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~~butthead aka 216~~ · 02-25-2014, 03:24 AM

Butthead aka 216's Taking Back Sunday Thing

butthead aka 216, why would you write anything about Taking Back Sunday? They haven't been popular in like 10 years and aren't you a tough, hung stud who shouldn't be listening to whiny teenager music? That all may be 100% true, but they are also one of my favorite bands and I have a general bone to pick with emo fans about them.

As usual, I will keep this less about their Wiki entry and more about my personal connection and kinda tell a story about the band. Let's start for the beginning.

I'm 16 and just kinda getting into music that isn't Korn, Linkin Park, and Staind. Girls are becoming a central part of my life and I have a constant 15 inch erection that destroys everything in it's path. A fat girl named Amanda has a locker next to me all through high school and she is always decked out in Spill Canvas, The Academy Is, and Taking Back Sunday shirts, headbands, etc. I develop a general disgust with 3rd wave emo bands because of this, and start a blog specifically to pretentiously trash my emo peers.

But then TBS's 3rd album, Louder Now, gets released. I'm hanging out in my buddy Jeff's basement listening to some friends play acoustic guitar and try to record some crappy indie stuff. In between takes we think we are cool by drinking his Mom's wine coolers and spinning random albums when someone throws on the Louder Now album and I'm pretty taken aback. As an avid late-night-MTV viewer of music videos I remembered seeing the This Photograph is Proof video, but never really followed up in checking them out. In an ironic twist, the baseball team seems to adopt the Louder Now album as a soundtrack to our workouts and I hear the album everyday and everyone seems to be digging it. God, our coach must have cringed so hard at the group of pussies that took the field every day.

So fast forward to later in the year, and by this point I've went back and listened to their first 2 albums, which surprising to me are actually way better than Louder Now. Before I go on, let me get to my beef with emo fans in general. I get this sense from various message boards, quotes from older emo artists, and talking with people, that alot of 'real' emo fans don't consider TBS to be emo, or don't like them, or both, or whatever. It's pretty well known that a lot of the 1st and 2nd wave artists tried to disassociate themselves from the 3rd wave emo bands because they didn't represent the same ideas or have the right sound or whatever. And I get that, and I can certainly see the difference between Sunny Day and Hawthorne Heights, but I just don't see how people don't see TBS as a premier, classic 3rd wave emo band who are largely to blame for the mainstream success of emo for that mid '00s era.

Their first two albums are exactly the progression I would imagine emo fans wanting the direction of the genre to go. Maybe a little more uptempo than expected, but the Get Up Kids were certainly known for their uptempo songs and that wasn't a problem (or when they went synth-heavy). Or maybe this point is all moot, because given their success, some fans obviously did dig it. I don't get it, and I guess these thoughts stem from the Emo Album Club Thread for the Brave Bird album where I replied earlier tonight to Maaanky about how exactly emo was supposed to progress moving forward. And maybe it's because of the fanbase or general disapproval of 3rd wave emo, but I don't believe a lot of fans have ever gave TBS a real chance and listened to their first 2 albums from start to finish.

Their debut album, Tell All Your Friends, really introduced me to this dual vocal thing that I hadn't really heard used that much by other bands I'd listened to, and certainly not even close to the frequency to which TBS uses it. During their first album, John Nolan (who went on to start Straylight Run) did the backing vocals, and him and Adam Lazzara are constantly either trading off vocals line-to-line or singing over one another, which sounds awesome. But for a debut album, the songs are incredibly intricate. I will compare them to Brand New, since they are entangled in a lot of different ways. I wrote before in this journal how Brand New was the first band where I understood the growth of a band through their albums, and Brand New's first album, Your Favorite Weapon, was a really simple but awesome one and the follow up was noticeably more intricate and developed. But TBS had that from the start in my opinion. They could have probably went verse-chorus-verse-chorus and made popular, solid albums but they didn't. There's so many peaks and valleys, it's kinda of a controlled chaos to me with such an energy that it's just awesome.

