Review: Jack’s Mannequin – The Glass Passenger

“Even if your voice comes back again/Maybe there’ll be no one listening.”

The morning I climbed into my car to drive myself to the first day of my last year of high school, those lyrics punched me straight in the gut. I was reeling from a broken heart, given to me by a girl who’d occupied my mind all summer long. A few months earlier, she would have been walking the same high school halls that I was driving toward that morning. But she’d graduated and was now two hours south, probably waking up for her first day of college classes. Things hadn’t worked out between us, and if I’d been smart, I would have realized three months earlier that they were never going to. I didn’t, and now I was nursing a few fresh wounds and the prospect of facing down one last year of high school without her and without all the other friends who had left this town behind. “Crashin” was the song playing on the stereo, but it was a line from Andrew McMahon’s previous album that might have been most appropriate: “Hold on/It’s gonna be a hard day.”

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Andrew McMahon Moves Webstore

Andrew McMahon

Andrew McMahon has announced he’s moving his webstore after seeing issues with customer service:

Over the last year I’ve noticed an uptick in customer service and shipping complaints from my web store. I want you all to know I’ve heard you loud and clear. I tried dealing these issues internally on several occasions but things were not improving. It’s taken a minute to find a new home but I’m happy to announce we’ve moved the store. I’m excited for this new partnership and I feel confident fans will be better served all around. To celebrate we are launching a discounted collection of merchandise that will be available for a limited time.

His new store is now up with some discounted and limited merch.

Andrew McMahon Asks GOP to Stop Using His Music

Andrew McMahon

Andrew McMahon has asked the GOP to stop using his music at their rallies:

I have done my best to keep my politics and my platform as an entertainer separate. Honestly, it’s something I struggle with daily, but I hold that line out of respect for my fans and out of disgust for the state of American politics. I believe that today’s hyper-politicized world is a serious distortion of reality. I believe that neighbors who disagree with one another have the capacity to find common ground and regularly do. I believe the politicians we elect to represent us and the diversity of our opinions and lifestyles, are failing us by not seeking that common ground. I’ve chosen to stay publicly apolitical because there are few spaces left that have not been politicized. I have immense respect for those who use their platforms to rally people to that which they believe is right and true. Still, I feel in this climate, my greatest contribution could be to remind people as they stand side by side in a live music venue that we are not as different as our televisions and our political leaders would like us to believe. With this in mind I would appreciate it if politicians and representatives of political parties would refrain from the public use of my music as KellyAnne Conway and the GOP did today at their CPAC convention. My music is about uniting people through our common experience and is not intended as hype tracks for political dog and pony shows.

The Ultimate Andrew McMahon Setlist

Andrew McMahon

We’ve been giving Andrew McMahon a lot of love this week, all in honor of his brand new album, Zombies on Broadway. On Monday, we published an interview with him and yesterday, we reviewed the new record. Today, we’re attempting the impossible: distilling McMahon’s impressive 15-year career into one ultimate concert setlist.

For this playlist, I mostly adhered to the rules established last year in Craig Ismaili’s Ultimate Jimmy Eat World Setlist: 20 songs for the main set, two songs for the encore, and a mix of tunes that includes both hits and career-best songs. I did, however, dispense with Craig’s 80-minute rule, simply because that would mean burning one-eighth of the set on “Konstantine.”

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