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~~butthead aka 216~~ · 04-01-2014, 02:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mankycaaant

You know what?
I'm going to start reading this more often.
Really liked the piece about your relationship with the girl who moved away, I imagined the sport she played was hockey. It seemed right.

It's odd to think that you only cried three times when certain songs hit, if I had written that journal post, it would probably have never ended. I now have four different "crywank" (my term for trying to make my sad playlists seem ironic, they're not) playlists. I think we live in a world now where it's cool to cry and it's interesting to read about your experiences. I've always found it hard to place you as a person in the world outside of Music Banter. I guess sometimes it's hard to remember that everyone here is a real person and has a life outside of the forum.

I also enjoy that you can look back at yourself with honesty and a sense of self humor. Really well written piece.
I also like Taking Back Sunday, I just f*ck with the debut album though. Some really big songs on that record. I'm not sure I'd classify them as emo. I never saw Brand New as emo either. I don't want to call them pop rock or pop punk either because they're not really.
Hmm, alternative rock? But then that's far too vague.
The lack of wanting to associate them with emo probably comes from their douchey teenage girl fans who think painting your nails black and getting angry at your parents is embodying the spirit of emo.

The vocalist left after the first album you said? Shame. The vocal delivery is, as you pointed out, a definite highlight. I might listen to their second album, if it's close to the debut, I'll enjoy it.
I know they've just brought out a new album. I assume they're alike Weezer or Jimmy Eat World in that they just lost the spark they had as they got older? Or would it genuinely be worth a look in?

Thanks for the kind words. I would classify Taking Back Sunday as emo, but wouldn't classify Brand New as such. Maybe it's easier to look back after they have each put out a handful of albums and make that judgment, but I still don't see how anyone could think that Taking Back Sunday wasn't the perfect progression for emo with their first two albums. It seems to fit so smoothly into that genre for me. I think most of the negativity towards 'emo,' from earlier emo bands and fans alike was the marketing of the genre. Dyed black hair over the eyes, weird clothing, etc. Kind of like what happened to grunge, and what happens to all genres once corporate America starts profiting too much off of it. When it transitions from music genre to mass appeal as a lifestyle or something as a selling point, I think that's where things get ugly.

I consider Brand New's first album to be more pop-punk and less emo, but I definitely see why some would classify them as emo. If you listen to most Brand New songs, especially from YFW and Deja, you can hear how Jesse Lacey records most of his songs in layers and overlaps the vocals. One is a strained, yelling version of the lyrics and the other a much softer version. Kind of gives the vocals a subtle but different sound to them and I've always enjoyed it.

If you liked TBS's Tell All Your Friends, there is virtually no way I can imagine you not liking their second album, Where You Want To Be. It's really along the same lines as their first, and just as good. The vocalist has never changed, it was the backup vocalist/guitarist who left. In short, if you listen to TBS's first 3 albums, almost every song has overlapping vocals between the lead singer and backup guy. I think it honestly defined TBS's sound as a whole throughout their career (partly why their last 2 albums blow really fat cock, because they rarely do it anymore). The secondary vocals were done by John Nolan on the first album, but then he left with some other guys to do Straylight Run. The new guy, Fred, was awesome in the 2nd and 3rd albums, but then he left to do The Color Fred and Nolan came back. The lead singer has always remained Adam Lazarra, and DJ is right, their album called Louder Now is great too.

Louder Now is different from their first two in the sense that I felt a concerted effort to make 'big songs' but it didn't make them any less good for me. The songs still went through progressions and mountains and valleys, and there is still just a lot going on in each song. Nowadays, they are just mailing it in and getting to the chorus as easy as possible. I rarely give suggestions because I know people don't care or don't want to be bothered, but I will always push TBS's first, second, and third albums on anyone because I think they are awesome. Definitely give them a listen, I can't imagine you would at the very least think they were decent.

I listened to their new album, Happiness Is, and it's not worth your time. I understand people get older, things change, but these last two albums have been turds. Before, it was like TBS was finding as much cool shit to fit into a 4 minute song as possible, and now it just feels like they are mailing it in. It feels lazy and uninspired, and I've always been a guy who welcomes change in bands and understands that a band can't write the same song for 10 years.

Here are some cool Taking Back Sunday related things for anyone to listen to.

Here are 2 songs that were never released on any of their albums:

The Ballad of Sal Villanueva
-Sal Villanueva was their original frontman before Adam Lazzara but I don't believe they ever recorded anything with him.

Follow the Format
-Unreleased song

CWTE: Live From Orensanz
A more recent thing they did. The backup vocals/guitar is a guy named Matt Fazzi who is in a band called Happy Body, Slow Brain. He was in TBS a short time, and has a killer voice but it's a lot different than other people who have filled that role. It works really well though in this song setting. The entire performance is on YouTube, and it's called Live From Orensanz.

^ Right around 1:23 is really cool btw