#streetlight manifesto fan spotted

[itscooltoskate]

Where are all my Mad Caddies fans at?

jk, I know they don't exist and ska is dead caddies

And now I've got a brand new scar bruise

[fallout-lou-begas]

What's your favorite musical genre / band / musician?

I've been getting super into, like, "sad music for white bisexual women" lately: Esme Patterson, Sharon Van Etten, Angel Olsen, Jenny Lewis ("Portions for Foxes" by her old band Rilo Kiley being one of my favorite songs ever), Lucy Dacus (new boygenius is good but I'm not a huge fan of the other members' solo work), etc. I've got really particular taste in rock but I love Blue Oyster Cult, Mannequin Pussy, Nervous Dater, and Concrete Blonde; the last surviving remnants of my ska phase are The Specials, Streetlight Manifesto, the semi-obscure 90s ska band High School Football Heroes, and an undying soft spot for The Aquabats; for pop I love Carly Rae Jepsen, Wham! and George Michael, the titanic Madonna, and Marina's pre-Love+Fear work (like look I'm sorry I don't wanna be that guy but yeah her music was just a lot better "when she was sad," but obviously I wouldn't love CRJ as much as I do if I thought you couldn't make amazing music from a place of joy). @javasleuth and my girlfriend have been turning me into a k-pop enjoyer but so far the only group I've developed a real personal affection for so far is SHINEe, and Onew's solo stuff. other completely random mentions are country artist Lefty Frizzell, jazz singer Julie London, Japanese Breakfast, OK Go, and oh and anyone who's followed me for more than five seconds knows that i think the mountain goats are pretty good.

[chaunceyandchumleysdad]

RIOT FEST, Day 3 Sunday September 15

My wife did not attend this day, but I still opted for driving as I couldn’t face taking the L after the ease of driving and parking the first two days. Weather was very similar to Friday. Some rain in the morning created a few muddy/wet areas, but the fields were mostly in good shape. A little humid with a cooling breeze and just a very light sprinkle for a few minutes later in the day.

·         Ultra Q (Rise stage) – The first band of the day. I didn’t have anyone in particular I wanted to see at this time, but Ultra Q was the choice simply because they were on the stage of the next band I wanted to see. They were a rockin’ Pop Punk band and a good opener for Day 3.

·         Save Ferris (Rise stage) - I have to admit this is one of the bands I most wanted to see this year. I love Ska Punk, I’m easily hooked on good Pop sounds and I’m a sucker for any band with a good front woman. Their 1997 debut It Means Everything is an album I cannot seem to get enough of. After their sophomore release Modified in 1997, they struggled through numerous personnel changes, breakups, lawsuits and eventually a revival where Monique Powell was able to obtain the rights to the band’s name. Deservedly so because she is the face of the band. And she was soooo entertaining. Her singing, humor and banter was outstanding. She held the crowd in sway in a manner that is comparable to Gwen Stefani. She started the show in a tight black dress and stripped off pieces of clothing until she was eventually down to a Vaudeville-type leotard. She strutted around the stage while teasing the crowd with sexual innuendos. Even the band members continuously laughed and smiled while watching her stage antics. The band covered the Dead Kennedys song Too Drunk To Fuck and of course, they finished the set with their great cover of Come On Eileen. Based on the energy Monique puts into singing on her records, I had high hopes for the show and she and Save Ferris did not disappoint.

·         White Reaper (Roots Stage) – This Louisville band that was not on my radar. However, as I was walking through the park that morning, a lady I was chatting with suggested I see White Reaper because her cousin is in the band. They were very good playing a brand of Hard Rock/Garage Punk. I stayed for about half their set before moving on to catch some of another band.

·         Frank Iero and The Future Violents (Rise Stage) – I caught the second half of this show. Frank Iero was one of the guitar players in My Chemical Romance. I was not familiar with this band but they had a nice Alternative sound and were very energetic on stage.

