Sometimes an album grows on you. Sometimes you hear it and just don’t think it quite gets there. This was not one of those albums. I remember hearing the original demos and being impressed, I remember hearing the album and knowing this band was about to take over the world. Ridiculously catchy is an understatement, and to this day I can’t think of a band that won me over faster. It was within the first thirty seconds of the first song that I was like, “yep, this is going to be massive.”

“Well, we’re just a wet dream for the webzine. Make us it, make us hip, make us scene…”

#vinyl #panicatthedisco

This week had me reaching way back to an old blue classic. I think there’s an old photo of this record somewhere on my feed, but it needs that high-quality camera glam up. What can I say about this record that I haven’t already said probably a thousand times? I think it redefined the genre almost over night and set the stage for an era of music I look back on quite fondly (an era also apparently very lucrative to the current festival industry).

Sophomore year of college had some all-timers released during that stretch, and this one’s near the top. And, the band’s rocket ship success practically propelled my little website right along with it.

“Tonight the headphones will deliver you the words that I can’t say…”

#vinyl #falloutboy

I saw this re-press go up for sale and I just had to pick it up. I love the gold foil and my biggest memory of this album is it being the first album I put on when I left college to make the (very long) drive home a few weeks after graduating. A great road album that also felt like a rebirth and the start of new beginnings.

“Pulse stays strong
I’m pushing on the pedal til I break dawn
So I’m gone, go find another shoulder you can cry on…”

#vinyl #allamericanrejects #theallamericanrejects

I’ve been on a Motion City Soundtrack kick over the past few weeks. I remember playing the first two albums all the time in college and when people would ask what I was listening to, I’d tell them, and then they’d be like, “oh I’ve never heard of that movie.” I have a huge soft spot for ‘I Am the Movie’ but CTTM really combines everything the band does great into one tight package. It’s one of the rare albums I can put on at anytime and it’ll immediately put me in a better mood.

“From the falsest smile to the fear of death is why the pain reminds us that we’re still alive…”

#vinyl #motioncitysoundtrack

Tonight I’m all the way back in 2003 with Further Seems Forever’s ‘How to Start a Fire.’ To this day I still love this album cover, and having the larger artwork was something that drew me to collecting my favorite records in the first place. A physical manifestation of my musical history and journey. I still think Jason’s vocals on this one are on a different level, pure emotion and passion.

“And if I only had an ocean
To complement the sky
I’d pull it down, paint it for you
And I’d never question why…”

#vinyl #furtherseemsforever

Tonight’s spin is @yellowcard ‘Paper Walls.’ For a while I was keeping a running list of pop-punk albums that I thought held the championship belt. The ones that had moved the genre forward and helped define where the sound was going next. This album definitely held it for a while and I still go between this and ‘Southern Air’ as my favorite YC album (not counting the huge nostalgia boost OA gets). Full of massive hits and that first five song run is immaculate. There’s something about this band that whenever I’m in a bad mood or just can’t think of what I want to listen to … I can throw on just about any of their albums and immediately be singing along.

“Go put on your best tonight
It’s you and me and one spotlight
One more show, one last time
We are ready….”

#vinyl #yellowcard

Someone mentioned this album to me last week and it sent it back into my rotation in a big way. It’s one of those albums that sits between being an obvious classic and yet wildly underrated and often forgotten about when discussing the giants of the music scene. It holds up remarkably well, mostly because it sounds incredible with fantastic lyrics. The production is crisp and bouncy. It’s also such a clean sounding album; every little part fits perfectly.

(Oddly, just like the streaming versions, the track listing on here has typos too. The title track misspelled, “Unerwater” – super weird given the streaming versions also having errors.)

Anyway, if you’ve never heard this before it comes highly recommended, and if you have … how’s a great time to break it back out.

“I know I move like an apparition, in a style that’s all ghostwritten…”

#vinyl #northstar

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

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

A few weeks ago I went on a massive @relientk binge. This album in particular reminds me of senior year of college living in an apartment and playing massive amounts of FIFA on the PlayStation with this blasting over the speakers. Many, many memories were made that year, and this pop perfection soundtracked quite a few. Best part is: it holds up! It could be released tomorrow and I’d still be into it.

(The band’s heading out on tour soon so make sure to check their page for dates.)

“And this week the trend…”

#relientk #vinyl

I am on one of those early thousands pop-punk kicks again. You know how I get. Tonight I was going through a bunch of the @drivethrurecs era albums and reading the liner notes, and seeing @minusthesnake’s name in this one still made me a little bit jealous, even to this day! What a gem of an album though, bringing me straight back to sunny college discman days.

“Tell me what you thought about when you were gone…”

#vinyl #thestartingline

I still remember the advance of this album being sent to my mom’s house and giving her specific instructions to call me the moment it showed up. I got the call, drove over, and my first listen was on the drive home, taking the long way, the backroads, and turning it up way too loud. Their manager had told me “not to expect ‘Interventions’ part 2” but I was head over heels for it immediately. So unique and yet ridiculously catchy.

Tick tock, you’re not a clock …

#vinyl #theformat