mossworth

[wabblebees]

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[topweeklyupdate]

TØP Weekly Update #29: Concert Withdrawal Week 1 (3/12/17)

The American leg of the Emotional Roadshow might have wrapped up last week, but that’s ok. We persevere. Thanks, Mark.

This Week’s TØPics:

US Emo Show Wraps

New “Sleepers” Video

Community Spotlight: Old Concert Pics Hit to Hit You Right in the Feels

BLIND SPECULATION About How This Concert Cycle Will End

Major News and Announcements:

Our only major release this week was the second installment in Mark’s “Sleepers” series. This episode confirmed that each installment in the series will focus around an acoustic soundcheck version of a non-single off of Blurryface, in this case “Message Man” featuring a great key escalation in the last chorus. The video was about much more than that, of course: we had more footage of the indoor football game between the TØP and Bellion crews, some great #aesthetic shots of Tyler in the red suit in the snow, and, yes, Tyler and Josh “kissing”.

Oh, and they won a Kid’s Choice Award for Best “New” Artist. Which is great. Sadly, neither of the boys were in attendance to get slimed accept the blimp in person.

Performances, Interviews, and Other Shenanigans:

The Emotional Roadshow wrapped in Louisville with a show just like any other, without any big speech about Blurryface beyond the normal promises to come back with new music some time (minus the above-pictured underwear message that caused Tyler to bust up at the end). It remains to be seen if we’ll get anything more final when they finish their last headlining show in Perth next month (possible), for their last festival show in the summer (unlikely), or if Tyler and Josh might sneak a finale show into Columbus, where they haven’t played a full show since 2015. 

A bunch of from the last week of touring all made their way online over the last week. Let’s cover ‘em and get it dun.

Michelle Lewis, Somewhere (?)

No idea when/where this interview took place (other than that it was post-Grammys).

Apparently the idea for giraffes in a show came from something Tyler overheard Josh say in his sleep (fanfic, go).

When asked if there was anyone they saw at the Grammys they might want to do a collab with, Tyler said bluntly, “Musically, no,” before adding with his stupid smile “Socially, yes.”

Tyler says that its important that they continue to involve their families in their lives because, when this moment inevitably ends, it will be more special because they shared it with others.

Josh says that they are able to stay humble because they make fun of each other so much whenever they do something dumb. Tyler absolutely loses it, laughing “You’re saying it’s like it’s my goal to make you feel like dirt.” “Two dumb dirt boys.”

Alt 94.9, Birmingham

This interview’s questions are chosen by the reliable method of cootie catchers.

When asked what they were like in high school, Josh says that he “rebelled against authority but also was interested in people caring about me”. Tyler “rebelled against people and cared about authority”. That sounds about right.

They tell a Meet Cute story involving working in Best Buy and electric toasters that I think went right over the head of the interviewer.

When asked about the underwear they wore at the Grammys, Josh claims that they were his friends’ and it ended up in his bag in Europe (ok), while Tyler goes in-depth on the exact type of underwear he wore, which again goes right over the interviewers head, poor lady.

Some Station, Charleston

One of the interviewers is very interested in Tyler’s opinion on college. Tyler states that time dedication can only cover two things- he had to do music and earn money to live, so he couldn’t keep up with his grades. Tyler states that he knew he had to drop out when he had to read the syllabus for his Spanish class and knew he had zero chance of passing and still doing everything else. He also says that he’s grateful that they had jobs that allowed them to schedule around their music interests.

They talk about Paramore and Panic’s friendship and mentorship a bit, which is fun.

106.1 The Underground, New Orleans

Nothing much to say about this one, other than that they both agree that they have no advice they’d like to give to their younger stuff, because they just got crazy lucky with everything falling into place for them.

The Q 107.5, Memphis

The band has learned in their travels to always order breakfast food at late-night diners. Sound advice.

The interviewer has one really great question about what songs they’ve made that they wish had gotten more exposure on radio after so many listeners demanded they play “Car Radio”, and even encourages Tyler to be honest. Tyler says that he understands the standard radio “formula” that makes sense for the radio, but he also says that he really enjoys how the Clique has picked their own singles that are utterly necessary for their shows in the same way the radio stuff is. The radio host quotes Childish Gambino about how his singles are always the ones he gets annoyed by first, and Tyler and Josh just chuckle knowingly.