·         Less Than Jake – Well, I had to have more Ska Punk! I remember my older son David being into  this band when he was a young teenager. Although I’ve listened to this musical genre since the Ska Revival in the late 70’s, it was really David’s interest in bands like Reel Big Fish, Save Ferris, The Aquabats and Less Than Jake that got me to start listening to it on somewhat of a regular basis. Less Than Jake was awesome. I stood close to the stage and enjoyed their sound, energy and great humor. They put so much into their show and had a lot of fun with the audience. It was easy to tell by their laughter, smiles and jokes that they really enjoy what they are doing. This is a band I would definitely like to see again.

·         Sincere Engineer (Rebel stage) – This band is led by Chicagoan Deanna Belos. Their debut album was just two years ago. Very good hard driving Garage Punk. This was the only band I saw with my younger son Dylan, who had just arrived and then departed after the set to catch up with friends.

·         Streetlight Manifesto (Rise stage) – And more Ska! I did not see the first half of their set but Dylan and I could hear them while we sitting on the soccer field and eating some dinner. After Dylan left, I went to see the rest of their set. Like Less Than Jake, they were a fun, energetic Ska band.

·         B-52’s (Radicals stage) – For my taste, this was the beginning of a killer ending for Riot Fest with an incomparable Final Four musical artists. While I can’t say that I am a huge B-52’s fan, I did get into them from hanging out with my buddy Dean in the 1980’s. Their album Comic Thing, released in June 1989, was a summer classic that year. I still enjoy listening to it from beginning to end. They played their two big hits from that album, Love Shack and my favorite, Roam in addition to other hits such as Give Me Back My Man and Rock Lobster. What amazed me was that Kate Pierson (71) and Cindy Wilson (62) still sounded youthful and superb. Fred Schneider’s quirky voice still sounds the same too with his singing and talking voices being virtually indistinguishable. They also drew the largest crowd I had ever seen at the Radicals stage. There sound was rounded out with original member Keith Strickland on guitar and a host of touring musicians. While all still the original members, the death the Ricky Wilson in 1985 almost ended the band, but they forged ahead as a quartet and continuing to be a very entertaining band. After Riot Fest, I did read an article that suggested this was a farewell tour for the band. I haven’t seen or heard that anywhere else. Given their ages and longevity, I guess it would not be surprising, but I hope they stick around awhile longer.

·         Patti Smith and Her Band (Riot stage) – The second of the Final Four was the great Patti Smith. This was my second time seeing her as she was also at Riot Fest in 2014. One of the founders of Punk (before it was called Punk), she was way ahead of her time in terms of her music, attitude and feminism. While she has produced some great songs, I was surprised, though not disappointed, that she did several cover versions during her set including I’m Free (Rolling Stones), Beds Are Burning (Midnight Oil), Are You Experienced? (Jimi Hendrix), Walk On The Wild Side (Lou Reed) and After The Goldrush (Neil Young). I particularly liked I’m Free and Beds Are Burning. She closed the set with Gloria, which is technically a cover song (Them). However, that was the opening track of her first album and she did such a unique version of the song that she has made it her own. Add in People Have The Power and Because The Night along with a couple of other originals and it made for a wonderfully enjoyable set.

·         The Raconteurs (Roots stage) – Earlier in the year, when I heard The Raconteurs were touring, I immediately went to their website to see when they would be in Chicago. While they were going to be playing in Midwest states during September, Chicago was noticeably absent from their schedule. That immediately led me to speculate that they would play Riot Fest. While I’m sure I wasn’t the only on to draw that conclusion, I was dead right for a change. (My Riot Fest prediction percentage does not have the best track record.) I just saw Jack White perform last year at Lollapalooza so it was great to see him again a little more than a year later. I would have to say for overall performance, this was, in my book, the best of the festival. The show was just so impactful in terms of being a tight band with great professional talent, tremendous production and a powerhouse of sound. They played six songs off the new album (Help Us Stranger), four from Broken Boy Soldiers and three form Consolers Of The Lonely. I like all three albums so I was happy with everything they played. Jack White also referenced Bikini Kill during the set and the band also played a snippet of Gloria which I interpreted as a nod to Patti Smith.Unlike last year at Lolla, Jack White did not offer much banter between songs, but I believe the bands stage time was much shorter at Riot Fest than it was at Lolla. As with last year at Lolla, I thoroughly enjoyed Jack White’s guitar playing. When you look at the span of his career, the various directions he has gone with his music, and the potential he still has, he is truly a treasure of American Rock music.

