topweeklyupdate

[topweeklyupdate]

Howdy, kids! I've dropped off the earth again due to getting engaged (yay!) and having the busiest working season of recent memory (booo!). My time's still pretty much booked, so no update rn (maybe a "seasonal one" in a few weeks, maybe none until the end of the year, who knows!), but I did want to say that the Icy Tour setlist is freaking phenomenal. My heart aches that I likely won't be able to see it in person, but I am so, so proud of my band.

Power to the local dreamer.

|-/

[topweeklyupdate]

TØP Monthly Update #158: Unplugged (6/17/22)

So... I'm a little late to the party...

As you all (probably) (definitely) know by now, our band was featured on MTV Unplugged last week for a very plugged-in performance. However, it was still a very different performance, with Tyler and Josh using live sampling and looping to construct new versions of their songs in real time. It was pretty cool!

But since you don't really need me to tell you all this, I figure I might as well give my impressions on each of their tracks. While I wasn't head over heels for all of them, I am 100% behind the band continuing to challenge themselves, find new forms of artistic expression, and discover ways to feature Joshua William Dun on the mic. Hearing him singing while also playing multiple instruments/machines was a revelation. Growth is good, we love to see it!

"Stressed Out"- By the nature of the form, all of these tracks took a little bit to come together. This one probably took the longest to "get going", and I honestly didn't love the direction at first... at least until they stripped back everything for the bridge, which featured a duet. I never thought I'd see Tyler and Josh harmonizing, and there was something really wonderful about seeing my two music idols look into each other's eyes while singing over such a dreamy, soothing arrangement.

"Tear In My Heart"- A gentle, synth-infused version of a true underrated classic of their discography. This one just reminded me that we really need to give "Tear" its flowers; folks forget how much it laid the groundwork for "Stressed Out"'s commercial cement. This version's echoey harmonies made it probably my second favorite track from this performance.

"House of Gold/Lane Boy"- Tyler thinks he's such a comedian, but we all know that Josh is the funnier one. Incorporating the audience into the track in some way (even if they are almost completely covered up by the effects) seems like a really promising step for future shows. I love the rendition of "House of Gold", and I like the idea of using "I'll put you on the map" to link it to "Lane Boy", but it still feels like something's missing from this version.

"Shy Away"- I've seen some people compare this more stripped down version to some Self-Titled tracks, and that's a good thing for me. Love the soulful "I love you"s. That said... it really drags in the middle, the peppier repeat ending is much weaker/unnecessary, and the final impov riff on needing to pad for time is... well, kinda bad? I dunno, maybe it played better in the room.

"Ride/Nico and the Niners"- Love the crowd interactions for this. Tyler's counting methods are confusing; who the hell counts to four? Otherwise good but not especially noteworthy.

"Car Radio/Heathens"- 100/10. Holy hell. I've heard fan covers of "Car Radio" that lean into hard rock potential, but hearing Tyler do the riff and blown-out screaming himself was so metal. While I would never want them to replace the normal live version, I'm begging them to release this track.

In other news, our band is back on the road! The last time they were in Europe, Tyler was recording the superior version of "The Hype" and announcing Jenna's first pregnancy; now he has two baby girls. Time isn't real! They should be taking the stage at Pinkpop in the Netherlands literally as I write this, and they'll play at the Hurricane and Southside Festivals in Germany over the weekend before kicking off the London leg of Takeover Tour starting Tuesday.

But before they did all that, their first show after a brief hiatus was a few weeks ago in BottleRock at Napa Valley. Judging by the setlist for that show, we probably shouldn't be expecting too much different for these other summer shows other than a slightly different campfire medley. If you haven't gotten the chance to check that out, it's a good laugh (shout out to Fookie).

Finally, Jenna shared some pictures of Tyler's new studio, now featuring much more natural light and more personal touches. I don't think that means that we're getting a new album anytime soon, but hopefully it proves to helpful for his mental health while he's in work mode. For now, our band is back out on the road, where they're supposed to be, and I couldn't be more excited for what lies ahead.

Power to the local dreamer.

|-/

[topweeklyupdate]

Hey kids! As always, the band decides to do cool stuff during finals season, so no update this week! Will discuss all that fun Unplugged stuff later, probably next week. Toodles.

[topweeklyupdate]

TØP Bi-Monthly Update #157: A Cinematic Experience (5/20/22)

Pictured: Face reveal (kinda).

