A Farewell to mewithoutYou

mewithoutYou

About eight years ago, I was sitting at a picnic table looking out at the lake near my house. I was listening to Catch For Us the Foxes, not a record for a sunny day, feeling the wood grain under my fingertips, in search of a little hope. It had rained so vehemently the night before that the level of the lake was up over ten feet. The sun shone so bright and the earth was so freshly washed that the greens of the trees and the blues of the water were the most vibrant I’d ever seen at this park. The water flowing through the dam was roaring loud enough to be heard over my music. The temperature was perfect in only the way a day after rain breaks the weather pattern can be.

“Tie me up! Untie me! All this wishing I was dead is getting old. It’s getting old! It goes on, but it’s old.”

I’ve written about my experiences with depression before and the albums that have helped along the way. But I’ve never written about mewithoutYou, or Aaron Weiss in particular, and how important they’ve been in that same journey. They were never a band I could easily talk about or explain; for me, they always had to be experienced to be understood. In large part, I think I’m having trouble finding the words because, quite frankly, I’m not saying goodbye. I’ll be listening to these records for the rest of my life. So I guess I’m saying thank you.

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Love Hounds – “The Furious Noise” (Song Premiere)

Lovehounds

Today I’m thrilled to share the latest single from punk rock band, Love Hounds, called “The Furious Noise.” The band consists of David Keith on drums, Eric Ralls on lead guitar, Josh Emmons on bass, and CB Brooks on lead vocals for a sound that sways somewhere between the hard-nosed rock of The Toadies paired with the punk rock spirit of Dead Kennedys. On this track, the band shared, “The original working title of this song was actually ‘Bolshevik Boogie.’ If you look at history, you can see there are patterns that repeat themselves, especially when it comes to the tensions between the working and ruling classes. It generally does not end well for the ruling class. I don’t see why this time should be any different.” If you’ve been looking for that next great punk track that checks all of the boxes, look no further than “The Furious Noise” by Love Hounds.

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Tom DeLonge Announces New Adult Comedy

Tom Delonge

Variety:

Described as a parody of mobster dramas, combining elements of Yogi Bear with “The Sopranos,” “Breaking Bear” follows the escapades of three bear siblings who decide they have to start selling drugs in order to raise money and save their home after gas companies start fracking next to their cave. The bears soon enlist other forest animals in a scheme that will pit them against oil companies, the Russian mafia, local Hell’s Angels and polar bears who hate anything that isn’t white.

Name Taken Share 2007 Demo

Name Taken

Name Taken have shared a demo from 2007 on streaming platforms. The band shared this about the song:

Well, we aren’t here often. But when we are, we try to bring good news. At our “reunion” show in 2007 we played some songs we had written after Hold On. Also in 2007, we recorded some demos at our house on a bad laptop with literally no idea what we were doing. Hence the relatively poor quality. We pretty much forgot their existence with time. Recently Chad and Ryan (this is Blake) reminded me how much we enjoyed one particular song, “Nanking”. We all listened to it again and agreed that even though the sound is pretty darn rough unless you’re listening on nice headphones or speakers, let’s just let you all enjoy it (or not). So, you can now enjoy ”Nanking 2007 Home Demo” on Spotify and pretty much every other platform. Enjoy! (Or don’t, who cares)

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Sponsor: The Comfort Release “Supernova” feat. AJ Perdomo

The Comfort

The Comfort have released “Supernova” featuring AJ Perdomo of The Dangerous Summer.

The Comfort are back with their first new music in over two years. This is the third single from their upcoming album Experience Everything. Live and Die. Brisbane’s The Comfort first cemented their status in the music world with their far reaching Love EP (5+ million streams worldwide), then explored the limits of their creativity with their debut album What It Is To Be (“a beautiful, exhilarating and revelatory rock record that dives deep into our subjective journey for meaning, purpose and self-discovery” – Hysteria Magazine), before leaving us with the devastating single “Pain,” a brutally honest anthem for mental health. They’ve shared the stage with the likes of Thrice, Circa Survive, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and Don Broco. Now, they want to show you everything they’ve experienced through the journey of life and death.

Watch the video for “Supernova” and pre-order the new album.

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Review: Goo Goo Dolls – Chaos In Bloom

Out of chaos, comes clarity. This quote appears on several art boards, tattoo parlors, and in the case of Goo Goo Dolls and their 14th studio album, Chaos In Bloom, the band embraces the chaos and creates one of their most immediately gratifying late-career records. The set of songs was produced by frontman John Rzeznik (surprisingly, for the first time in the band’s career) and he does an exceptional job of re-capturing some of the early magic of Goo Goo Dolls’ legendary material, but with a more modern flair to it. “Chaos in Bloom reminded us how special this whole thing is and to cherish the relationships that we have together,” says Rzeznik about the album. “Where we’ve been, and where we’re going.” While some may have written the band off after the early success of records like A Boy Named Goo and Dizzy Up The Girl, there is still plenty to love and enjoy on this latest album. The partnership between Rzeznik and bassist/songwriter/vocalist Robby Takac appears to be blossoming again at just the right time in their collective careers.

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The New Home Office

For years I worked from a giant 6-foot-long plastic table that I’m pretty sure I bought at Target. It was big enough for two (hilariously small by today’s standards) monitors, and I used to have a bunch of sticky notes, diagrams, papers, and stuff all over it while working on AbsolutePunk. It was mostly a means to an end. I needed a place to work, and I put most of the money I could spend into the website or my computers. Over the years, my setup has changed quite a bit. I finally got a “real” desk made of wood and everything. And my back greatly appreciates an ergonomic chair.

My wife, Hannah, started a new job a few months ago. Her office is a few blocks from where we live, within walking distance, and she has her own private office. With many of her co-workers still working from home, she discovered she liked going into the office regularly because it helped her focus and stay in “work mode.”1

This change led to me rethinking how I wanted my office at home, which we had been sharing during the pandemic, to be set up. My computer was over eight years old and needed an upgrade, so I figured that if I was going to upgrade the computer, I might as well think through the entire space, since I spend 9-10 hours a day in there, to make it precisely the office I’d always wanted.

And because I have a blog, I figured I’d blog about it and share some photos and links for future reference.

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  1. Unsure if my playing music constantly during work hours has any connection to this, but I’m going to assume the answer is yes.