One of my very first (and only) jobs was working at Borders and selling books and CDs. Mostly that meant sitting behind the counter and reading Calvin and Hobbes comics between checking out customers. The store was maybe a ten minute drive, at most, from my parents’ house. But, I’d always take the long way home so I could get a little extra time, alone, just listening to music. This EP must have been played at least a thousand times on those drives. I sure as hell tried to blow out that little Jetta’s speakers.

While not as immediately accessible or “big” sounding as the band’s hits. It still showcases their unique spin on pop-punk and has the hints of where they were headed. I’ve been revisiting it quite a bit this week and it’s funny how quickly the specific memory of driving to Borders to lazily sell overpriced CDs came to mind when I hear these songs.

#vinyl #yellowcard

It’s simply not possible to talk about the albums that shaped my life without including this one. This and ‘Dude Ranch’ were why I started a little MxPx/Blink-182 fan page called “AbsolutePunk” all those years ago. And I still get a shot of adrenaline the moment I hit play with one of my all time favorite “Track 1’s.”

I literally wore out my CD copy, so I’m trying to be much more gentle with this one.

“Tomorrow is another day
Another chance to make things right
A chance to fully live your life…”

#vinyl #mxpx

I’ve been on a massive Green Day kick to start this week. They’re great for just about any occasion, and this album pulls me right back to 2004 and watching the band blow up, again, into the mainstream.

Still a classic.

“Remember
Whatever
It seems like forever ago…”

#vinyl #greenday

I’ve been listening to this tonight while working and it really does fit the late cold night mood just about perfectly. It expands on the ‘Futures’ vibe without feeling like a collection of b-sides. One of my favorite EPs by one of my favorite bands.

#vinyl #jimmyeatworld

I tossed this on at the gym tonight and came home to finish it on the better speakers. I still think it’s my favorite @sum41 album and holds up as a perfect example of their aggressive and yet dastardly catchy brand of pop-punk. (I’m also a huge fan of this green variant.)

#vinyl #sum41 #sum41vinyl

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