Album of the Week – Good Charlotte and Thrice

Well what do you know, in our second week of doing this we had two great albums drop on the same Friday. How crazy is that? And it is from two bands that were huge parts of my youth. Of course when i was younger I was heavily into Good Charlotte and as I got older and into more hardcore stuff I became a bigger fan of Thrice. It’s funny how these things work out in the end.

Good Charlotte – Generation RX

GC is back for their second album since 2016. It’s crazy to think that this is a band that pretty much went on a hiatus after following their album Cardiology. The Madden Brothers released an album under that moniker before coming back to the GC label. And while Youth Authority was a little bit like their previous works with more pop the newest album, Generation RX throws that formula out of the window. There is heavier guitars, screams and at times what feels like deeper lyrics. GC was never known for their deep and insightful lyrics so this is a slight change but not too much. Gone are the days in which Benji and Joel are whining about their father abandoning them and no fitting in their high school but it is a welcome change. The album is incredibly shot, running in at only thirty minutes as compared to their most recent efforts lining up at almost an hour each. To say that this is the best GC has been since the Chronicles of Life and Death is nothing short of the truth. Good Charlotte is going on tour this fall with Sleeping With Sirens and Knuckle Puck. Be sure to check them out.

 

Thrice – Palms

Post-hardcore band Thrice is in a similar boat as GC. They dropped a phenomenal album back in 2016 ad followed that up with a coheadlining tour with Circa Survive last fall. When Dustin Kensure said the band was working on new material on the tour people were skeptical. This was a band that had announced an indefinite hiatus at one point in their career. And while the band isn’t quite as heavy as it used to be back in the Artist in the Ambulance Days they have clearly evolved. Their lyrics are more on point and to be honest vastly improved. While I enjoyed their last album immensely, this album might be just as good if not better. As I get older I feel like the lesser hardcore version of Thrice is much better than the heavier and more aggressive Thrice. The Alchemy Index will always be the album that people will look at as their masterpiece and while Palms does feature some songs that feel like they could be off of Alchemy as well as their last few albums it is a welcoming return for a band that many thought might not last due to Kensure possibly blowing out his voice.

Tour Info – Coheed and Cambria Bring Their Unheavenly Creatures Tour to the US

Those of you who know me know I am a huge fan of Coheed and Cambria. Hell they were part of the first concert I ever went to, they opened for Alkaline Trio many many years ago. I have seen them on the last three tours (2016 Color Before the Sun Tour, 2017 Neverender Tour for GABISIV, and 2018 summer coheadlining tour with TBS), so when they announced they were bringing the tour to the US after an England and Canada tour I was ecstatic. Now the bad news is where they are playing. It looks like a mid-west only tour. See below for the dates.

Dates:

11/03 – Albuquerque, NM @ Sunshine Theater
11/05 – Tulsa, OK  @ Cain’s Ballroom
11/06 – Lawrence, KS @ Liberty Hall
11/07 – Saint Louis, MO @ The Pageant
11/09 – Madison, WI @ The Sylvee
11/10 – Fort Wayne, IN @ Piere’s
11/12 – Grand Rapids, MI @ Intersection
11/13 – Louisville, KY @ Mercury Ballroom
11/14 – Birmingham, AL @ Iron City

 

 

Throwback Thursday – Brand New – Deja Entendu

So this is something new I would like to do, it is a little feature where we go back and look at an album that was released 10 to 15 years ago around this time period. I really couldn’t find anything as nostalgia inducing in 2008 but 2003 was littered with a slew of great albums. So we take a look back nearly 15 plus years ago at an album that changed the genre on it’s own.

Brand New’s Jesse Lacey wanted to do something different with their second studio album. Following the success of the debut Your Favorite Weapon the band felt the need to change their sound up. Why? Well one could assume that it was because of the fact that almost every band sounded just like them, well not imitating them but because that was the sound that was prevalent at the time. So the band went in a different direction.

