A little bit of time ago, I was able to catch up with singer-songwriter Chase Tremaine to discuss the re-release of his sophomore record Development and Compromise, my adoration for his debut called Unfall, as well as a lot about what the future has in store for his musical path ahead. I really enjoyed hearing about what made Chase want to explore his musical journey, and hear about his influences that he draws inspiration from.
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Recently I was able to hop onto a Zoom call with the emo rock band Out of Service, and we discussed their recently released single called “What You See” that features John Nolan (Taking Back Sunday/Straylight Run), their upcoming touring plans, and most importantly their finishing touches on their third full-length record called The Ground Beneath Me. Out of Service is comprised of Teebs Williams (guitar), Mike Capuano (vocals), Ken Bond (drums), and Brian McGovern (bass). The upcoming album will be released on Enjoy The Ride Records on June 3rd, and the vinyl will be available for purchase at the same time as the digital release date.
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For those unfamiliar with the electronic artist known as Animalweapon, it comes from the mind of Patrick Cortes. On this sprawling, eight-song album called Set of Constraints, the artist tackles heavy lyrical themes like struggles with mental health, anxiety, as well as making personal connections to the material to ensure the balance is just right. Cortes shared this about the new record: “A lot of this record is a marker of a transitional period of my life. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my last record Tyrannosaurus was very much a representation of a pretty low stretch, mental health wise. A lot of this album was me acknowledging that I can mitigate that if I actually put in the work, and starting to. I still write music with enough room for interpretation so that people can connect it to whatever they’re feeling, but ideally I hope it resonates with anyone who is working on themselves or ‘in the cocoon’ so to speak.” Set Of Constraints seems like an odd title, as Animalweapon’s musical journey appears to be limitless.
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In the crowded scene of pop-punk bands during the early 00’s, I admittedly didn’t give Midtown as much of a hard look as I should have in retrospect. I would usually enjoy the singles that the band put on the Warped Tour compilation that came out each year, or stumble across a friend’s MP3 of punk songs on their computer that caught my ear, but I didn’t get on this band’s bandwagon until much later. After seeing Living Well Is The Best Revenge at a record store for a criminally low price, I took a chance on the album that I’ve grown to love even more so today. This album was crafted under the direction of producer Mark Trombino (Blink-182, Jimmy Eat World), and he helped Midtown hone in on the best parts of their sound to create a record that should’ve received more love and media attention. In an interview with Jason during the AbsolutePunk days, Midtown went into detail about their disdain for Drive-Thru Records, and potentially may have stunted some of the label’s desire to push the album into more commercial outlets. Controversy aside, Midtown’s Living Well Is the Best Revenge should be considered one of the better pop-punk albums to come out of this period of time.
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The latest taste of new music from the DC-based pop-punk band Dear Spring is called ”Every Now and Then,” and is filled with great harmonies, back and forth vocals, and a beating heart of purpose in every lyric. The song was produced by Nik Bruzzese, mixed by Ben Green, and mastered by Paul Leavitt. Dear Spring would be perfect for fans of Four Year Strong, Taking Back Sunday, and Hit the Lights, since this band is very much entrenched in that crisp pop-punk sound that many of us have grown to love over the years.
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Recently I was able to catch up with Austin pop-rockers White Label Analog after they released a great new single called “Curves.” I asked the band about their songwriting process as well as how they stayed active during the pandemic. The band is considering upcoming touring plans as well as releasing more singles in the near future.
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Written largely during the start of the pandemic, The Injured List have returned with their fourth full-length record called Blue 32. The record title is a reference to the quarterback’s signals called out before the snap, and the band’s affinity for writing sad songs packed with plenty of purpose. The album was written mostly by lead vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Nathan Marks and drummer Ashton Parsons, while the band also had some additional friends contribute guitar parts remotely. The Injured List took a unique approach to this album by book-ending the record with the intro/outro tracks of “Adrift” and “Ashore” that help solidify their artistic statement found on Blue 32.
The record opens with the aforementioned intro track called “Adrift” that prepares the listener for the beauty found in my personal favorite in the set, called “Doubt.” That particular song opens with some well-placed synths that eventually break away for heavier-toned guitars and singer Nathan Marks’ anthemic vocals. “Doubt” reminds me a lot of Autopilot Off, with a little bit of The Maine and Mae thrown into the mix for good measure. Things continue to stay great on “Recover,” as drummer Ashton Parsons sets a great beat to allow the band to explore the possibilities of their sound.
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Debut albums always carry that weighty hope of grabbing the audience’s attention from the very first note. Sandman Sleeps have stormed onto the music scene with Crisis Actor, an album that the band admits that they strove for painful perfection in its recording process. “We’ve recorded this damn album, like, three times now,” confesses bassist, Alex Peck. In addition to Alex, the band is comprised of vocalist Cristina Peck, drummer Karsten Andersen, guitarist Zack Jones, and Sandman Sleeps’ musical chemistry only further adds to the allure found on their debut. Led by the immediately gripping single called, “Portrait of Jennie,” Sandman Sleeps reminds me of Florence and the Machine, early-Cranberries, and with a modern songwriting twist similar to Middle Kids. The band’s attention to detail pays off widely, as Crisis Actor is a thrilling record from start to finish.
