#eric vorel

[laellaescribe]

That Lying Bitch - A Review

At first glance, you might assume that a band named That Lying Bitch is made up of pretty mean dudes (or some really self-aware ladies). The truth is, TLB is made up of 4 talented, kind, and honest-as-hell gentlemen from Chicago, IL.

Previously only having released 4 singles, an album of 10 cohesive songs has been long awaited by fans. And that time has come.

The self-titled album takes the listener through all 7 stages of a breakup (though maybe not exactly in order). As cited here, TLB was formed after lead singer Darren Vorel’s not-so-pretty breakup, and the songs show it.

We open with a song about fun, which is a genius move. The video for ‘I’ve Been Doing Fun Shit Without You’ (here) is free spirited, and exactly what everyone aspires to feel like after a breakup. Vorel sings about all the great things he’s doing without this girl who’s done him wrong.

He does let a bit of transparency leak through in the second verse: “She’s not the one/she’s a runner up/’cause you threw my fuckin’ love away,” but quickly recovers with the line, “But I’m no longer alone.” It’s a theme that recurs throughout the album: Well, maybe I don’t have you anymore, but I’m definitely doing better than you are.

“Girls are comin’ over/And I’m crying on their shoulders,” Vorel admits in another moment of transparency in ‘Fun Shit’, presumably telling his ex that he’s sad, sure, but that’s not stopping him; nothing is.

‘How Am I Supposed to Hate You When I Love You’, shortened often to ‘Hate/Love’ on TLB’s set lists, might be one of the most relatable songs on this album for those of us who have had our hearts broken in any situation. While some of TLB’s music feels very specific to Vorel’s breakup, Hate/Love is something we can all understand: You did me wrong, you’re wrong for me, but I want you back anyway. 

The sound in these first two songs is similar, and I’d venture to guess that Vorel wrote them closely together, and shortly after the breakup. They were the first two videos released on the band’s YouTube channel as well. They are loud, fast, and downright hard. 

The vibes of both ‘Fun Shit’ and ‘Hate/Love’ are angry, vengeful, a little bit sad, and just what you want to listen to when you’re pissed off, driving around, thinking about that person who not only broke your heart, but also stomped on it and maybe caught it on fire a few times.

Where the first two tracks are loud and angry, ‘Cum Get Yr Shit’ is honestly kind of a bop in comparison. The feeling of not being able to let go because “You’re everywhere I look/you’re everything I see” is so brutally transparent. At first listen, I thought, “Why didn’t he just mail it all back to her?”

But it’s more than that. There’s so much - beyond just the “book on fashion” and the “hairties and panties,” there’s the feeling that if she wants her shit back, then she needs to come get it and, honestly, face what she’s left behind. It would be so easy to get rid of it - mail it, burn it, donate it, whatever - but if she comes to get her own stuff, maybe she’ll come back. Or maybe she’ll still leave, but she’ll feel a little worse about it.

Come get your shit - and face what you’ve done at the same time.

“You’ve Been Telling Lies to My Best Friend’s Girlfriend” takes us back to the anger, and the heavy sound. And honestly, this song is a shock at this point in the album. Where before this, we’re led to believe that this girl who has left, has done so without a second thought, now suddenly she’s still involved. 

And she’s really pissed Vorel off, it seems, by running in the same circles, which is just plain not cool - if you do wrong, then you don’t get to keep the friends I introduced you to. And you definitely don’t get to talk to them about me. 

Besides, as the song goes, “I’d rather hear that shit from you.”

Full transparency here, I have a special fondness for the next song on the album, ‘Drinks On Me’. Those of you who have read previous blog posts know that I once took a road trip from my hometown in Southeastern Pennsylvania to the suburbs of Chicago to see TLB perform and film a video. Though the video hasn’t been released (ahem), this is the song in question. So, I’ve got a lot of totally not objective love for this jam.

‘Drinks’ is the night at the bar with all your friends where you literally just want to drink and forget. And you know it’s not gonna be any better tomorrow, you know it’s not gonna hurt any less tomorrow, but tonight you can dull the pain. How? “About a thousand shots” - or, if we’re being true to the TLB brand, a whole lot of Old Style. 

“I never knew it was so easy to break my heart,” gives the same sense of sadness we see throughout the album: How could she do this? I don’t understand. But, for tonight, the rest of the song tells us, it’s okay, because we’re just gonna get wasted.

