Liner Notes (March 23rd, 2025)

I got older. The pop-punk universe blessed me. This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.

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A Few Things

Well, I’m now 42. I made it another lap around the sun. I wrote a bit about what this age means to me and why it’s messing with me a little. Even with the weirdness of aging, I had a great birthday, got some cool presents, and have a few more family things planned over the next week.
In other website-related news: I imported my entire Instagram history to my blog. And I updated my favorite blogs page with what I’m reading on a regular basis (and will give a special shoutout to Dan Ozzi’s latest). If you read a blog or newsletter you think I’d like, please send me a recommendation! I’m looking to continue to build up my feeds as I move further and further away from “social media.”
I shared a Blink-182 bootleg from 1999 that I slightly edited and cut up in the supporter forum for those who like that kinda thing.

Sponsor

Let’s be real—our youth was spent lurking AbsolutePunk, debating the merits of Take This to Your Grave vs. Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, and scouring MySpace for our new favorite band. And now? Now we have jobs, mortgages, and tiny humans who have no idea how important Warped Tour ’04 was. But fear not—ElderEmoMerch.com is here to ensure the next generation grows up knowing their elders weren’t just regular parents—we were cool parents.

Introducing our Infant & Toddler Collection: Onesies and tees that scream emo and pop-punk history! Soft fabrics, because nobody wants a fussy baby at an acoustic basement show. Designs so good, your kid’s preschool teacher will envy your kid’s wardrobe.

Shop now at ElderEmoMerch.com.

Music Thoughts

I’m not a fan of the new Anberlin featuring Matty Mullins’s rendition of Never Take Friendship Personal; however, it did lead to me finding the better master of the original album on Apple Music. In some thread, I think I ended up coming up with a better reason why the vocals, specifically, don’t work for me: “Take any song you like, any at all, and go into the EQ or dial on your stereo (cause we are old), and turn the treble all the way up, max it out. That’s what I hear. That’s what every song he’s singing sounds like to me. Now take that, and then I think about what, let’s pick the final song on this album, means to the lyricist. And what he specifically can convey in how he sings it. And it is painful to listen to. It hurts to hear on multiple levels.” That’s the best way I can describe it. The vocal pitch and manipulation of them are actively caustic to my ears. I think I may be more sensitive to that specific set of frequencies than others, but it’s also a reason certain production styles sound “hot” to my ears.
This week’s big news was Travis Barker letting slip he produced and played drums on the upcoming Yellowcard album. First, the entire interview is worth your time. It’s a great in-depth look into the studio and Travis’s thoughts on music, recording, and various musical philosophies. As for the news itself? I quipped that it’s basically Jason Tate fan fiction. Yellowcard and Blink-182? Two all-time favorites? This was made in a lab for me. I’ve only heard “Better Days” and a clip of “Take What You Want” at this time and both sound incredible. “Better Days” sounds like it could be plucked off Paper Walls with a great rubbery guitar and big lifting chorus. And the melody for “Take What You Want” is new for the band but an almost instant earworm. From everything I’ve seen the band say, this has been a labor of love for over a year from all involved. The band members are also very well educated in how to record and produce music. So I think it’s fair to say the final output will be something they are very happy with have signed off on. And the recorded songs we’ve heard sound like Yellowcard. As someone that has liked Travis’s production on everything from KennyHoopla to the last Blink album, I’m onboard. It sounds modern, some of the mixes have been louder in a few places, but it’s never hurt the songs. (Strung Out’s latest album is an example where I think the production and mix actively hurt the songs.) But I also think over the past few years “production talk” has overly dominated online music discourse and taken over an outsized portion of the conversation around music. From the think-pieces about Jack Antonoff to the “remixed” versions of songs that appear on YouTube with often clickbaity titles like “If Jerry Finn recorded X,” I find it, I’m sorry, kind of boring. It has to be my least favorite part of talking about, thinking about, or experiencing music. What am I focusing all my attention on instead? That my favorite drummer from my favorite pop-punk band of all time is drumming on one of my other top five bands of all times new album. An album I never thought we’d get. Easily my most anticipated of the year. I need this like I need water. Please come out this summer and dominate my life. Thank you to whatever pop-punk God made this happen for me — you have my undying love.
Winona Fighter (great name) released their new album in February, but it wasn’t until the last couple of weeks that I had time to really dive into it. “Talk” and “Wlbrn St Tvrn” are early standouts for me but the entire thing is a whole lot of fun. It walks the line of aggressive pop-punk but with some great hooks scattered throughout. The kind of album that just begs for the weather to keep warming up and to be played loud. I’ve been (trying) to increase my cardio workouts this year (I even went to a local track) and this is a great running album.
Coheed and Cambria’s new album came out last week and if you haven’t checked it out yet I highly recommend it. It keeps growing on me and I think now sits just behind Vaxis II in the trilogy. And, obviously, Ruston Kelly’s Dirt Emo series is very much in my wheelhouse. His cover of Yellowcard’s “Only One” is sensational.

The Stats: Over the past week, I listened to 31 different artists, 55 different albums, and 549 different tracks (735 scrobbles). Here is my Top 9 from last week, and you can follow me on Apple Music and/or Last.fm.

Entertainment Thoughts

I was pleasantly surprised by the animated Transformers One film. Some really great animation, a great story, and a whole lot of fun. I’d put this up there with the last Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated film as ones getting it right. Not quite on the Spider-Verse level, but enjoyable and well done.
Last Breath was intense and Girl Haunts Boy was cute. Neither were great, but I had a fun time with both.

Random and Personal Stuff

I’m going to toss on some March Madness and finish some errands around the house; I hope everyone has a great week ahead.

Ten Songs

Here are ten songs that I listened to and loved this week. Some may be new, some may be old, but they all found their way into my life during the past seven days.

Winona Fighter – Wlbrn St Tvrn
Lost Stars – Nice to Know Ya
Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco – Younger and Hotter Than Me
Ruston Kelly – Only One
Autoignition – Plummet
Spiritbox – Crystal Roses
Motion City Soundtrack – Bad Idea
Lagwagon – Violins
The Ataris – Not a Worry in the Worry
Yellowcard – Hide

This playlist is available on Spotify and Apple Music.

Community Watch

The trending and popular threads in our community this week include:

The most liked post in our forums last week was this one by williamryankey in the “Yellowcard” thread.

Like I joked after he made that post: No one was going to come close to winning post of the week after that!

Previous editions of Liner Notes can be found here.

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