Howdy, fam! Been awhile, but I saw a dope movie last night that got me itchin for an update.

It's not that there hasn't been lots going on the last two months that has been worth updating! Tyler and Josh did a small press cycle in which Tyler revealed that he was fired from Top Gun: Maverick by Tom Cruise himself (not really; seems more like Tyler had been hired by someone who later got fired, but the former makes a better headline). We got two more very belated Takeover Tour update videos from Mark displaying our band's performance at Austin's Circuit of the Americas and Tyler's Buckeye loyalty in Ohio (those haven't gotten many views, which I suspect has something to do with them not showing up in my YouTube subscriptions even with notifications on...) Our band is getting back on the road next week to perform at BottleRock Festival in Napa Valley. Most importantly, Tyler and Junie had their second daughter, Junie.

But the thing that got me to dust off the ol' Tumblr was, of course, getting to view last year's Livestream Experience- by my mark our band's artistic pinnacle- on the big screen last night. While I definitely wish that my screening's audience was as lively as some of the ones I've seen on Twitter, I was extremely pleased with the product on screen, supplemented not just by grander visual and audio scale but also by Dema trivia and two all-new Behind-the-Scenes videos.

The first was an expansive look at the show's creation, covering everything from set design to costuming to choreography. That part would have been amazing enough on its own, as it fully captured the scale and sizzling creativity of the project. However, it was overshadowed by the second, which traced the band's growth with 12 years of archival footage. Highlights include Tyler and Josh putting screams into soundchecks to fit in with other metal bands on their local lineups, them reacting to one fan's interesting thrash dance, and Tyler's 2011 sideburns. Seeing how far they have come from those days, especially when the cotton-candy-haired one gave a rousing pre-livestream speech to all of his artistic collaborators, honestly gave me chills.

I've come so far with this band over the last decade. I have never been prouder of anyone that I don't know personally. They have shaped the direction of my life for the better, and they will remain the most important artists in my life even if they never release another song.

But I sure hope they do.

Power to the local dreamer.

|-/

[topweeklyupdate]

TØP Monthly Update #156: Arc Welding (3/18/22)

Well... that was wild.

In the last update I posted all the way back in January, I mentioned that there had been hints of Twenty One Pilots posting a music video for "The Outside" any day now. Fast forward two months, and we finally have an answer for why we had to wait so dang long for this video, long after the song had stopped being pushed as a single.

This was quite possibly the most ambitious music video ever released by Twenty One Pilots. It, combined with its accompanying supplemental material from dmaorg, draws from nearly a decade of Twenty One Pilots myth building, welding together arcs I wasn't even fully aware were relevant to provide answers to numerous questions we've had about the world of Trench, give a statisfying conclusion (?) to the Dema story, and perhaps offer an exciting look at what lies in the band's future.

Now, I do not have the time to give all of the deserved attention to all the different bits of lore offered to us this week. There's a lot going on in my life, so I'll have to revisit some in future installments. But I'm gonna try my best to cover all the big stuff in a big stream of consciousness under the read more. Come with me, won't you?

Following a few clips and screenshots of the MV, our first hint from earlier this week that this was going to be more than just a performance video for a (honestly kinda mid-tier) TØP track was the release of this map of Trench on dmaorg. Four locations were labeled, three of which we were already familiar with: the Continent of Trench, the city of Dema, and Port Vial (presumably the port from "Saturday"). But the fourth... a small island called Voldsøy... which in Norwegian roughly translates to...

"Island of Violence." Tyler Joseph, you absolute mad-lad.

The next release was an extensive letter from Clancy, our first in roughly three years ever since he got captured by Trench. This letter confirmed his involvement in producing Scaled and Icy and the Livestream Performance while also providing context to the "Saturday" video; apparently it was the oft-mentioned "Annual Assemblage of the Glorified", and the bishops in attendance were somehow decoys.

Then came the video, and all became clear. Well, maybe clear isn't the right word. But comprehensible, and exciting.

After washing ashore, Tyler and Josh encounter not just one Ned, but a host of Neds. This is the moment where it dawned on me just what Tyler was trying to do. When Ned first appeared in "Chlorine", he marked an apparent deviation from all of the previous Trench storytelling; this video was attempting to bring all of their prior work into the circle of this story. The main Ned provides Tyler with his antlers... antlers that match those of the bishop murdered in the opening, whose yellow eyes match those of the dying Trash and the hosts of the Livestream... whose yellow eyes match those now held by Tyler, who controls the vessel of the dead bishop to destroy Dema himself... It's incomprehensible to most, yet so clear to us who have been along for the ride.