Album of the Week – Boston Manor – Welcome to the Neighborhood

I would like to try to do something like this more often than not but let’s be honest I will probably forget about it after a few weeks.

Anyway this should be a new feature for us here at ALTernative Airwaves, of course if it is applicable. We are going to cover what I would call our album of the week. What does an album have to do to qualify for this title, well it has to be released that week and be good. Easy right? Fair enough but what if there are no albums dropping or everything that drops is pure crap? Fair point, but we will cross that bridge when it comes.

The newest album from the British band Boston Manor is a huge change in sound and even style from what we got on their phenomenal debut full length album Be Nothing. And while this album does not sound like their debut it is still a solid effort. The band has been tweeting all weekend long about how proud they are of the album and how hard they worked on it and you can see it, well more like hear it.

The first big difference is in the sound of the album as a whole. While Be Nothing was a nice blend of the new wave sound of pop punk blended with some emo stylings this album seemingly dropped all of that and sounds more like a borderline indie and alternative album. But remember there is nothing wrong with that.

The album features solid lyrics and a slew of great songs and even hints at their old sound, which is missed slightly but overall the album is forty plus minutes well spent. The vocals feel totally different though on almost every single track. On the debut album the vocals felt more angrier and you could hear the thick accent, or maybe it was something else, pouring through on each and every song, but this time almost every word and song is clearly audible and there is nothing wrong with that. I loved Be Nothing, from start to finish. It was a surprisingly amazing album, they even killed it on Warped Tour last year. The big question will be how these songs play live, and we will see on the Real Friends tour in which they are one of the openers. I strongly suggest checking this album out if you like Boston Manor or if you just like a great collection of solid songs.

 

ALTernative Airwaves – Episode 02 – The Warped Tour Special

Welcome to the second installment of our rebooted program. This week we play the artists that have impacted Vans’ Warped Tour over the duration of it’s 24 year existence culminating in the final tour this past summer. Putting together this playlist was kind of bittersweet as someone who has gone to Warped multiple times thorough the years deciding what bands impacting my Warped Tour experiences. I still haven’t processed the fact that it is over and not coming back, as seen by my lack of a goodbye Warped Tour post (that will be coming at some point in the near future!).

Me With Mayday Parade at Vans Warped Tour 2007 in Camden, NJ

Part 1

1. Yellowcard – Lights and Sound
2. Sum 41 – The Hell Song
3. Motion City Soundtrack – This Is For Real
4. New Found Glory – My Friends Over You
5. Four Year Strong – Heroes Never Die, Legends Get Remembered
6. Real Friends – I Don’t Love You Anymore
7. Knuckle Puck – True Contrite
8. State Champs – Elevated
9. Mayday Parade – Jersey
10. We the Kings – Check Yes Juliet (Run Baby Run)
11. All Time Low – Coffee Shop Soundtrack
12. Neck Deep – Serpents
13. Silverstein – Whiplash

Part 2

14. Alkaline Trio – Sadie
13. Paramore – Misery Business
14. Tonight Alive – Lonely Girl
15. We Are The In Crowd – Rumor Mill
15. Against the Current – Chasing Ghosts
16. Taking Back Sunday – This Photograph is Proof
17. Good Charlotte – Festival Song
18. Senses Fail – Buried A Lie
19. Rise Against – Prayer of the Refugee
20. Reel Big Fish – Sell Out
21. Less Than Jake – The Science of Seling Myself Short
23. Bad Religion – The Kids Are Alt-Right
24. Bowling for Soup – Punk Rock 101
26. Simple Plan – Perfect

Rise Against at the 2006 Vans Warped Tour in Camden, NJ. Photo by me

Blink-182 Cancels Mini Tour

A little over twenty years ago a young pre-teen stumbles across an insanely catchy and angst ridden song that would peak the boy’s interest. The thrashing guitars and dueling vocals attracted the boy to a new style of music that he hadn’t heard of yet. The only music this kid knew was Weird Al Yankovic and whatever his parents had listened to.