The next track, right smack dab in the middle of the album, has a very simple message: “I miss the shit out of you.”

Both the title and essentially the only line of the song, it feels like Vorel is back in his ‘Hate/Love’ mindset: angry at himself and at the girl, and not sure who’s more to blame at this point. We all want our feelings to sort themselves out after a breakup, particularly a traumatic and dramatic one, but sometimes all you can do is just admit that you have no idea what the next step is.

And, honestly, that’s okay.

‘We Are Getting Back Together in 2000 Never’ and ‘Coverband’ come as a matched pair for me. The sound is similar, the message is similar. The most recent additions to the final lineup for the album, they show a ton of growth in attitude, and honestly in songwriting. I love this whole album - there I go, not being objective again - but these two songs are far and away the best, the most truthful, and the most creative.

‘2000 Never’ features the bop sound of ‘Yr Shit’ but with a much larger sense of closure. “Cause I’ll be somewhere movin’ on/Drivin’ with my music on/You’ll be just some girl I left behind me” is probably the most iconic line of the album. Maybe we haven’t totally left this girl behind just yet, but the future is clear, and she’s not in it.

Bassist Dave Tirio (rhythm guitar + backup vocals for the Plain White T’s) offers us some deep, rough backup vocals for this song that provide an incredible contrast to Vorel’s smooth, high singing. Tirio’s voice finds its home here on the the song you’re most likely to dance to, and the grittiness works so well against the rest of the happy beat of the song.

‘Coverband,’ as a whole, is quite possibly the most brutal song of this album. If someone wrote this song about me, I’d never want anyone to know it. It’s harsh, it’s angry, and it’s almost calm in its revenge. ‘Coverband’ is that person who never yells, but instead just stares you down and lets you know how angry they are while keeping their tone completely even. And maybe cocks an eyebrow at how absolutely stupid you are.

“You left a headliner for a coverband,” Vorel sings. Here, the theme of, “I may not have you anymore, but I’m doing better than you” morphs into, “Oh, and I was always better, and you’re kind of a fool for tossing it out the window, so good luck with that.”

From the title ‘I Can’t Wait Till You Get Dead,’ you’ll think I misspoke when I called ‘Coverband’ the most brutal song of the album. But ‘Get Dead’ is pure hatred and anger in comparison to ‘Coverband’s quiet acceptance. 

‘Get Dead’ is the moment you found out that she lied about cheating on you. It’s yelling and screaming and dishes thrown at walls. It’s fighting where the rest of the album has been leading up to being done fighting. This sudden turn of events is shocking to the system at first listen, but it fits quite well in its place here at the tail end of the album. It’s the culmination of all these other feelings, these other songs of anger, of sadness, of hatred, of regret.

‘Get Dead’ is the moment when you aren’t struggling to hate her anymore, when you don’t miss the shit out of her anymore, when you just want her to go the fuck away. 

Which is why the album has to end quietly.

‘Totally Fucked for You’ is the only acoustic song on TLB’s self-titled record, featuring only handclaps and a guitar to go along with Vorel’s quiet crooning.

Placing this song after the anger of ‘Get Dead’, after the acceptance of ‘Coverband’ is a bold choice, since it seems like a few steps backwards in the breakup grieving process. 

But the beautiful thing about an album is that it plays again. (Or, in my case, again and again and again). So where ‘Totally Fucked’ may seem like an unhappy ending, it’s really just another step in the cycle. And at some point, the cycle has to end, right? So while right now, we’re totally fucked for this person who stomped on our hearts and set them on fire, at some point, we’ll just go back to doing fun shit without them.

That Lying Bitch will be appearing at Slidebar Rock N Roll Kitchen in Los Angeles, CA for a free show on Wednesday October 18th. Details here.

[nofatclips]

Everyday by Weyes Blood from the album Titanic Rising - Directed by Natalie Mering

[bringinbackpod]

Interview with Tom Higgenson

Together with American Songwriter and Sean Ulbs of The Eiffels, we had the pleasure of interviewing Tom Higgenson over Zoom video! 

Born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago, IL, Tom Higgenson is best known as the lead singer of the Plain White T’s, most famous for their acoustic hit, Hey There Delilah. The band received two Grammy nominations for the song, and quickly achieved notoriety around 2006. More recently, the T’s released an independent record in 2015, American Nights, and a synth-heavy pop record in 2018, Parallel Universe.