The MAX 102.3, Louisville

This one’s a game of This or That. For brevity’s sake, I’ll post the stuff they have in common and differ on in different categories.

Same: Eggs (scrambled), bread (white), soft drink (Coke), frozen dairy (ice cream), M&Ms (plain), pizza/sushi (pizza), footware (sneakers), thrill-seeking (skydiving), vacation (beach), social media (Twitter), holiday (Christmas), sport (football), time of day (night), fun sport (both bowling and putt putt), console (Nintendo).

Different: ‘Merica food (Josh: hamburger, Tyler: hamburger or hot dog, depends on the day), transportation (Tyler: car, Josh: “I feel like there’s stuff involved”), carnival or circus (Josh: circus, Tyler: carnival “for people watching), weather (Tyler: storms, Josh: sunshine, because of course), dog/cat (Josh: cat, Tyler: humans).

99.7 DJX, Louisville

As Tyler says at the end of the interview, the guys have been promised a lot of original questions before by dozens of interviewers, but these guys actually managed the feat of asking nothing but original questions. Maybe not the most “deep” questions, but definitely original.

Asked if they’re hunters or gatherers, Tyler definitely gathers.

If a penguin walked through the door wearing a sombrero, Josh guesses he’d be searching for his vacation identity far from home.

A movie of Tyler’s life would be an action film starring Josh Dun in his film debut.

The 22nd Pilot (har-har) is Tyler’s dad.

If Tyler was a new crayon, he would be “Brand New Ballpit”, a crayon made up of every color.

Josh plays Monopoly with friends, not enemies, because he doesn’t have enemies.

Tyler prefers pirates to ninjas. “It’s a deeply personal story, and I don’t want to get into it right now.”

Josh’s autobiography title: “Tyler Joseph”.

98.9 Radio Now, Louisville

The interview starts out great, with Tyler and Josh looking over the interviewer’s shoulder and seeing that her phone wallpaper is a picture of them. This amuses them both to no end, but it bodes well for the rest of the interview.

Unlike the Birmingham interviewer, this one is all too aware that she won’t get a straight answer about how they met, so she just seizes on the opportunity to hear a great story from TyJo about interdepartmental conflict at the General Mills plant between the Rice Krispies and Rice Krispie Treat manufacturers (which is strange, because I’m pretty sure they’re made by Kellogg’s... lol).

Josh admits that the Mario Kart stuff was put into the show for two reasons- to show Tyler’s dominance at his favorite game and to give them a break after the ball run (which “kinda sucks”).

Tyler acknowledges that he probably should be grateful to the guy who stole his car radio, but just can’t bring himself to- that cost money.

Tyler and Josh get underwear gifts for their next Grammy- Tyler gets Pikachu, while Josh gets “a cat riding a unicorn in space firing a laser”.

Community Spotlight:

This week’s spotlight goes to Dana Greene, who has more claim to the title of Tru Fan than most. Dana was a concert photographer in Columbus who took tons of photos of the band at local gigs during the Self-Titled and Regional at Best eras. She took the above photo, which dedicated fans might recognize as the interior of the Regional CD case, and has been posting HD scans of a bunch of old photos that are sure to hit ya right in the feels on her Twitter. She also posted this sick video that shows us why Tyler started using that wood piano case for his keyboard... I’ll just leave it at that.

BLIND SPECULATION OF THE WEEK:

I already brought up the question of how Twenty One Pilots will put a pin on the Blurryface Era. I’m still hopeful for a surprise small show in Columbus, but they didn’t do any such thing for Vessel- the last show in 2014 was in Mexico City without any big party or anything. What they did do to cap off the album cycle, you’ll remember, is release the “Ode to Sleep” music video; if we’re getting anything to put Blurryface to sleep for awhile, I think it will come in that format. 

There were roughly three weeks between the first two installments of “Sleepers”; if that pattern continues, we’ll get acoustic covers of “Hometown”, “Not Today”, and “Goner” between now and mid-May, right before the summer festival season. Because they still have at least three more shows to play after that point, I’m betting Mark will throw together one more treat for us before we start getting stuff from the next album- here’s hoping it doesn’t have the same release date as “Ode to Sleep” and we don’t have to wait until 2018 to see it.

Power to the local dreamer.

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