This song would not only introduce the boy to pop punk and the whole world that would ensue but it introduced him to a band that would play a large part of his developing years. Not only did this band help him get into Green Day and New Found Glory but it got him into literally everything.

The song would be “Dammit” by the band blink-182.

Now let’s flash forward to today. It was with heavy heart that Mark Hoppus, Travis Barker and Matt Skiba had to cancel their upcoming Adventures in Wonderland mini tour that would have led them to Riot Fest. Barker has had a rough summer, and rough was not the proper word for it. A staph infection was followed by blood clots in the drummers arms which then eventually led to cellulitis. Barker’s health problems have only seemingly gotten worse over the duration of the hot months. And let’s not forget the auto accident Barker was in within a week or two after all this happened. Sure it wasn’t his fault but when a school bus runs a red light, you are gonna have a bad time. These ailments forced the band to cancel their Vegas residency prior to announcing this tour in July.

Among the ten dates were two within a decent trek of Philadelphia, one on a Friday in Atlantic City and then the next day in Bethlehem. Blink didn’t seem to be a huge draw anymore based off of the complaints about how Tom DeLonge is no longer in the band and how it isn’t blink and so on and so forth. Most of these shows sold out. The Bethlehem show sold out in an hour, a top ten record for that venue. I had gotten the tickets, and I won’t lie, I was apprehensive.

I was that boy who grew up on blink, and that love for blink was relatively steady in life. Growing up my parents hated punk music in any way shape or form, so I was never allowed to see the band. They went on a hiatus after their untitled album. Boom, they were gone. Flash forward to 2011 and the reunited after Travis had his near death experience, and at that point I was too focused on college to attend a show. Then came the break up and the addition of Skiba. They announced their California tour and instead of going to the Camden show, which wasn’t cancelled, we decided the Atlantic City show would be more fun, at the beach, with All Time Low and A Day To Remember. But Hermine said no. They cancelled. Two years later same thing, but slightly different.

While I am heartbroken about the whole thing, I understand. It’s frustrating from a fan’s perspective, you pay good money to see a band. You make the plans. And then you get a notification less than 20 days prior to the show saying hey we cancelled it. Sorry. You’ll get your money back though. And I know this sounds like complaining but that isn’t where I am going with this. Barker’s health is the most important thing. I would rather see them walk away for a year. Work on the album they are supposedly working on and come back, play bigger venues and put on a hell of a show.

And yeah this is the second time I have been able to get tickets to a blink show and the second time they cancelled on me, but that doesn’t change how I feel about this band. Hoppus was always among my heroes growing up, when I was younger I always tried to mimic his singing voice like kids tend to do. If and when the band comes around I will do my best to get the tickets and I will be there in my Hi My Name Is Mark t-shirt because nothing can change how I feel about blink.

 

Daily List: Top Ten New Wave Pop Punk Acts

It’s no secret that pop punk is making a dramatic comeback, we are not talking just about the bands that we grew up with making a return to their roots but new bands that were inspired by the old bands blowing up. Sure Warped Tour is gone but these bands carry on the tour’s spirit at their shows and on their records. So without further ado I present to you the top new wave or era pop punk bands of today.

ALTernative Airwaves – Episode 01 Part 02

So for all intents and purposes we are going to split each program into two separate blocks to make life easier for everyone.  This hour features more new music from bands that have been around for quite some time peppered in with some new bands. And yes Mark Hoppus makes a guest appearance in this hour on one of these songs…but which one is it?