The latter album inspired Tom to branch out on his own in a solo project he named Million Miler. His 80’s-inspired synth-pop tracks are straight out of Stranger Things or Back to the Future. Million Miler has released six singles so far, but keep an eye on him because big things are coming this spring….

Long before “Milly”, though, Tom started a punk rock band with fellow Plain White T, Dave Tirio. They joined forces with their childhood pals, Darren and Eric Vorel, to form TLB, formerly known as That Lying Bitch. Now a trio, Higgenson and the Vorel brothers released TLB’s sophomore album, Blood & Sand, on Halloween.

Beyond TLB and Million Miler, the label also writes with Chicago-based dream pop duo Fairview and dance pop solo artist Jessica Jarrell, all of whom are signed to Tom’s record label, Humans Were Here. 

Currently, Tom can be found hosting a weekly solo live stream on the Plain White T’s Facebook page, a show he has dubbed “The Wednesday Club”. Fans vote on a set list each week, from Grammy-nominated hits to no-longer-available deep tracks.

Tom can be found on Instagram @higgypop.

We want to hear from you! Please email Tera@BringinitBackwards.com.

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[loreleywrites]

Command Zone: The State of Commander – Aether Revolt

Commander is largely a multiplayer format. This disposes it to being a format that strongly embraces my favorite aspect of Magic: community. Magic doesn’t begin with the first land drop and end when a player’s life hits zero; the people who experience the game with us stay part of our lives through friendships, online communities, various forms of consumable content, and a network of ideas and emotions to be shared by everyone.

Much of what I peddle on this blog are facts, ideas, and speculations. Today’s article will contain little of that. Instead, this is all about me.

Since Commander is steeped in variation, I want to share all twenty-three of my decks with you. Part of the fun of Commander is seeing what cards other people are playing that you’re not. What strategies they’re embracing that you’re curious about. What novelties spring from their brains that you find enjoyable. Hopefully the deck lists and brief descriptions in today’s article can entertain you, spark inspiration in your own decks, and foster conversation about the best format in Magic.

Karn Artifacts

Karn, Silver Golem by Mark Zug

The deck.

Colorless is not a color, which always makes colorless decks weird. Karn is built around artifacts, obviously, as their main ability animates artifacts. That makes for a lot of potential creatures running around, which is why there are so many noncreature artifacts present. I decided to eschew Wastes and keep the mana base classically colorless.

Kozilek Eldrazi

Kozilek, the Great Distortion by Aleksi Briclot

The deck. (Note: This is the only list that shows the actual card versions I’m using.)

Battle for Zendikar block brought Wastes and tons more colorless Eldrazi cards to Commander. I split my existing Kozilek deck into two parts. Karn took the artifacts, and the Great Distortion took the Eldrazi. This is my favorite deck and my current foil-out project. As you can see in the link, I’m most of the way there. It’s purdy.

Nahiri Equipment

Nahiri, the Lithomancer by Eric Deschamps

The deck.

We first learned the Lithomancer’s identity with Nahiri’s first planeswalker card. Conveniently, she can also be a commander! I chose her as the leader of my Equipment deck because her +1 can always poop out a creature token after a board wipe, which she won’t die in herself. My pet card here is Lancers en-Kor, who have trample. Exceptionally rare for a mono-White card, but very powerful when loaded up with Equipment.

Thassa Sea Monsters

Thassa, God of the Sea by Jason Chan

The deck.

Sea monsters are the best part of Blue, and Thassa is the perfect commander for a deck full of them. Leviathans, Krakens, Serpents, Squids, Octopuses, and Crabs rise from the depths to wreak havoc on landlubbing foes. The prized cards here are Thassa’s Emissary and Skittering Crustacean, which I received as a gift signed by Kelly Digges, Alison Luhrs, Michael Yichao, and Mel Li. Thanks again, Wizards peeps!

Chandra Burn

Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh by Eric Deschamps

The deck.

Chandra is my second favorite planeswalker (Kiora #1!), but she’s the one with the legendary creature. This deck is just full of flavorful Chandra spells and other cards that represent pyromancy. The goal here isn’t to play a stellar game of Magic, it’s to sling as many burn spells around as recklessly as possible.

Titania Lands

Titania, Protector of Argoth by Magali Villeneuve

The deck.

