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Liner Notes (March 6th, 2022)

Posted by Jason Tate
Back Road

This week’s newsletter has early thoughts on some new music (Hot Water Music, Glacier Veins) and some longer thoughts on old favorites (The Ataris). There are also a few quick hits on entertainment I consumed last week and a playlist of ten songs I liked. 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.

A Few Things

  • This newsletter is coming to you a day later this week since there were a bunch of family-related commitments that I had yesterday, and I didn’t want to try and rush out something.
  • I enjoyed John Siracusa’s post about streaming apps. Specifically, I can’t believe how many of these apps are actively user-hostile. The idea of hiding what I was just watching under the fold to try and goose engagement metrics is absolutely maddening.

Sponsor

SeeMoreGlass’s new album, Roaring Paper Spring, is now available on Bandcamp. This is an album for fans of early 2000’s pop-punk, those who love heartfelt and honest lyrics, enjoy records with a concept and also are looking for a little hope in their lives. This is a record about learning how to move away from sadness, and let go of the things in life you can’t control. The Roaring Paper Spring resides in all of us, and it is up to us to decide if it is going to help us find order in the chaos, or keep us trembling in the dark.

Roaring Paper Spring (and the rest of the SeeMoreGlass discography) is available on Bandcamp for $5, and until March 8th, 100% of the proceeds will be split between the charities No More Dysphoria and SNAP Network. There is also a Kickstarter to get the album pressed to vinyl.

You can get a taste of the album by checking out the music video for “Missing You (From Halfway Round The World).”

In Case You Missed It

Music Thoughts

  • Some weeks, I spend a lot of time listening to new music, music that came out the previous week or two, or stuff that’s coming out in the future. Other weeks I find myself reaching for the “comfort food.” The albums I’ve spent years with, the bands from my youth, the songs that I’ve heard a hundred times and know by heart. Sometimes I just crave that feeling of being wrapped in a warm blanket of something familiar, something comforting. Last week had me reaching for a whole lot of The Ataris. I’ve long maintained that Kris Roe is one of the more underrated pop-punk songwriters of his, or any, generation. And these songs do such a remarkable job at transporting me back to the days when I only had a handful of albums, but I would play them on repeat, just finding comfort in the songs that reminded me I wasn’t alone in my weird adolescent world. And something like So Long, Astoria holds up even better than I would have guessed all these years later, especially with the nostalgic lyrics of looking back at your childhood and what it’s like to grow up. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed breaking these albums back out over the past week. A couple of fun facts: 1) Blue Skies, Broken Hearts…Next 12 Exits is the very first CD I ever burned from MP3s. I saw the band open for MxPx, but couldn’t find their album anywhere, so I found it on some IRC channel and used the new CD burner that our computer lab had to convert the files to be playable on my Discman. 2) End is Forever is the first “advance” CD I ever received, Kris’s dad, I believe, sent it to me in the mail before it came out, so I would talk about it on my still just a Blink-182 and MxPx website.
  • In new music this week, I have an advance of the new Hot Water Music album, and it’s very Hot Water Music-y. In all the best ways. This is one of those bands that if they just keep doing what they do, I will almost always enjoy it. I think the lead singles are a good indication of the rest of the album.
  • I also have been listening to the new one from Glacier Veins, and the back half of this album is fucking awesome. Starting with “Embers,” I think the band steps it up and makes a dynamic and engaging pop-rock record with a whole lot of interesting stuff going on. The first half of the album, while still good, I think just plays it a little safe.
  • I am all about the new Cold Years’ song. This was already one of my most anticipated of the year, and now I’m starting to think they may have something special in store for us.
  • I haven’t had time to check out the new albums from The Weather Station or LEON yet, but that’s next on my list.

The Stats: Over the past week, I listened to 22 different artists and 468 different tracks (703 scrobbles). My most played artist was The Ataris with Blue Skies, Broken Hearts … Next 12 Exits being my most played album. Here is my Top 9 from last week, and you can follow me on Apple Music and/or Last.fm.

Entertainment Thoughts

  • Nightmare Alley is an undeniably good movie, but I’m not sure I enjoyed watching. It felt its length. I don’t often wonder if something would have been better suited as a mini-series, but this might have worked better in that format. I liked it, but I found my mind drifting quite often.
  • I don’t even know how to review Fresh. That was not what I was expecting. I think I liked it? Sebastian Stan goes for it, and the final act is wild.
  • The Eternals is a good description of how long it felt to watch that movie. Basically, nothing about it worked for me. Pacing felt off. Performances and dialogue felt stilted. Story wasn’t engaging. Action scenes, for the most part, were boring. And I had a hard time caring about practically any of the characters. Oh well.
  • Our next main TV show is Amazon’s rendition of The Wheel of Time. I never read these books, even though they are so clearly in my wheelhouse, and I have been enjoying this series so far. I’m sure the book fans have strong opinions, but as someone not versed in this universe or the source material, I’m just enjoying an engaging and well put together story so far.

Random and Personal Stuff

  • I went over to my dad’s yesterday to watch the final Duke home game with Coach K. It was a bittersweet day. For literally as long as I can remember, I’ve watched college basketball games with my dad. Following Duke since I was a child is one of the ways we communicated and kept in touch. Sports, in many ways, end up being a throughput in life. One of those things that mark the passing of time. And this really feels like the end of an era.

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.

  1. The Ataris – San Dimas High School Football Rules
  2. Gang of Youths – Spirit Boy
  3. Cold Years – 32
  4. Sigrid & Griff – Head on Fire
  5. Sir Sly – Spine Curves
  6. 5 Seconds of Summer – Complete Mess
  7. Benee – Soft Side
  8. Mom Jeans – Crybaby (On the Phone)
  9. Nothing, Nowhere. – Nightmare
  10. Valencia – Que Sera Sera

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 David87 in the “General Politics Discussion IX” thread.

Previous editions of Liner Notes can be found here.

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