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Today I’m thrilled to share the new double single of “Morning / Midnight” as well as “My Mind is a Mess in the Morning” by a talented singer-songwriter named Nick Leng. Leng is currently supporting the artist, LP, on their Spring North American tour, and the interest in this artist couldn’t be higher with expansive songs like these two. Leng shared this about each song:
I’ve always had trouble writing quotes that summarize songs. It feels like the words can put songs in boxes, and possibly snuff out any personal interpretation a listener might have. In a similar way, when I was finished with ‘My Mind is a Mess in the Morning,’ and was thinking about releasing it as a single, it really excited me to pair it with ‘Morning / Midnight.’ They’re equally important to me, and, one might say, quite different. together, I felt like they painted a better picture of what I’m trying to say.
’My Mind is a Mess in the Morning’ was written while I was living in Topanga in a trailer park which, subsequently, (and arguably hilariously) became rat infested prompting a hasty departure. ‘Morning / Midnight’ was started there as well one late night when I was chopping up a classical piano improvisational piece I had recorded, on a sampler. There’s a video on my Instagram of me playing the melodica in the intro in the morning and the sun peeked through that ended up in the final version. I had considered dividing that intro, with the chopped piano and the ‘second part’ when the beat comes in, into two songs, but the journey of the intro, and duality and sensation of when the bass and kick comes in, had a real story to it that it cemented the conviction that it’s one idea.
If you’re enjoying the two singles, please consider purchasing them from your favorite streaming service via SOTA Records.
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Recently I was able to catch up with the lead vocalist of Escape the Fate and The Dead Rabbitts, Craig Mabbitt, before the release of the latter band’s third studio album called Rumination. In this interview I asked Craig about the differences between writing music for both bands, the touring plans for each project, working with veteran producer John Feldman, and he also shared about his recent sobriety that allowed him to see his career path in a much better light. I enjoyed my conversation with Craig as he shared insight on the writing behind both bands, and The Dead Rabbitts’ latest album, Rumination, hits the streets this Friday (April 1).
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The latest offering of music from Telltale is a solid mix of impactful, hard-hitting songs that still have plenty of substance about them to make you continue to think about the lyrical material. The band tackles themes like mental health, self-doubt, and other more global issues like the climate crisis to round out this EP. Telltale shared this about the new record, “This record is our viewpoint on being a part of the apocalyptic generation. We obsess over zombie films, live in fear of the daily news, and constantly foresee the end of the world. Or rather, the world as we know it. A generation written off as lazy and self-centered, we’re taught to think that something broken can’t be fixed from within.” With interesting guitar parts and uplifting vocals, this band would perfect for fans of bands like Sleeping With Sirens, Hawthorne Heights, and Set It Off.
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The latest offering from Philadelphia’s own Riverby finds the artist on solid footing and tinkering with an aggressive rock sound to pair with their abrasive lyrics. Riverby entered the studio with veteran hit-maker Jim Wirt (Jack’s Mannequin) to craft the album that would become known as Absolution. The band shared this about the concept behind the material, “It’s about ending fear with mortality and finally coming to solutions with your shit, closing the door on things that have been festering: your history and yourself, and making peace with God. I don’t even believe in God, but on the off chance He’s fucking real, I’d like us to be cool.” The band is able to capitalize on their hard-nosed material with one of this year’s most immediately gripping records to date.
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It’s pretty amazing to think of just how much the music scene has changed in a short 20 years time. During the “emo boom” of the early 00’s, it seemed like every major label was falling over themselves in order to sign the next big thing in music and cash in on the interest in the punk/emo scene. There seemed to be a bigger buzz online in several key music website communities that you could sort of feel, or at least get a basic pulse, of when that next band was poised to make a big splash on the music landscape. As much as has been written about the tumultuous relationship Victory Records had with their bands and their contracts, I figured I’d focus the majority of this retrospective on the beauty of the music that Taking Back Sunday has left us with. Tell All Your Friends was one of those electric records that was destined to be huge, immediate, and make the listener feel like they were a part of something that belonged to them. I remember hearing of Taking Back Sunday for the first time in college when a friend of mine had just “discovered” a new band that he described as a mix between hardcore, punk, and anthemic pop that he thought I’d be into. What I wasn’t expecting was for this band to open up a gateway of possibilities of where my music tastes would gravitate towards for the foreseeable future.
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The latest offering from the pop rock band called Stress Dolls, the solo moniker of Chelsea O’Donnell, is a solid slab of guitar-driven rock with a steady heartbeat towards self-discovery. The EP, entitled Forward, was co-produced by O’Donnell and Marc Hunt, and features an eclectic mix of heartfelt songs. The record opens with “Alone,” a track about the complexities of relationships and when you just need a moment to breathe from the weight of the world. Chelsea sings, “Whenever I’m alone I get this feeling, it’s happening once again / I’m at half a glass without you, drowning in a whirlpool on the shallow end / But whenever you’re around I am a fever, a hot flush in your face / The vermin in your garden, overgrown yet trying to pick up the pace / So I’d rather be alone,” and her lower vocal delivery offers an interesting take on the pop rock genre. The opener features some well-placed synths in the background and adds to the overall texture of the song.
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Just when you think the days of surprise album releases are over, Oso Oso comes through in the clutch to deliver to their fourth studio album called Sore Thumb. This collection of 13 cohesive songs flows brilliantly from start to finish, and features a variety of tempos, feelings, and emotions throughout the record. The band is just coming off of their most successful (both commercially and critically) album to date in 2019’s Basking in the Glow, and had a lot of positive momentum going in their favor leading up to this album cycle. However Jade Lilitri, the only permanent member of the band, experienced a heartbreaking loss around this time last year when his touring guitarist Tavish Maloney passed away tragically at the age of 24. Lilitri does his best to honor his late contributor with one of this year’s best emo records, and one of this year’s best artistic statements to date.
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