Spoiler for Bike Scene:

Their second album, Where You Want To Be, is much of the same, but with some stronger vocals. John Nolan left to lead Straylight Run and Fred Mascherino stepped in on lead guitar and backing vocals. In my opinion, Fred was awesome and gave a stronger voice than Nolan, but honestly most people probably didn't even notice the difference because the format stayed pretty much the same. The second album was just as great as the first and played much in the same way: peaks and valleys to every song, high energy and tempo, and a whiny angst - but there was an added ballad-feel with stronger choruses in my opinion... It's also awesome and if you don't listen to these albums in their entirety, you're just shorting yourself. Don't come in here talking smack on ole butthead aka 216 if you haven't actually listened to it.

Spoiler for One Eighty By Summer:

Where they really started switching gears was with the Louder Now album. It is great in it's own way, but just... different. It's not the same jump that Brand New made when they released TDAGARIM but it's a noticeably different sound. It's hard to articulate, maybe you just have to listen. It didn't immediately resonate with me like the others did, but it didn't take months to appreciate either. I guess it's just more mainstream, because at this point TBS were pretty much the face of the genre and the pop-punk/emo-pop genre in general had a revival with a lot of bands that never had lasting power (Hawthorne Heights, Armor For sleep, etc), plus some other kinda similar bands like Sense Fail, Bayside, etc. Also, Paramore was getting big at the time and was making music that was a lot different than what they do now (plus Dashboard was kinda there too, selling a ton of albums). I hold TBS's first 2 albums in the highest regards, 10/10 and their 3rd album 9/10. It's a notch below, but still awesome.

Right around that time, I went to a lot of TBS shows, and they usually weren't a great live band because of the vocals, but it introduced me to a lot of other bands along the way which was cool. I guess I got kind of off-track in this entry from my original plan and pretty much just said how much I like TBS, but it's my journal so blow me. I am also going to just end this kinda abriptly cause I am tired.