·         Bikini Kill (Riot stage) – This band was Riot Mike’s coup for the 2019 edition of Riot Fest. This year was the first time Bikini Kill officially reunited as a band since they broke up in 1997. The reunion included 3 of 4 original members (Kathleen Hanna, Tobi Vail and Kathi Wilcox). I have twice seen Kathleen Hanna live with her band The Julie Ruin, but I never thought I would see Bikini Kill. It seemed like a bit of a strange transition from The Raconteurs big time Rock sound to Bikini Kill’s stripped-down Riot Grrrl sound. But Riot Fest is first and foremost a Punk Rock festival, so Bikini Kill deserved the top spot. Kathleen Hanna also commented on how difficult it is for a female band to get “this spot” (top headliner and a Rock music festival). Kathleen sang the bulk of the songs with Tobi Vail taking lead vocals for a few numbers. Kathleen talked quite a bit between songs, often addressing societal issues from a feminist point of view but also talking about the history behind some of the songs. Based on my experience seeing The Julie Ruin, I know she likes to chat on stage. However, when you are given a 75 minute time slot and you play Punk songs that are on average maybe two minutes long, I suppose you have to fill up the time with some banter. At any rate, it was fantastic to see this band and an awesome way to end Riot Fest 2019.

[songs-from-mount-chorus]

2) “Belt” - Say Anything

Ah, Say Anything. Another band that is well into its second decade of being on the short-list of my favorite artists. Much like Streetlight Manifesto, Say Anything is a band I got into in early high school and have been madly in love with ever since. If memory serves, the timeline of it went something like this: guy lends me a mix CD that had “Every Man Has a Molly” on it, I get hooked, I go back to guy and ask, “you got any more of this good?,” he lends me his copy of ...Is a Real Boy, happiness ensues.

I wouldn’t quite go so far as to say that an affinity for Say Anything is a prerequisite for me to trust someone’s taste in music, but it is stone cold fact that all of the heavy influencers on my musical library were/are fans of the band. The Man was hard into them (he once actually drove out to my house one night our senior year with an acoustic guitar and we had an impromptu jam session on my back porch that included “Woe” - this remains one of the more surreal nights of my life); likewise, Say Anything was another on the short-list of bands that the Roommate, the Artist, and I all agreed upon.

I tapped “Belt” as the entry for this spot because, apart from being an absolute banger, I think it’s one of the best examples of the spirit, the essence of the band that made me fall so hard for them. The “spoken word intro,” both the actual studio recording and the taped conversation about the dread of said recording, immediately sets a tone that lets you know that you’re about to listen to an album that is very serious about not taking itself too seriously. What follows is a song about a narrator who is arrested, tarred-and-feathered, and eventually stages a revolution, all over their refusal to sell their belt. The song is a series of musical cartwheels (the “clucking” guitar that precedes “Beneath my monstrous gown / of feathery down” has always been a particularly favorite bit of cleverness for me), culminating in what remains to this day one of my favorite call-and-responses in all of rock music. I mean, when you’re a fifteen-year-old wannabe punk boy, it doesn’t hit much closer to home than, “So what say you / and all your friends / step up to my friends / in the alley tonight?”

Enjoy.

[thisaintascenereviews]

Album Review by Bradley Christensen Silverstein – When Broken Is Easily Fixed Record Label: Victory Release date: May 20 2003