The final postscript from Clancy, released just after the video, brings it all back home. We get full confirmation(/possible retcon) that he is the character that Tyler has been playing in all of these Trench music videos, that Clancy's third person description of "Jumpsuit" was a result of him being removed from his body by Dema's control. We get confirmation that the TV hosts, the submarine staff, the "Glorious Gone" are all possessed by bishops, using the powers of the Ned creatures' antlers to fill vessels that they had emptied out with vialism. We get hints that all the other videos that appear to have had nothing to do with the narrative are dreams and symptoms of the bishops invading the minds of our protagonist.

Vessels. Islands of Violence, complete with snippets of "Migraine". Blurryfaced bishops. Dema, seemingly burning down and with the kids from "Nico and the Niners" joyfully fleeing it to chase a new horizon. Neds. Yellow-eyed dragons and TV hosts. All of these wildly different creative elements, deftly weaved together like it was obvious they were meant to fit together this whole time. I'm so inspired. Sure sounds like our local dreamer.

Power to him.

|-/

[topweeklyupdate]

TØP Monthly Update #155: It's Icy Outside (1/15/22)

Howdy, all! Hope you had a good holiday and didn't get sick! As I emerge from my own COVID cave, inhaler in hand, I thought I'd recap some of the last month in Twenty One Pilots world.

TØP kicked off the Icy Tour by playing a freezing outdoor show in Antarctica's Indianapolis's Monument Circle to celebrate the College Football National Championship (Go Bulldogs!). Outside of the unique setting, mixed around setlist, and many jokes from Tyler about the weather, there's not too much to report on from this show other than that the bad conditions seemed to really mess up their instruments; Dr. Blum reported icicles in his trumpet, and Tyler visibly had trouble with his bass.

The good news is that their next show should be much more hospitable; they'll be headlining iHeartRadio's ALTer Ego at The Forum in Inglewood tonight. Am I a little bummed that I won't be able to see my band when they're in my backyard? ...Eh, kinda, but COVID sucks butt! Stay safe out there, you crazy kids, make sure you isolate and get tested after the show! And, hey, if you can't make tonight's show, they'll be headlining BottleRock Festival in Napa Valley this May.

While the band is in L.A., they will be hopping in to perform on Jimmy Kimmel this Monday night. This plus the teases on their social media lead me to believe that we'll be getting a music video for "The Outside" very soon, most likely five minutes before I post this!

But, of course, the most important thing that happened this month in Pilotsland was Vessel turning nine years old. Upon hearing this news, I crumbled to dust!

In all seriousness, listening to that album this time of year always brings such a wave of emotion. This year, it made me reflect on how far I've come in the near-decade since that music helped get me through what I thought would be the hardest time of my life; turns out that I was wrong, but also right, and that the music that was so important to me then is simultaneously less and more so years later. Put another way: I'll never be an angsty 16-year-old again, but that kid will always be part of who I am, and so will Vessel.

Power to the local dreamer.

|-/

[topweeklyupdate]

TØP Weekly Mini-Update #154: I Really Don't Care (I Do) (12/3/21)

It was Tyler's birthday! ...Cool, I guess. Hope you had fun, ya slimeball. Your fans like you a lot.

Twenty One Pilots is headlining two winter festivals in Florida this weekend before taking a well-deserved holiday break to wrap up their year. And what a year it was: the band notched rankings in the Top 40 on almost all of the Billboard Year-End charts for Rock and Alternative, most notably coming in as the #1 Alternative Airplay Artists of 2021. That's an incredible accomplishment for any artist, especially one that's been in the game for a decade.

It's worth noting, though, that they're all but absent from the general charts, that Blurryface in its sixth year of release managed to outperform Scaled and Icy in almost every metric, and that their latest work received no Grammy nominations. Our band is not what it once was, this weird little Ohio duo that hit the right chord in the zeitgeist at the tail end of the Obama administration to become the biggest band in the world for about 18 months. It's remarkable how dramatically the landscape of culture, society, politics, and especially music have transformed in the last five years. It's no surprise that what resonated with so many listeners then just doesn't now, and it's no surprise that Tyler Joseph, a guy who has never chased trends, did not follow after them when the current changed direction. And I'm just fine with that.