A Mel deck through and through, as Titania offers such a bizarre style of play. Destroying your own lands for value is a twist on how Magic normally goes, but Titania makes it possible. Basically every card in this deck helps find lands or destroy them. If you’ve never cast Scapeshift for twenty lands while controlling Avenger of Zendikar, you have never truly played Green. The deck used to have a Squirrel subtheme, but those cards really took away from the deck, you know, working.

Ojutai Snow

Ojutai, Soul of Winter by Chase Stone

The deck.

There are not many good commanders for a snow-flavored deck, but Ojutai just so happens to be the Soul of Winter. This deck combines a snow permanent theme with a Dragon tribal subtheme. It’s kind of controlling, what with all the freezing, but can hit pretty hard with big fliers. There are tons of neat winter-themed cards, as that’s the central gimmick of the deck. I can’t wait until we get another block with snow permanents so I can add even more flavor.

Ulasht Tokens

Ulasht, the Hate Seed by Nottsuo

The deck.

One of my first Commander decks, Ulasht has survived through the years by just being a blast to play. The token theme allows Ulasht to be downright explosive, giving the deck a sort of modular feel. Sometimes I’m making lots of Saprolings. Other times, Goblins. I will say that I should probably go through this deck at some point and cut down on the number of different tokens it makes. Focusing on only a few types will make it easier to represent them with dice and such in case I don’t have the actual tokens.

Karametra Enchantress

Karametra, God of Harvests by Eric Deschamps

The deck.

The power of Nyx is bestowed upon me with my Karametra deck. This one is all about enchantments, featuring almost no nonenchantment, nonland cards. There’s plenty of Theros flavor, but also powerful mechanical icons like Mesa Enchantress and Mirari’s Wake. If you’ve never seen an indestructible God loaded up with Auras before, then you probably haven’t died the most agonizing death in the Multiverse yet.

Vish Kal Vampires

Vish Kal, Blood Arbiter by Michael C. Hayes

The deck.

This deck has been all over the place, but it finally settled on two related themes: life gain and Vampire tribal. Nearly every creature is a Vampire, leveraging some of the unique tribal spells that support them. Gaining life is easy with the Ravnican and Zendikari Vampires that had it as a theme. Vish Kal himself is also very powerful, able to smash for a ton of damage as well as repeatedly remove opposing threats. This deck can attack on a lot of axes, which makes it kind of a midrange Commander deck.

Melek Spells

Melek, Izzet Paragon by Johann Bodin

The deck.

The Izzet are all about instants and sorceries, so of course my Melek deck is no different. My main goal is to resolve Epic Experiment as many times as possible (My single-game record is four.) There are a lot of familiar cards here if you’ve seen a spell-centric deck like this before. Expectedly, this deck is capable of explosive turns that are difficult to interact with.

Glissa Artifacts

Glissa, the Traitor by Steve Argyle

The deck.

Phyrexia just makes Elves better. This is an aristocrats-style deck that grinds out a lot of value over the course of a game. There are tons of little artifacts with little effects that don’t seem worth a card. But when you consider that I can get those effects multiple times over the course of a game, they start looking very attractive. And just to clarify: I have zero artifact-based decks with Blue in them. I know, it’s weird. But Glissa makes grindy games so much fun I don’t care.

Aurelia Samurai

Aurelia, the Warleader by Slawomir Maniak

The deck.

Please please pleaseee, @wizardsmagic, print a legendary Samurai with a Red/White color identity. Aurelia is just a placeholder for my Samurai tribal deck. It’s filled with flavorful Kamigawa cards, attacking-matters cards, and lots of extra combat spells (hence Aurelia). I want more Samurai so bad too, as there are lots of bad cards in this deck. But that’s part of the fun of Commander. You can build tons of decks at different power levels.

Vorel +1/+1 Counters

Vorel of the Hull Clade by Mike Bierek

The deck.

If you’ve never seen a Vorel deck before, things can get ridiculous. Most of the permanents in this deck utilize counters in some way. Hydras are featured, as almost all of them scale with your mana and use +1/+1 counters. Needless to say, Deepglow Skate was a boon for this deck. And Armorcraft Judge. And Rishkar, Peema Renegade. OK, it was a great year for +1/+1 counter decks.

Kaseto Snakes

Kaseto, Orochi Archmage by Aaron Miller

The deck.

sneaky sneks

I had a casual 60-card Green/Blue Snake deck for a long time. Kaseto let me translate that into Commander, evolving one casual deck into another. Sosuke’s Summons is absurd when you can cast it almost every turn. Even when I can’t flood the battlefield with tokens, Kaseto can turn any single Snake into a monstrous attacker.

