features - PAGE 106

The Ultimate Jimmy Eat World Setlist

Craig Ismaili

For this week’s playlist I’m putting together what I call “The Ultimate Setlist.” This is a concept that my friend Mike came up with back when people still made mix CDs. The idea is to give someone a starting place in a band’s discography, basically a jumping off point to the artist’s best songs and biggest hits. The rules are fairly simple: arrange the playlist in such a way that emulates the perfect setlist for the band, and make sure that the playlist comes in under 80 minutes (that was the length for CD-Rs — remember those, from another life?). This week, I’m jumping in with Jimmy Eat World and you can find my picks on Apple Music and Spotify.

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Bored to Death (Encore Episode 123)

Encore 123
Jason Tate

This week’s episode of Encore spends a lot of time talking about all of the Blink-182 news over the past week. We talk about the band’s new song, their new album, the entire thing about the song going up a day early and what happened there, and the band’s massive upcoming tour. We also talk a little about the new Drake album, answer a couple of listener questions, and, of course, talk about beer and basketball as well. You can find all the information to stream and/or download the episode below. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

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For this week’s “Throwback Thursday,” I bring images captured of Circa Survive just a few years ago at the Ogden Theater in Denver, CO. I am probably one of the more atypical Anthony Green fans. I had never seen Circa perform live, and had never even listened to more than 15 seconds of their music before this night. And yet, Saosin’s Translating the Name was probably the most influential release for me in the early 2000’s. I know, I’m weird. However, getting to finally see Anthony perform was an experience. Anthony’s energy on stage is contagious. The moment he walks on stage you can just feel the aura he commands. I hope you enjoy this week’s gallery of some of my favorite images from that night.

Dave Gaslin

Underappreciated Blink-182 Songs

Jason Tate

For this week’s playlist I decided to just go all in with the Blink-182 theme that’s been pretty unavoidable this week. Instead of putting together just a playlist of my favorites, or the “best of,” I went for what I consider to be underappreciated Blink-182 songs. Songs that I don’t think get enough attention in their catalog. The only rules I made for myself was that I had to keep it under 45 minutes. You can find my picks on Apple Music and Spotify and I’d love to hear what you’d put on your “underappreciated” list.

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Song Clip Fiasco (Encore Episode 122)

Encore 122
Jason Tate

On this week’s episode of Encore we mourn the passing of Prince, discuss Beyoncé’s surprise album release and look how perfect the marketing behind this roll out seemed to be, and try and predict what the new Blink-182 song you’ve all heard would sound like three days early. We discuss Bayside’s new album, The Hotelier releasing a new song, and then tackle some listener questions. We discuss the “image” of bands, our favorite vinyl, how we read websites and why, and then debate if we can declare that emo has been “revived.”

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Noah Gundersen Live in Grand Rapids

Noah Gundersen
Craig Manning

Last Friday night I saw Noah Gundersen do something I’ve seen very few artists do: walk out onstage alone, with no backing band and no opening act, sit down in a chair, pick up an acoustic guitar, and start playing. He’d interact with the audience more—and make a surprising number of jokes—later in the show, but for now, he wanted to get right to the point: the music.

There’s something to be said for a concert with high production values. There’s something to be said for light shows and setlists where every moment has been meticulously planned — right down to the dialogue between songs. But there’s also something to be said for a show where an artist just comes out and acts like he’s playing songs in his living room. As someone who just made an entire album in his living room, that was something I appreciated about Noah’s show on Friday.

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Wrong – ‘Wrong’ (Album Premiere)

Wrong
Drew Beringer

Wrong will be releasing their massive self-titled debut album on April 29th through Relapse Records. Luckily, you don’t have to wait until then to stream all eleven aggressive, noisy tracks — you can stream the album right now below. Featuring former members of Kylesa and Torche, Wrong will crush you with their Helmet/Unsane heavy riffage. Check them out on their current tour with Nothing and Culture Abuse. 

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Moonlighting: The Get Up Kids

The Get Up Kids
Adrian Villagomez

By their nature, musicians are creative. Just because they find success doesn’t mean they don’t like to explore new genres or shake things up. Sometimes their new music doesn’t gel with their current band. Sometimes a band goes on a Ross and Rachel type of break, but the music has to keep flowing. Moonlighting is all about the side projects, the passion projects, the weird and wacky that branch out from the original act.

The Get Up Kids are your older brother’s emo. In their early years, the band members looked like they walked on stage immediately after bagging groceries or tutoring middle school kids. This was long before emo became associated with Hot Topic or bangs. Matt Pryor certainly has some growl to his vocals, but overall the band’s music is approachable, agreeable, heart-on-your-sleeve rock. This is music you wouldn’t be afraid to play in front of your mom. With a catalog featuring grainy distortion (“Coming Clean”), acoustic sing-alongs (“Campfire Kansas”), and new-wavey exploration (“Shatter Your Lungs”), it’s clear The Get Up Kids have never been worried about creating one type of music. The other projects from these members reflect that versatility.

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Teaching a Brand New Fan to Fish (Encore Episode 121)

Encore 121
Jason Tate

This week’s episode of Encore tackles a bunch of listener questions, things like: why would anyone defend The Story So Far kicking a fan? What were our favorite bands growing up and do we still listen to them? What services we use to discover new music? And why do I post about mainstream music these days? We also talk about Taylor Swift and Jimmy Eat World, Moose Blood signing with Hopeless Records, and Green Day, Blink-182, and Brand New.

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For this week’s “Throwback Thursday” gallery I wanted to go back into the archives to see what I had stored on film. That’s when I found an old box of photos from Finch playing at Endfest on June 22nd, 2002. I’d been looking for this box for a very long time. It’s insane to think that it has been 5,053 days, or 13 years and 10 months, since these images were captured. But what’s even more crazy to me is that it was a short three months after What it is to Burn was released. Finch were just becoming the it band of the moment and I still remember the day I first heard that album. You can find the gallery below and I hope these bring back some memories of the days when Drive-Thru Records ruled the world.

Dave Gaslin

Half Hearted Hero – “Same Old Same” (Song Premiere)

Half Hearted Hero
Drew Beringer

Half Hearted Hero will be releasing their (very good) new LP, Isn’t Real, on May 27th via Animal Style Records. Today we are premiering one of my favorite songs from the album: “Same Old Same.” It contains an upbeat vibe that’ll make you want to roll down the windows and sing along while maintaining the edge that gets the band compared to peers like Polar Bear Club and Motion City Soundtrack. 

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