Marc Barrowclift wrote the most comprehensive guide to iOS music playing apps I’ve ever read:

There’s new and exciting developments every year in the realm of iOS third-party music players, and 2021 was no exception. While 2019 enjoyed an explosion of new players like Power Player and Albums that through time came to lead the space, 2020 in contrast received only a modest handful of new players and is instead remembered for the impressive growth the established player base received that year. This past year, 2021, managed to do both with a dizzying array of five new players and impressive growth across nearly all existing players.

A long, but extremely detailed and informative article. My favorite remains Marvis, due to its customizability, widget, and Last.fm integration.

Good Riddance Bassist Hospitalized

Good Riddance
Jason Tate

Good Riddance’s bassist, Chuck Platt, was hospitalized after being hit by a car. A GoFundMe has been created:

While Chuck gratefully does not have any life-threatening injuries, he has sustained life-altering injuries that will have a significant impact to him physically and financially. Chuck was airlifted to a Bay Area Hospital where he is currently being treated. Chuck sustained the following injuries: right ankle break, left knee injury, broken collar bone, and lacerations to his face and hands. His right ankle and knee injuries were extensive and will require surgery(s) and rehabilitation.  

A brief pause to celebrate a new release. The new album from @underoathband dropped on Friday but the record didn’t show up until today. That’s alright though because I think I’ve played this and the ‘Digital Ghost’ version about two hundred times over the past couple of months. It’s a perfect marriage of chaos and melody and they encapsulated just about everything I love from this band in one album. (Also a fantastic gym listen.)

And, for fun, throwing in my copy of ‘Define the Great Line’ for posterity since it’s one of the coolest things I own. House catches on fire and we’re grabbing cats and the gold records. (Ok, and probably Hannah’s violin.)

#underoath #vinyl

Jason Tate Photo Blog

Liner Notes (January 15th, 2022)

Star Wars
Jason Tate

Another Saturday night online writing about pop-punk.

In this week’s newsletter, I detail how I am showing my nine most listened to albums for the week in an iOS widget, and then go into a deep dive on music I listened to this week (Drive-Thru Records era pop-punk, Northstar, Lunar Vacation, Kevin Devine) as well as some of the entertainment I consumed. As always, there’s a playlist of ten songs I enjoyed, and this week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.

If you’d like this newsletter delivered to your inbox each week (it’s free and available to everyone), you can sign up here.

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Another week in the books and I’m heading into the weekend continuing my early 2000’s pop-punk theme. In many ways this album was the first time post “blink-182 fan site” AbsolutePunk started to see real traffic. The interview baby-Jason did with the band where they opened up about Drive-Thru Records put us on the map (and in the crosshairs). It was albums like this, and bands like @midtownnj, that made me want to start the website in the first place; I wanted to tell the world about these amazing new bands they just hadn’t heard yet. And that idea, and this band, set the stage for so much to come.

(P.S. I’ll toss a link to the archive of that infamous interview in my story.)

“Find comfort in yourself…”

#midtown #vinyl

Jason Tate Photo Blog

Ben Auld – “O Athena!” (Music Premiere)

Ben Auld
Adam Grundy

Today I’m excited to share the latest single for indie folk songwriter Ben Auld for the song, “O Athena!” The track comes from his upcoming debut LP Lemongrass, that hits the streets on February 15th. Auld shared this about the song:

This is possibly the oldest song on the album and it stuck around because I could imagine an audience singing along to it. Sufjan’s Illinois is one of my favorite albums ever and I wanted to create something that had a similar feeling of exultation. I can’t remember where the chorus lyrics came from, I guess I felt they fit this theme of praising or elevating people. Making a new friend or founding a new relationship can make people so elated and joyous. This song tries to express that period of time before things settle back to normality. The recording process for each song is slightly different and with this I wanted it to feel like it had depth without it being drenched in reverbs. So I recorded the bass, drums and rhythm guitars to cassette and then used an 8 track to layer the keys and picked guitars. Then I bounced that all to another 4 track and recorded the vocals. Each time a layer was bounced it got pushed down in the mix and so you have this sort of stratification effect.

Your next indie singer-songwriter obsession has arrived.

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