I don't know if Twenty One Pilots will be on Top 40 radio or an award show stage again. But they will be selling out shows and headlining festivals for as long as they want to, keeping talented musicians and artists and crew employed for years to come, and they've made the dough that they can hang up the microphone (and drumsticks) whenever they feel like they're ready to just rest, stream on Twitch, and raise a family (presuming, of course, they've been sensible with the money they made in 2016). You get to that point, you've pretty much won life. I'm so, so proud.

Power to the local dreamer.

|-/

[topweeklyupdate]

TØP Weekly Update #153 (Livestream Version) (Taylor's Version) (11/19/21)

Well, despite the Takeover Tour being over, this week turned out to have plenty enough news for a full update, between a new tour being announced and the Livestream Experience finally being released (kinda). Let's dive in!

Let's start with the most recent news: In the wee hours of this morning, the band released Scaled and Icy (Livestream Version) on all major streaming platforms, celebrating the most recent album's half-birthday by making the audio from its release concert available. This deluxe edition doesn't include the skits with the Bishops or any of the video from the performance; we'll see if that ever gets released for purchase or streaming in any form. I will buy it, Tyler Joseph, you jerk.

It's not like they need the money, though; earlier this week, the band announced another tour before the Takeover Tour is even officially over. Simply called The Icy Tour (was the last one scaled?), this will be an arena-only cycle coming next August-September, once again going through North America (but hey, at least Canada gets two shows). If that sounds far away, it's worth remembering that they've still got plenty of shows between now and then: they're playing Corona Capital Festival in Mexico City on Sunday, have a few winter radio shows in Florida and California in December and January, just announced they'll be performing for the College Football Playoff in Indianapolis, and have a bunch of festival shows in Europe (and the Takeover Tour for London) coming next summer. What are they doing in the spring? Hm... oh, that's right, baby on the way!

Over on the charts, it sadly looks like "Saturday" missed its window to reach the Hot 100; its numbers are declining steadily, and the chart will be crowded with major releases from Taylor Swift, Silk Sonic, and Adele for the weeks to come. Management's already moved to the next single: "The Outside" was the most added song on Alternative last week.

That's all the news for this week (besides Tyler being back on Twitter last night). Stick around, we've got things coming up! And until then...

Power to the local dreamer.

|-/

[topweeklyupdate]

TØP Monthly Update #152: TakeOVER, amirite (11/12/21)

Howdy, fellow kids! Been a minute! It's not like there's been nothing going on in Pilotsland, far from it; I've just had a buttload of life stuff, and it took me getting sick this week to finally slow down enough to tap back into the band that has helped to sustain me for so many years.

Touring has continued (including an interesting detour to Austin that featured an incident I'd rather not talk about). We've gotten good tour videos full of cute moments with the band, the touring crew, and the fans. While playing hometown shows, Tyler stopped a show to watch football, tried to burn a Michigan shirt, played some Coldplay and "Hometown", and brought Rosie on-stage. Josh tried to set fire to the stage and started to outsource his tweets. "Saturday" was just a few spots away from charting on the Hot 100 before falling off, and now they've already moved on to pushing "The Outside" at alt radio.

And now... it's all done. The band has promised us that they will have more coming soon. What will that be? More tours? New videos? New music? (Probably, likely, prolly not.) I'm excited to see what comes next. But until then...

Power to the local dreamer.

|-/

[topweeklyupdate]

TØP Bi-Weekly Update #151: Got Me To The Greek (10/2/21)

Had to shift this one a day, but only because I was recovering from the best concert ever. Thus, in lieu of a typical weekly recap, I'll just be summarizing my experience seeing Twenty One Pilots at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles' Griffith Park.

Full disclaimer: I don't think I've ever had better seating in a large-scale venue. I've never been able to afford/power through pit tickets, but somehow I managed to land ones for me and my partner right in the bottom bowl of the Greek, dead center in front of the stage; drumsticks flew over our heads, and we never once had any reason to look at the screens. Maybe I would have loved every show (and I have loved every show) as much as this one if I had that kind of access and were able to sing these songs that have enriched my life under the stars, but this one just gave me an experience of connection with the music I've never had before.

