Review: Good Charlotte – Youth Authority

Jason Tate May 12, 2016

This first impression was originally posted as a live blog for supporters in our forums on May 12th, 2016. First impressions are meant to be quick, fun, initial impressions on an album or release as I listen to it for the first time. It’s a running commentary written while listening to an album — not a review. More like a diary of thoughts. This post has been lightly edited for structure and flow.

Hahah, ok, yeah, maybe not what people would expect me to do a first listen for, but the album showed up, and after I did a listen of The Living End’s Shift while queuing up news for tomorrow morning, I threw this on kind of as an after thought for fun, not really expecting much.

Um.

I like it. Like, it’s kinda really fun and good pop-rock music. Like, it’s kinda the best album the band’s written since Young and the Hopeless. Like, maybe it’s the two beers, but whatever, I’m gonna do another listen and write some thoughts about this one. News is queued up, to-do list for the day is done, and it’s too late to do any actual “work” for the rest of the evening.

Review: Thrice – To Be Everywhere Is to Be Nowhere

Jason Tate May 5, 2016

This first impression was originally posted as a live blog for supporters in our forums on May 5th, 2016. First impressions are meant to be quick, fun, initial impressions on an album or release as I listen to it for the first time. It’s a running commentary written while listening to an album — not a review. More like a diary of thoughts. This post has been lightly edited for structure and flow.

Ok, this is totally not really a “first listen,” this is more like an eleventh or so listen, but I have been having a lot of fun doing these the past few nights, and after getting the podcast done and up, and a bunch of news queued up for tomorrow morning, I found myself with about an hour to do things before I am going to call it a night. I could, maybe should, work on some features on the forum, but I decided that a Thrice live blog is what gets my time tonight.

Beer for the night: Full Sail “Pilsner”

The regular rules still apply: These are my first thoughts, totally fully of spoilers, mostly just a live blog of what I’m thinking, I can change my mind at any time, and feel free to ask questions!

Review: Saosin – Along the Shadow

Jason Tate May 3, 2016

This first impression was originally posted as a live blog for supporters in our forums on May 3rd, 2016. First impressions are meant to be quick, fun, initial impressions on an album or release as I listen to it for the first time. It’s a running commentary written while listening to an album — not a review. More like a diary of thoughts. This post has been lightly edited for structure and flow.

Let’s take a listen to the new Saosin album. Same thing goes as before — spoilers abound, I reserve the right to change my opinion as time goes on. I’ve got multiple beers sitting in front of me, and I’m hitting play and just going to type out my thoughts as I listen.

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Review: PUP – The Dream is Over

Jason Tate Apr 30, 2016

This first impression was originally posted as a live blog for supporters in our forums on April 30th, 2016. First impressions are meant to be quick, fun, initial impressions on an album or release as I listen to it for the first time. It’s a running commentary written while listening to an album — not a review. More like a diary of thoughts. This post has been lightly edited for structure and flow.

Ok, so it’s about 9pm on a Saturday, I’m mostly done with my tasks for the weekend, and I’m going to crack a beer and dive into this new PUP album for the first time. I thought it may be fun to write some thoughts down and kind of “live blog” the first listen. Maybe this won’t work very well, but I kinda wanna try it and see what shakes out. If it’s successful, and you all like it, I’ll try and do it again in the future for other albums.

Read More “PUP – The Dream is Over”

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Review: Against Me! – Transgender Dysphoria Blues

Jason Tate Jan 6, 2015

About one minute into the lead track, front-woman Laura Jane Grace snarls, “you want them to notice the ragged ends of your summer dress, you want them to see you like they see every other girl, they just see a faggot, they’ll hold their breath not to catch the sick” … and the gauntlet is thrown down. What Against Me!’s new album, Transgender Dysphoria Blues, offers is a mixture of attitude and bravado that pulls together an emotion, weight, and gravitas that I’ve felt missing from music for a while. The lyrics contain something actually worth saying and while the sing-a-long choruses may get stuck in your head, there’s an underlying message that expels itself in a way unique to music — one that travels from head to heart and leads to rumination long after the guitars and drums dissipate.

Review: The Lawrence Arms – Metropole

Jason Tate Jan 5, 2015

In a recently aired episode of the AP.net podcast I go on a (way-to-long) rant about genres and the labels we put on bands. The heart of the argument is ‘fuck labels and fuck genres’ because it’s all a mess. We waste time sitting around saying, “Is this pop-punk, or pop-punk, or pop-punk?” The whole thing is a classification system that no one agrees on, no one abides by, and it becomes a cluster-fuck when trying to talk about bands or describe a sound to someone. In fact, sometimes I think we spend more time arguing about genres than the music itself. Some genres have turned into four-letter words and used as a means to demean and dismiss bands almost as a personal affront. I hate it and I’m unsure if there’s a bigger offender than “pop-punk.”

Review: Copeland – Ixora

Jason Tate Jan 5, 2015

I think my biggest draw to music is the emotion it pulls from me when listening to a great song. That feeling where you experience the song with the entirety of your being. Everything fades away and all that matters in that moment is the space between notes, ears, and heart. Copeland’s upcoming album, Ixora, embodies everything I search for in music.

Review: The 1975 – The 1975

Jason Tate Aug 7, 2013

I feel as though every year or so a new band hits my ears that forces a sharp reflection and virtually recalibrates my tastes. It’s that band that defines the year for me. That band that I look back on as the crack that splintered my tastes and musical habits into a spider-web of new directions. I think of artists like Blink 182, The Format, Brand New, Thrice, The Gaslight Anthem, Bon Iver, and P.O.S. Bands that have become pillars of my musical collection and ones I would point to as defining my “taste matrix.” These bonds have lasted for years and each listen to their catalog transports me back in time. These are the bands that I take possession of and metaphorically hang my hat on. That I say: “this is the band that defines this part of me; this is the band that I believe in.”

In 2013, that band is The 1975.

Jason Tate Dec 14, 2012

It still feels strange to hear new music from Blink-182. I’m not sure what it is … maybe it’s because they’re the band that started me down a path that completely changed my life. Without having heard them, I am really not sure where I would have ended up. Or maybe it’s just because after their ‘hiatus’ I had relegated myself to not really expecting to ever hear new music from them again. So now … when I first hit play on a new Blink-182 song … I get this indescribable feeling that washes over me, almost as though I shouldn’t really be hearing this. Like it’s a dream of a dream. It’s weird.