It’s time for me to make another confession, folks – I’ve never been that big into the band Silverstein. This Canadian emo / post-hardcore band is one that I’ve tried to get into multiple times, but I just can’t do it. I did like their last album, however, 2015’s I Am Alive In Everything I Touch. I really like that album, despite how it’s more of what they’ve always done. See, that’s the thing about this band that has never done much for me – all of their albums are pretty much the same. Not totally, obviously, but they all have the same sound. They’re all emo / post-hardcore albums, and within every single album that I’ve listened to from them, there’s no sense of diversity in them. I’ve talked about how that’s not necessarily a bad thing, because if something’s broke, why fix it? Luckily, Silverstein isn’t the Transformers franchise of music, because that’s a case where they desperately need to fix what’s broken. Silverstein, however, have a dedicated fanbase, and they do what they do well, even if I could never quite get into their sound fully. I think it was also a case of just not listening to that kind of music anymore, but I’ve been getting back into post-hardcore and metalcore over the last few years, so I’ve been warming up to bands like this again. Even though I don’t necessarily think they’re bad, it’s just that I’ve always gotten the same stuff on every one of their albums that I’ve listened to them, so I’ve never been able to get fully into them. I mean, I’ve felt as though I’m listening to the same album over and over, or at least something that’s relatively similar. It’s not a problem for diehard fans, because if you love that sound, you’ll be totally fine with more, but if you’re not a fan, there’s not much that you can really sink your teeth into. That was always my problem with the band, but after getting more into them with their latest LP, I’ve been more open to giving their other albums a listen.

Earlier this year, I went on a huge Victory Records haul, and one album that I got (which I ordered off FYE’s website) that I haven’t listened to yet was Silverstein’s sophomore LP, 2005’s Discovering The Waterfront. I picked up that album maybe ten years ago, give or take, and I never really got into it. I wanted to get another copy, though, so I decided to get another copy. I haven’t really listened to it yet, so I should do that very soon, especially now that I’m reviewing another one of their albums today. Recently, though, I picked up a copy of their debut LP, 2003’s When Broken Is Easily Fixed, which I found at Goodwill for ninety-nine cents. How awesome is that? They had a lot of stuff from the early to mid-00s, which I thought was pretty weird, but it was also pretty cool, too. I picked up a lot of stuff, including albums from Thrice, Streetlight Manifesto, No Use For A Name, and many more bands, but because I’ve had a lot of other stuff that I’ve been getting into, I’ve only been diving into a few of those albums. I wanted to review the ones that I have been listening to, starting with When Broken Is Easily Fixed. I was warned that this LP would be rather rough around the edges, and after listening to this throughout the last week or so, yeah, that’s exactly what it is. It’s a very rough album, ultimately being a very less-refined version of what we’d get on later albums, and in that respect, I can’t say I love this album at all, but I don’t mind it. This LP is awfully dated, though. With its whiny clean choruses, awkward screams, and very emo lyrics that aren’t really all that good, this LP is early 00s emo cheese. It’s not horrible, or anything like that, but I can understand why someone wouldn’t like this. I’m not all that high on this album, either, but it’s a less-refined of what they’d put out later on down the road, even just in a couple of years, because their next album is a lot better.

There’s not much to this album, though, and that’s why it doesn’t do much for me. I mean, it’s not only a generic album, but it’s very rough around the edges, so it’s nothing more than “good.” I don’t mind it, though, because when I’m in the mood for this LP, it works fine for what it is. That’s the best way to look at it, too – it’s fine for what it is. It’s got some premium emo cheese, don’t get me wrong, and if you’re into that, you won’t like this whatsoever. At the same time, though, you’ll like this fine if that’s what you’re into, or you enjoy the later work from this band, but you haven’t heard this, for whatever reason. I can’t say that you’ll be getting anything that you haven’t heard before, per se, but it’s still interesting to listen to early stuff from a band, especially one that’s been around as long as Silverstein has. They’ve been around for 14 years at this point, and that’s pretty impressive, but I can’t say this album is impressive. It’s a very rough, ill-refined, and not all that great debut album. I don’t want to be too harsh on it, though, because it’s not bad. It’s not outright awful, but I can see people thinking that, especially people that don’t like this kind of stuff at all. It does embody the worst traits of this style of music, so I get it, but I have a soft spot for this kind of stuff, at least more so now. If anything, this album sounds a lot like stuff I used to listen to, back about ten years ago, and in that case, I’m not sure why I never got into Discovering The Waterfront. At least I got another copy of that, but I will say, though, that LP does have a somewhat more refined sound than this one does. I wouldn’t say this album is essential listening, unless you’re a diehard fan that wants to listen to everything they’ve done, but it’s worth a listen if you want some early 00s emo cheese. It’s dated as all hell, but it’s not terrible in any way, shape, form, but be prepared for a lot of those clichés.