I know I'm gonna get heat for this, but it must be said: When this tour is over, we can't go back to just Tyler and Josh. A full touring band of massively talented musicians pitching into a massive soundscape elevated each and every song to something incredible, and it didn't seem to disrupt Tyler and Josh's flow and chemistry at all or interrupt the intimacy between them and the crowd. Everyone was singing along to every word of every song; Tyler didn't have to do any setup to get everyone singing along to "Mulberry Street", and there's just nothing like thousands of people singing "Car Radio" under the stars and "Trees" between the trees. Live music is alive.

A few other scattered points: While it is regrettable that the breadth of the band's discography has resulted in many songs being trimmed to half size or pushed into mashups, I think the setlist choice was pretty dang solid. Seeing it in the context of a live show even tricked me into thinking "No Chances" was a good song for a few minutes. Also, how did no one tell me that they covered the goddamn Halo theme? What a bizarre/incredible crossover of my personal interests.

The openers were a bit of a mixed bag. Arrested Youth frankly sounded a lot like what people who don't listen to Twenty One Pilots think Twenty One Pilots sounds like; maybe it would appeal to someone who was the age I was when I first got into TØP, but I think that Tyler immediately had much more maturity and complexity in his lyrics than this band did. However, half-alive blew me away. While I didn't find many of their songs especially memorable, the presentation of their songs rivaled anything that TØP put on; their choreo was incredible, and some of the lighting tricks were out of this world.

We'll get back to a more standard recap format of our band's progress as the wind through the United States over the coming week. I'm not sure how much of note there will be to cover. It's possible that "Saturday" will reach the Hot 100 in the coming weeks as it continues to slowly gain airplay, but I'd personally bet that it won't quite make the leap. But who knows, and who cares? Twenty One Pilots can fill venues with thousands of people who know every word of every song. Few artists have that kind of sustained influence, and Tyler and Josh don't have it just because their songs got radio play. They've made something incredible, and we're all lucky to be a part of it.

Power to the local dreamer.

|-/

[topweeklyupdate]

Hey guys! Physically recovering from the show last night (and waiting for HD pictures), will be posting tomorrow!

[topweeklyupdate]

TØP Bi-Weekly Update #150: Taking Off (9/24/21)

To start: Apologies for missing last week! Had a personal emergency mixed with starting in-person teaching and just couldn't get an update out. We've got so, so much to cover, so let's get straight into it.

To start: Jenna is pregnant! Tyler announced it during an interesting performance of "Saturday" at the VMAs, which started off a uke ballad and ended with a total rock reimagining. Happy for him and his family.

Also: Roblox! I wasn't able to catch any of the shows myself, being an ancient being, but it sure looked fun to hang on Mulberry Street/their scary heads floating in space/lightning struck music notes/!

Also also: The Takeover Tour's begun! Shows are happening! Vaccines/negative tests are mandated! Life is good, baby!

As some (me) had hoped, the smaller shows have leaned heavily into the deep cuts; the first small club show in Denver didn't feature the band's biggest hits ("Stressed Out", "Ride", and "Heathens") at all and included several old cuts from Vessel, ("Ode to Sleep", "Guns for Hands" and "Semi-Automatic"), and Blurryface ("Polarize", "The Judge", and "Goner"). Tyler stated that the lineup will continue to shift for small shows. However, larger venues are featuring innovative new productions of some of these massive hits- check out Josh being abducted by aliens during "Stressed Out". "Ride or die, Josh Dun, it's Saturday."

Now, I could get into a lot more depth, but I really gotta get caught up on some work. I'm seeing a pretty great band at the Greek on Thursday... Power to the local dreamer.

|-/

[topweeklyupdate]

TØP Weekly Update #149: Let's Go Gamers (9/10/21)

The band's back, people! After a really quiet month, TØP won't let me rest, and I couldn't be happier!

Next Friday, we get a surprise new concert... in Roblox. With this being the second ever full-fledged (non-screen) concert hosted in the game next Friday, this would get me massively excited if this didn't make me feel tremendously ancient. Still, if you play the game (or have little siblings/cousins/kids who do), the promise of an interactive choose-your-own-adventure concert in a unconstrained digital space, with exclusive band/lore-related content and a hilarious trailer, should have you very excited.

Meanwhile, the real-world Takeover Tour continues, with Newport Music Hall in Columbus hosting an intimate performance sponsored by Alt Nation for their Small Stage Series. The setlist was identical to the Summerfest show, save for the very notable addition of "Migraine" giving the Vessel era more love. The Trees Speech had Tyler confessing that there was a time where he genuinely feared that he'd never get to perform in front of a real crowd again. Glad he has that.