Ezuri Infect

Ezuri, Claw of Progress by James Ryman

The deck.

I like Simic decks. Sue me.

This is my most flavorful deck. Ezuri embraces New Phyrexia’s most sinister theme: infect. Thankfully, most infect creatures are pretty crappy in Commander. They’re so little! Ezuri does help fix that, but he’s also pretty fragile. Every spell in this deck is from New Phyrexia, and every land is either from there or could feasibly be from there (Breeding Pool definitely sounds like it could be Phyrexian.)

Karrthus Dragons

Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund by Dave Kendall

The deck.

DARGONS!!! This deck is pretty straightforward. Ramp, cast some removal spells, and then attack with the tyrants of the sky. Yes, it amuses me that between this and Ojutai, I have Dragon decks for all five colors. I used to have a Scion of the Ur-Dragon deck, but it was too repetitive.

Surrak Creatures

Surrak Dragonclaw by Jaime Jones

The deck.

With only seven noncreature, nonland cards, it’s clear what Surrak is about. Hint: it’s creatures. Ramp, removal, card draw, beatdown, it’s all being done by creatures here. Restrictions breed creativity and yadda yadda yadda IT’S TIME TO PUNCH THINGS NOW. This deck is one of my favorites to play.

Ghave Fungi

Ghave, Guru of Spores by James Paick

The deck.

There are a lot of degenerate Ghave decks that do stupidly broken things with +1/+1 counters. Part of that is because Ghave is really powerful. My take on the deck is much more focused on the Fungus/Saproling tribal theme. Most of the noncreature spells are also flavorfully connected to the decomposing organisms. I literally finished this deck this week, so I haven’t gotten to play with it yet. I’m eager to.

Mimeoplasm Mill

The Mimeoplasm by Svetlin Velinov

The deck.

Mill, eat, repeat. Mill, eat, repeat. Mill, eat, repeat. I wanted to build a deck that lets The Mimeoplasm eat tons of enemy creatures, but also provide a ton of options to eat itself. The self-mill and reanimation strategies also mean this deck doesn’t have to rely on Muraganda’s legendary Ooze to muscle through games. This was one of my first decks, and the list has probably changed more than any other in my repertoire.

Atraxa -1/-1 Counters

Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice by Victor Adame Minguez

The deck.

Keep your superfriends and infect and +1/+1 counter decks. I embraced the decay of New Phyrexia and built my Atraxa deck around -1/-1 counters. Plus a bunch of flavorful New Phyrexia cards (I can’t help my Vorthos nature.) Even though I’m not focusing on Atraxa’s most powerful themes, this is quite a mighty deck.

Yidris Chaos

Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder by Karl Kopinski

The deck.

I had originally planned this deck to be built around Maelstrom Wanderer, but Yidris gave me the perfect opportunity to add another color. This deck has one goal: never know what will happen next. That doesn’t mean send the game into a death spiral of chaos (well, not completely), but to keep it progressing towards a conclusion in the flashiest way possible. There are a number of Group Hug style cards in this deck. I want things to happen. I want to force players to make decisions. I want the game to go somewhere, no matter how ugly it gets when it arrives. I also just completed this deck, so I haven’t gotten to experience the wild ride I have designed.

Sliver Queen Slivers

Sliver Queen by Ron Spencer

The deck.

My arsenal wouldn’t be complete without a WUBRG deck for my favorite tribe, Slivers. Naturally, the Queen is the one leading the deck. I really like how Slivers play in Commander, as you never know what mix of abilities you’re going to get. It makes every game unique and keeps the deck from getting stale. Considering this deck hasn’t changed since Magic 2015, that’s a very good thing.

Twenty-Three and Counting

I’m not deliberately trying to build a Commander deck for every color combination, but I won’t be surprised if I get there one day. I do factor what combinations I don’t have yet when considering new decks, as I like pushing myself into new territory in order to make each deck unique. At the moment, I’m considering mono-Black King Macar, the Gold-Cursed; mono-White Bruna, the Fading Light; and Mardu Alesha, Who Smiles at Death as my next deck. And then who knows what Amonkhet will bring in a few months!

And now that I’ve shared my decks with you, planeswalkers, what Commander decks do you arm yourself with?