I cut the tip of my finger while cooking dinner the night before I sit down and type the most I do all week. That was some brilliant work on my part. In this week’s roundup, I offer brief early thoughts on the new PUP record, pontificate about Blink-182 working with The Chainsmokers, re-listen to The Ataris and Zebrahead, and go through the rest of my musical diet from the past week. The entertainment roundup is mostly thoughts on more Batman comic books and needing a little break from overly dramatic movies after last week. The supporter Q&A post can be found here.
Three Things
- I ripped Butch Walker’s cover of “Eye of the Tiger” if anyone wants that for their collection.
- I agree completely with Gruber’s take on the new Slack logo. It’s not that it’s bad, as much as it’s just dull and feels like some faceless enterprise software.
- I made a few minor aesthetic changes to the forums this week. There were a couple of things that have been on my list for a while that I wanted to get cleaned up and fixed. I have a few more of those that I plan on working on next week, and then I need to tackle re-doing our advertising page now that there are new options available. It’s not a fun project, but bringing in revenue is relatively vital to the business, so, alas, it needs to happen.
Music Thoughts
- If you could go back to 2008 and tell me that I’d be highly anticipating the new album from The Maine, I think I’d smack you. But here we are. I loved their last album, adore the lead single, and I pre-ordered the album before I’ve even heard it. I can’t think of any other band that I went from not liking at all, to loving, quite like this. I love the strings and bridge on the new song and am excited to see where they take their sound.
- The new Maren Morris single is … not as good as I wanted it to be. It’s ok, but I was expecting more.
- When I was in high school, I think I probably would have cared that Blink-182 were working on a song with The Chainsmokers. I wouldn’t have thought that was “cool” because the band didn’t fit into my definition of the “right kind of music.” I was a stupid kid. As I’ve aged, I’ve come to realize just how shortsighted that world view was. I posted some in the Blink-182 thread this week about where I see the band right now, and where they’re going, and why I think it shouldn’t be surprising. This is a band that is used to being one of the biggest in the world. They’ve always had those aspirations and wrote music that was in line with that end goal. It doesn’t surprise me that they’re going to continue to write music from that place. I have no idea if I’m going to like the songs, but I know I trust Mark Hoppus’s ear, I know I’m glad they’re working with more than just John Feldmann on songs, and I’m not going to pre-judge anything before I hear it. I think too many people make up their minds me before they ever experience something and then later go “yep I was right.” Confirming your priors. Hell, if I were in Blink, I’d mess with people and put The Chainsmokers co-write credit on a different song to start with, just to see if people really can tell. But, really, I think I’m just happier when I stopped worrying about what was “cool” to like, or the “right bands” to be into, and just started listening to music and either enjoying it or not. I don’t need Blink-182 to sound one specific way, and of course I have my own opinions on what I think would sound best, or the direction I would personally like them to go, but getting too caught up in what’s “the right way” for a band to sound only leads to disappointment. When I started trying to listen to where a band is, instead of always projecting where I wanted them to be, I found my enjoyment of more music skyrocketed. I also think that it led to me being a better critic and better understanding what it is that I like or don’t like about a piece of art.
- After seeing MxPx cover The Ataris’s “San Dimas High School Football Rules” this week, I tossed on Blue Skies… and got transported back to high school. That was the first burned CD I ever made. I remember downloading the files on a school computer and burning them to a CD-R. The technology was so new that only one CD player in the entire house could play the burned CD, so I plugged in my headphones to the downstairs CD player and slept on the floor that night listening to this album. I loved it. I ended up going out and buying it a few days later so I could listen to it in my Discman over and over again (what an old man sentence). It holds up pretty well, catchy and some cool guitar parts, although some of the lyrics rub me the wrong way these days. I plan to try and make it through the rest of the band’s discography in the next few days and see how their other albums hold up for me.
- The new album from Maggie Rogers, Heard it in a Past Life, was a good listen. There are quite a few songs here I like, and I’ll definitely be spinning this over the next week to see how it all shakes out. Catchy, soulful, pop.
- Pedro the Lion’s comeback album is excellent. I’ve always been a fan of Bazan’s writing and lyrics, and this album showcases just how talented of a songwriter he is. It’s worth checking out and then going back and diving into his discography if you’ve never listened before.
- I am enjoying my first listen of this new Cub Sport album. (It’s playing as I write this.) It has a more R&B sound to it than their previous, more like a Troye Sivan sort of thing, but it’s working for me. This feels like something I’m going to keep coming back to.
- I haven’t listened to the new James Blake album yet, but I plan to do that tonight.