But I'll be real; the most hype TØP thing from this week was getting the official release of "Heathens/Trees" from the Livestream Experience, which was unquestionably the pinnacle of that whole show for me. 'Scuse me while I cry bumping this non-stop...

This weekend will see our band playing "Saturday" at the VMAs; hoping that gives the song a bit of a boost, though I'm really not sure how many people are watching award shows in the modern music industry. But hey, we can dream, and as I always say at the end of these things...

Power to the local dreamer.

|-/

[topweeklyupdate]

TØP Monthly Update #148: The Trees Speech Really Got Me (9/5/21)

Photo Credit: OnMilwaukee

Howdy, folks! Been off the radar for a little bit because... well, Twenty One Pilots' not been up to much publicly, because they've been getting ready to tour. And, last night, we got the fruits of that. So let's talk about it in a few link-laden paragraphs!

In the 23,000-capacity American Family Insurance Amphitheater (great name), TØP headlined Summerfest. The setlist was a pretty good mix of stuff from throughout the band's discography, though Self-Titled expectedly gets the short end of the stick and RAB/Vessel and Trench mostly just get the songs you'd expect. Scaled and Icy very much shapes the narrative; the show opened with "Good Day", The Dema Bishops show up before "No Chances", where Tyler wears a mask billowing smoke, plays acoustic guitar, and yeets into the unknown. However, as the band's most successful album, Blurryface is back in full force, with Tyler donning the black paint on his hands live and a few songs like "Message Man" appearing that you'd expect to be gone by now.

The backing band got a little acoustic set around a bonfire filled with covers, including classic covers that we haven't heard from the band before ("I Can See Clearly Now", "My Girl (Josh Dun)", Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros' "Home"), a rad acoustic version of "Doubt", and the first live performance of "Formidable"; the violin bow has a marshmallow on the end. "Saturday" got choreo and the drum island, and it rips (that song just keeps growing on me, man). Tyler mashes up "Shy Away" with MCR's "I'm Not Okay", because hell yeah. Then, to wrap it all up, we got our first Trees Speech in nearly two years. Needed that- and he needed us.

Now, I've got reservations about all this. Seems weird that we're having concerts and large gatherings when our ICUs are full from COVID and other natural disasters, when people are in literal danger of transmitting disease that can cause great harm, perhaps not to themselves but to their neighbors. I ask two things of all who read this: First, if you haven't yet, go get vaccinated. People deserve to experience the catharsis and relief of live music with their favorite band without fear or reservation, and that only happens when we're all protected from the worst of what this easily transmissible virus has to offer. Second, be kind to someone who's given you no reason to be. The world needs it.

Power to the local dreamer.

|-/

[topweeklyupdate]

TØP Bi-Weekly Update #147: Not a Sound (7/23/21)

Howdy, kids!

Not too much to report from the last bit, BUT I did want to put forward this awesome long-form interview with Tyler and Josh from Rock Sound. If you're like me and have been really craving some Tyler Joseph artistic rambling injected straight into your consciousness, this is the place to go. You should really just watch the dang thing, but here's the highlights:

The work of the Livestream Experience left the band with such little bandwidth that they barely processed that they released an album.

Tyler talks about his resentment/opposition of livestream shows and how that fueled their show's unique direction.

Talk about the creation of the backing band and "randomly stumbling on a great group of guys"

Discussion of how the Experience reframed the songs.

Tyler is very pleased that the interviewer picked up on his intention to promote/examine escapism.

Tyler wrote "Good Day" first for the album, doing the piano the first day he moved it into the studio. He talks about the physical relationship with instruments on this record.

The band didn't think that they were releasing a "brighter" record when they were creating it; didn't hit that their pink album was so much more upbeat until after everyone else said that. Josh thinks that it really just sounds more like their Vessel stuff.

Tyler gives a very Tyler explanation for his creative approach to writing "Choker" and returning to the older songwriting mindset. Can't really capture it in words, but he conveys his meaning in the delivery. Same with "Mulberry Street", with a great insight into how he fights against the internal drive to speed up songs to "show off". He also compares the making of the song to its topic and how them being on Mulberry Street and getting signed was completely a "right-place-right-time" thing.

Tyler geeks out about Ben Folds a bit and confesses he's the one famous person that he's never met. Josh cuts in and reminds him that they saw him at an airport once, but Tyler was too shy to go up and say anything.