12. State Champs – Time Machine
13. Trash Boat – Shade
14. Panic! At the Disco – Saturday Night (Amen)
15. Alkaline Trio – Blackbird
16. Moose Blood – Can We Stay Like This
17. Like Pacific – Self-Defeated
18. Senses Fail – Gold Jacket, Green Jacket
19. Rise Against – Mourning in Amerika
20. Boston Manor – Bad Machine
21. Belmont – Pushing Up Daisies
22. William Ryan Key – Old Friends
23. Say Anything – Daze
23. New Found Glory – 20 Years From Now
24. The Wonder Years – The Ocean Grew Hands to Hold Me

ALTernative Airwaves – Episode 01 Part 01

Welcome to the first installment of our new program! It’s an exciting time to be back and with new music to boot. We’ve got new music from Coheed and Cambria and Twenty One Pilots as well as the new project from Justin Courtney Pierre from Motion City Soundtrack.  And let’s not forget about all the new bands you need to check out. We’ll be keeping you up to date on all things ALTernative

1. Coheed and Cambria – The Dark Sentencer
2. Twenty One Pilots – Jumpsuit
3. Justin Courtney Pierre – In the Drink
4. Real Friends – On the Outside
5. Mayday Parade – It’s Hard to Be Religious When Some People Are Never Incinerated by Bolts of Lightning
6. Knuckle Puck – Double Helix
7. Dance Gavin Dance – Midnight Crusade
8. The Decemberists – Severed
9. Death Cab For Cutie – Autumn Love
10. Saves the Day – Rendezvous
11. Thrice – Only Us

Composure May Be This Summer’s Most Important Release

The summer release schedule for music has been pretty full. Panic at the Disco, Mayday Parade and State Champs all dropped albums within a week of each other. Trophy Eyes and Trash Boat both dropped albums late in the summer. Alkaline Trio is dropping a new album this week, Like Pacific, Homesafe, Dance Gavin Dance and As It Is all dropped albums around the Warped Tour cycle but none is as important as Chicago based pop-punk band Real Friends third album Composure.

Why would one album be more significant than the others? That’s a loaded question but also a highly opinionated one as well. But let’s focus on why, at least in my opinion the album is the most important. It is a combination of the content and the story behind the album’s existence.

Most of the album, at least from this writer’s perspective is primarily about struggling with mental illness. It is known that the band have been huge advocates for mental health awareness, as back in the 2016 Warped Tour lead singer Dan Lambton spoke at length prior to their set about the non profit, Hope for the Day, and on their 2017 tour the band had celebrated mental health awareness month on tour.

With songs like “Smiling on the Surface”, “Get By”, and “From the Outside” featuring lyrics that clearly center on the day to day struggle that so many of us can relate to. The first time I heard “Outside” it all clicked. Every line in the song hit home and I am sure a lot of people felt the same way who deal with mental illness. Lambton and bassist and co-writer Kyle Fasel have created an intricate series of songs that feature honest, heart on your sleeve lyrics that can be easily related to and deep at the same time.  “Redefine rock bottom with these empty orange bottles/Never felt so paralyzed before (never felt this paralyzed)/We’re all looking for some answers/With the hangman’s broken lantern/
Growing ever closer to the floor” connects in so many ways that when hearing it live brought a tear to my eye at Warped Tour.

The album feels shorter than it is, which is the only downside I can think of but all things considered, this album creates so many feelings that it is hard to not find it endearing. Real Friends craft and album reminiscent of the Starting Line, as a matter of fact several songs sound like they could have been off that band’s final album too!

I was lucky to get a meet and greet pass for Real Friends at Warped Tour and I wanted to tell them how awesome the album was and how much it helped in well such a short time.  Dan had asked what my favorite track was and I had to go with “Outside” and how badly I wanted to hear it live. The rest of the band teased me and acted like I hadn’t listened to it, I had only like once or twice so it was hard to pinpoint all the tracks. Dan asked about one of the songs that he wrote, it was a banger and a solid track I said. To which they followed it up with what about the song “Composure?” I said they were all bangers, mostly because I hadn’t memorized the album yet, but they said dude it’s the album name not a song. But I knew I wasn’t wrong.

Anyway back to the subject on hand, while the other albums listed are all phenomenal none of them have the emotional and possible real world impact that Composure will have. In a scene that is slowly valuing mental health more so than our own government it’s bands like Real Friends who will be at the forefront of the entire movement. That is why this album is insanely crucial to not just the scene but to those who are afflicted.

Real Friends will be on tour this fall with Grayscale and Boston Manor in support of Composure.