02-25-2014, 03:24 AM	#54 (permalink)
~~butthead aka 216~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Jun 2013 Location: freely swimmin thru the waters of glory much like a majestic bald eagle soars thru the skies Posts: 1,463	*Butthead aka 216's Taking Back Sunday* Thing** butthead aka 216, why would you write anything about Taking Back Sunday? They haven't been popular in like 10 years and aren't you a tough, hung stud who shouldn't be listening to whiny teenager music? That all may be 100% true, but they are also one of my favorite bands and I have a general bone to pick with emo fans about them. As usual, I will keep this less about their Wiki entry and more about my personal connection and kinda tell a story about the band. Let's start for the beginning. I'm 16 and just kinda getting into music that isn't Korn, Linkin Park, and Staind. Girls are becoming a central part of my life and I have a constant 15 inch erection that destroys everything in it's path. A fat girl named Amanda has a locker next to me all through high school and she is always decked out in Spill Canvas, The Academy Is, and Taking Back Sunday shirts, headbands, etc. I develop a general disgust with 3rd wave emo bands because of this, and start a blog specifically to pretentiously trash my emo peers. But then TBS's 3rd album, Louder Now, gets released. I'm hanging out in my buddy Jeff's basement listening to some friends play acoustic guitar and try to record some crappy indie stuff. In between takes we think we are cool by drinking his Mom's wine coolers and spinning random albums when someone throws on the Louder Now album and I'm pretty taken aback. As an avid late-night-MTV viewer of music videos I remembered seeing the This Photograph is Proof video, but never really followed up in checking them out. In an ironic twist, the baseball team seems to adopt the Louder Now album as a soundtrack to our workouts and I hear the album everyday and everyone seems to be digging it. God, our coach must have cringed so hard at the group of pussies that took the field every day. So fast forward to later in the year, and by this point I've went back and listened to their first 2 albums, which surprising to me are actually way better than Louder Now. Before I go on, let me get to my beef with emo fans in general. I get this sense from various message boards, quotes from older emo artists, and talking with people, that alot of 'real' emo fans don't consider TBS to be emo, or don't like them, or both, or whatever. It's pretty well known that a lot of the 1st and 2nd wave artists tried to disassociate themselves from the 3rd wave emo bands because they didn't represent the same ideas or have the right sound or whatever. And I get that, and I can certainly see the difference between Sunny Day and Hawthorne Heights, but I just don't see how people don't see TBS as a premier, classic 3rd wave emo band who are largely to blame for the mainstream success of emo for that mid '00s era. Their first two albums are exactly the progression I would imagine emo fans wanting the direction of the genre to go. Maybe a little more uptempo than expected, but the Get Up Kids were certainly known for their uptempo songs and that wasn't a problem (or when they went synth-heavy). Or maybe this point is all moot, because given their success, some fans obviously did dig it. I don't get it, and I guess these thoughts stem from the Emo Album Club Thread for the Brave Bird album where I replied earlier tonight to Maaanky about how exactly emo was supposed to progress moving forward. And maybe it's because of the fanbase or general disapproval of 3rd wave emo, but I don't believe a lot of fans have ever gave TBS a real chance and listened to their first 2 albums from start to finish. Their debut album, Tell All Your Friends, really introduced me to this dual vocal thing that I hadn't really heard used that much by other bands I'd listened to, and certainly not even close to the frequency to which TBS uses it. During their first album, John Nolan (who went on to start Straylight Run) did the backing vocals, and him and Adam Lazzara are constantly either trading off vocals line-to-line or singing over one another, which sounds awesome. But for a debut album, the songs are incredibly intricate. I will compare them to Brand New, since they are entangled in a lot of different ways. I wrote before in this journal how Brand New was the first band where I understood the growth of a band through their albums, and Brand New's first album, Your Favorite Weapon, was a really simple but awesome one and the follow up was noticeably more intricate and developed. But TBS had that from the start in my opinion. They could have probably went verse-chorus-verse-chorus and made popular, solid albums but they didn't. There's so many peaks and valleys, it's kinda of a controlled chaos to me with such an energy that it's just awesome. Spoiler for Bike Scene: Their second album, Where You Want To Be, is much of the same, but with some stronger vocals. John Nolan left to lead Straylight Run and Fred Mascherino stepped in on lead guitar and backing vocals. In my opinion, Fred was awesome and gave a stronger voice than Nolan, but honestly most people probably didn't even notice the difference because the format stayed pretty much the same. The second album was just as great as the first and played much in the same way: peaks and valleys to every song, high energy and tempo, and a whiny angst - but there was an added ballad-feel with stronger choruses in my opinion... It's also awesome and if you don't listen to these albums in their entirety, you're just shorting yourself. Don't come in here talking smack on ole butthead aka 216 if you haven't actually listened to it. Spoiler for One Eighty By Summer: Where they really started switching gears was with the Louder Now album. It is great in it's own way, but just... different. It's not the same jump that Brand New made when they released TDAGARIM but it's a noticeably different sound. It's hard to articulate, maybe you just have to listen. It didn't immediately resonate with me like the others did, but it didn't take months to appreciate either. I guess it's just more mainstream, because at this point TBS were pretty much the face of the genre and the pop-punk/emo-pop genre in general had a revival with a lot of bands that never had lasting power (Hawthorne Heights, Armor For sleep, etc), plus some other kinda similar bands like Sense Fail, Bayside, etc. Also, Paramore was getting big at the time and was making music that was a lot different than what they do now (plus Dashboard was kinda there too, selling a ton of albums). I hold TBS's first 2 albums in the highest regards, 10/10 and their 3rd album 9/10. It's a notch below, but still awesome. Right around that time, I went to a lot of TBS shows, and they usually weren't a great live band because of the vocals, but it introduced me to a lot of other bands along the way which was cool. I guess I got kind of off-track in this entry from my original plan and pretty much just said how much I like TBS, but it's my journal so blow me. I am also going to just end this kinda abriptly cause I am tired.