Tyler believes that there will be (and already is) a pretty clear delineation between "pre-" and "post-pandemic" bands and artists.

Tyler gets kinda down towards the end by talking about "The Outside" and how the band has a shelf life that might be winding down; when the interviewer points out that they just released a pretty great album that's been pretty successful, Tyler says that's where Josh comes in to even him out and Josh gives a cheery sales-pitch for Scaled and Icy.

While describing how he and Josh have been in complete control of the creative process from start-to-finish, Tyler makes some allusion to also being in control of "how this ends", and while the question is about the whole DEMA story, it sounds like Tyler is alluding to something beyond that. I weep.

That's all for now, I think? "Saturday"'s making it's way onto radio, including AC, leaving Tyler to have an existential crisis. We'll see if it is able to make that crossover leap that "Shy Away" never managed, but until then we're just twiddling our thumbs hoping shows can happen. Go get vaccinated, folks!

EDIT: Whelp, figures; a few minutes after I posted this, the band decided to announce the openers for the Takeover Tour. half.alive will be opening all American dates; alt-rapper Arrested Youth will be the opener in Denver, LA, and Chicago, while Boston, Atlanta, and Columbus will have... Jay Joseph. Oh boy! It's happening, kids.

Power to the local dreamer.

|-/

[topweeklyupdate]

TØP Weekly Update #146: Soon Enough (7/9/21)

After a long time of leaving us waiting (and waiting... and waiting...), TØP settled on a final edit for the "Saturday" video and delivered a truly excellent experience. Do I really understand how it fits into any of the lore? Hell no; it's a Dema boat/submarine, but why are they doing a disco dance party under the sea? And why does Trash the Dragon want to stop the fun (and leave 21 folks floating in the ocean)? What does any of this have to do with painting the town? NO CLUE, but hey, Tyler still got to call Jenna, the touring band got to be featured in an underwater setting, and Josh got to sing the high note while yellow-taping up leaks. Fantastic. Great work to Andrew Donoho and the entire rest of the crew for their great work with set design and other effects, filming in and around a real sub, practical sets, and CG environs. I look forward to whatever comes back.

The Clique celebrated the 10th anniversary of Regional at Best this week. The band did not, but anyone who expected them to hasn't been paying attention; it's been pretty clear for awhile that either the label, Tyler, or both would prefer not to acknowledge its existence. Doesn't change the fact that the album is incredibly important to the band's history nor that it is a war crime that half of those songs still aren't legally widely available.

Oh, and the band's gonna be doing a charity softball game with a Columbus radio station along with Walk the Moon. Fun!

Power to the local dreamer.

|-/

[topweeklyupdate]

TØP Monthly Update #145: So... Saturday? (7/2/21)

Well, I chose quite the time to go on a vacation...

It's been quite a month in Pilotsland, and while there hasn't been too much that's worth noting recently, figure that I should at least record what's been up in June for completion's sake. You know, historians might dust off the Tumblr server this is stored on in centuries and want to know about this obscure two-piece band from the 2010s, and I want to contribute to the records of ephemeral detritus.

First and most importantly, the band is going back on tour. We'd had announcements before of some upcoming live shows, but the band officially announced the Takeover Tour. After making their first concert appearance at Summerfest in Milwaukee in early September, the band will be experimenting with a really unique structure. Essentially, they're hosting multiple Tours de Columbus where they will have week-long residencies in Denver, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and Atlanta, (and later London and Mexico City next year), starting out playing in small club-sized venues before finishing in arenas. They'll also be playing three arena shows in Columbus, with no smaller venues announced. While many folks are disappointed that the band will be visiting so few markets, Tyler has stated that it primarily an issue of logistics and that the band would be visiting way more locations if not for the still questionable future of the concert industry, and they are still set for a bunch of festival shows in Europe next year. Fingers crossed about Delta jumping in from the top rope.

Bizarrely, the band has been putting out promos for the "Saturday" music video for weeks now. It looks really cool, with some sort of disco party on a sinking boat... but where is it? I don't think I've known any artist to put out so many clips from a music video and not release it within the next day. (Watch it come out immediately after I post this and I don't write anything that talk about it for a month.)

Oh, and here's an album of TØP lullabies for ya. And some official "Stressed Out" Funko Pops. Have fun, you kids.

Power to the local dreamer.

|-/