- I got on a weird Zebrahead kick earlier this week. I think it had to do with the band announcing a new album and my realizing I never actually listened to the band’s last two albums. I tossed them on at the gym, and they work surprisingly well in that environment. The lyrics border between absurd and dumb, but the music itself reminds me of Sum 41 at times. I could only handle it for a day. Doubt I’ll be going back to them for a long while.
- I’ve only had time to spin the new PUP album once so far. So, please know that these are only my first impressions on the album, and I’m still going to need to give it quite a few more plays before I really can lock down my thoughts on everything. While this album didn’t grab me with the same frenetic red-bull to the veins energy the new album from FIDLAR did on first listen, there’s still a lot to like here. It sounds like PUP, and I think this is their best sounding album. (I found their previous album hard to listen to for extended periods because it would end up giving me a headache.) The production on this one removes some of that harshness, and my ears appreciate it. I’ve only just started to read through the lyrics, but I think this is an album a lot of people are going to relate to. There’s also a couple that I could see sparking a little controversy, or at least debate. I don’t listen to a lot of pop-punk these days, but it’s albums like this that I think do the genre way more justice than some of the more popular bands in the genre. Early favorites include “Full Blown Meltdown,” “Free at Last,” and “City.” I like how guitar-driven this album is, and I’m looking forward to spending more time with it over the next week.
Entertainment Thoughts
- This ended up being a surprisingly light week for entertainment. After last week, where we watched a bunch of moodier/kind of depressing movies, we found ourselves less in the mood for the films in our queue that had a similar vibe. So, we ended up watching a lot of Below Deck instead, and are now starting season four of the show. It’s been an excellent way to clear the head.
- Hannah had never seen The Rock, so we watched that over the weekend. Nic Cage is out there doing Nic Cage things, and any movie that can work the phrase “Zeus’s butthole” into a script deserves some kudos. In hindsight, this is a ridiculous film, but I really enjoyed it as a teenager and still had fun watching it all these years later.
- We re-watched Casino Royale, and it’s by far my favorite Bond film. It’s a real shame that Daniel Craig never really captures the same charm he had in this movie. I like elements of the other films he’s done, but none of them have the same fire, wit, and excitement. And it’s the only Craig-era Bond movie with a really good script that makes sense. (I think the plan is to watch the next three over the next few weeks, so I’m sure I’ll explain my many problems with the following films in subsequent posts.)
- My Batman reading continues! I read the entire I Am Suicide trade by Tom King, and I loved it. There’s a lot of really great Batman moments here, and it feels like King is starting to get a grasp on what he wants to do with the character. I followed that up by reading the next trade, I Am Bane, and enjoyed it as well. I liked the moments with Catwoman better than I liked the Bane stuff, but the whole story was great and well written. I hope we see more of the Bat-family (Robin, Dick, et al.) in the future. After that, I started The Button, but then realized I should probably read DC Universe: Rebirth first. So I did. It was alright. This felt like a lot of exposition just to try and make all these storylines work together. It felt … messy. Convoluted. Unneeded. But, now that I have that out of the way, I am looking forward to diving back into the storyline with Batman and The Flash. I’m usually not a big fan of the timeline/time travel stuff, but it’s only like a four-issue arc, so I’m sure I can handle it.
Random and Personal Stuff
- Weight remains right in line with my goal range. Hannah’s working late tonight, so I’m already plotting out what caloric-monstrosity I can have for dinner. I’m thinking a chicken, bacon, avocado melt, with a side of beer, will be the perfect companions to watch Young Justice cartoons with this evening.
- We re-organized our kitchen, and now my muscle memory for things is all thrown off. Finally getting that damn cabinet full of spices/sauces better organized is going to be worth it.
- Tux/suit try-on went alright last week. I think I have a good idea what size I am now (yay for going down two full pant sizes), but I’m still not wholly convinced I know what look I want. I thought I had a good idea in my head, but after seeing them on me, I wasn’t in love with the options. I’ve got a home try on from Black Tux I’m going to try tonight. Is to too much to ask to look like James-Fucking-Bond in a suit? I don’t ask for much!
- This weekend’s goal is to make decisions about save the dates/invites/stationary. And then make plans to ask grooms people to be grooms people.
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.
- The Ataris – “San Dimas High School Football Rules”
- Maggie Rogers – “Alaska”
- PUP – “Kids”
- The Maine – “Numb Without You”
- Zebrahead – “Worse Than This”
- Pedro the Lion – “Model Homes”
- Mark Rose – “How Strong We Are”
- Cub Sport – “Video”
- Jimmy Eat World – “Please Say No”
- MxPx – “San Dimas High School Football Rules”
The playlists are also available on Spotify and Apple Music.
I hope everyone has a great weekend and enjoys themselves. It’s cold and rainy here, so I plan to avoid being out in that.
Previous editions of this roundup can be found here.