A Little Trip Down Memory Lane

These were the days.

I miss 2004. My nostalgia has been building all year, as seemingly half of the bands I listened to in high school—Jimmy Eat World, Say Anything, Mae, Relient K, and the list goes on—announce tour dates celebrating the tenth anniversary of particularly spectacular albums. Every time another one of these shows goes on sale, I find myself both marveling at how fast the time has passed, and feeling like I should go curl up in bed because I am obviously an ancient old woman at this point.

Two days ago, I purchased tickets for Motion City Soundtrack’s anniversary tour for Commit This to Memory. I distinctly remember listening to that album in my eleventh grade history class. (Dear God, has it been almost ten years since high school already? These tour dates might be sending me into an existential crisis.)

Anyway, my point is that after I bought the MCS tickets, I swung over to Wikipedia to see what other bands put out albums in 2004—and wow, what a fabulous year for my iTunes library it was. These days, I can go for months between albums that I’m truly excited about. But back then, there was apparently new music to be thrilled about every couple of weeks.

Naturally, I had to make a playlist to really complement the reminiscing process. (I allowed a few favorites from early 2005 to sneak in too, because we’re practically there at this point.) The funny thing is, my taste in music has barely changed in the last decade. Sure, there are a few songs on this list that are just a little too emo for my “mature” (read: old and crippled) tastes now. But mostly, these are bands became my favorite when I was an angsty teen, and have stayed with me throughout my life.

So whether or not all these bands decide to do special tours for these records, I’m going to celebrate them on my own. Here’s the playlist, in case you want to get a feel for what how rockin' I was in high school:


PS: They were only on Now 16 in 2004! Ah, it was a simpler time.

The return of Autopilot Off

This morning, I was groggily checking Twitter as I waited for my puppy to eat his breakfast. Suddenly, I was jolted awake by this exciting announcement:

!!!!

My inner 15-year-old immediately started rejoicing. I loved Autopilot Off so much back in the day and mourned the band's "hiatus" in 2005. But apparently, I've been a fan of the wrong Facebook fan page for the last few years, so I had no idea they'd reunited back in 2012 (although no music seems to have come of it until now, so at least I didn't miss too much!)

This picture hung in my tenth grade locker. 

It sounds like the guys really had the freedom to write these songs on their own. From the band's Facebook page:

Here is a link to two new songs that we are releasing for free download. This has been an ambitious project for us, encompassing the past several months. We handled all aspects of production ourselves, working on weekends and whenever our collective personal schedules would permit. It has taken a long time to generate anything finished, but it has been worth it to us to do our songs our way. We hope you enjoy them, and hope that we can complete more in the future. -Chris J, Chris H, Rob, and Phil

And these two songs sound similar to Make A Sound, the band's last full-length. They're punk enough to please old fans, rather than alienating them with a new style. I know what I'll be listening to for the rest of the day!

Concert Double Feature: Green Day and Andrew McMahon

Is it 2005 again? I’ve been having so many musical flashbacks to high school this week.

First, I saw Green Day on Sunday night. Like so many kids before me, Green Day was my gateway into rock music. And I know I don’t get any street cred for admitting this, but I absolutely adore American Idiot (and I will fight anyone who disagrees with me). It’s been a few years since they came around, so needless to say, I was psyched to see them again.

Sadly, this was the best picture I could get.

As you can see from the picture, we didn't have the best seats. Green Day shows are just not the same if you're not in the pit, but unfortunately, general admission tickets sold out way too fast. But it was still an incredible show. Billie Joe Armstrong has always been one of my favorite frontmen to watch perform, and his rehab stint certainly didn’t change that. He’s still the crazy ball of energy he always is— although I felt like maybe he didn’t drop quite as many F-bombs as usual. (What is this world coming to?!?)

Side note: after years of talking up Green Day’s live show to my friend Ali, she finally came along with me. And now she just keeps asking what the hell took her so long. So seriously, if you haven’t seen them yet, do it. Just DO IT.

And then on Tuesday, I saw Andrew McMahon (formerly of Something Corporate and Jack’s Mannequin) play at the Highline Ballroom. In 2003, Something Corporate was the opening act to my first concert (Good Charlotte, hell yeah!) and I immediately fell in love. Andrew and I have been through a lot together over the years, but his music has always been there for me. So it was a blast to take a musical tour through the last decade of my life. Obviously the highlight was when Andrew crowdsurfed to the bar, took a shot, crowdsurfed back to the bar and then finished singing “La La Lie.” The best.

Andrew McMahon prowlin' around on his piano.

And because these concerts apparently just weren’t enough to make me feel 16 again, Fall Out Boy, Paramore and Jimmy Eat World have all released new music this week. I wish I could pretend that I'm going to listen to some cool indie band after this but let's be real. I'm too busy learning all the words to this Fall Out Boy song featuring Elton John so I can belt it out next time I'm alone in the car. My inner teen is in heaven and I’m never growing up.

Happy birthday, Sing the Sorrow!

Yesterday marked ten years since the release of one of the most influential albums in my life. I was just a baby freshman in high school when Sing the Sorrow came out, and I was beginning to figure out what kind of music I was really interested in. After finally switching from listening to the local pop station ("New Hampshire's #1 hit music station") in favor of rock radio, I caught the tail end of "Girl's Not Grey"and immediately fell in love. Obviously, I quickly scrounged up some hard-earned babysitting cash and bought the CD. And when I posted about the "experience" on my DeadJournal (seriously, I miss angsty 2003 so much), my AFI-loving friend immediately burnt me a mix CD of a bunch of their older stuff. And just like that, I became a devout member of the "Church of Havok."

So happy birthday, Sing the Sorrow. Thanks for being my gateway drug into the wonderful world of AFI (and rock music in general). Also for making me feel like such a 14-year-old badass. I can't thank you enough.

Class of 2006

A few years ago, my pal Alison co-founded So I Made You a Mixtape, a group for us crazy people who still like to make and exchange mix CDs. Every round, you’re randomly assigned a new partner to make a mix for, based on whatever that round’s theme is. (I highly recommend joining. It’s a blast!)

Anyway, the opportunity to score new music and connect with new people is great on its own, but I also really enjoy combing through my extensive iTunes library to create the perfect playlist.  And this round’s theme was particularly awesome: favorite songs from your senior year of high school. For me, that was late 2005 through 2006, and I have plenty of poignant musical memories: Getting my first iPod (and it was so cool because it actually played videos!). My friend passing me an album by some unknown pop-punk band called Paramore. Singing “SOS” by Rihanna at the top of our lungs on graduation night. Making fun of James Blunt and Daniel Powter for hours on end with my photography class. Blasting The All-American Rejects in my car on a summer day (oh wait, I still do that…).

Needless to say, I had a tough time narrowing down the choices. So for my blog, I made a special extended version. In the end, I tried to come up with a combination of my favorite songs that came out that year and the pop music I remember hearing on the radio.

(Side note: I still shudder slightly when I hear the intro to “Chasing Cars” because one of my best friends made me listen to it EVERY SINGLE TIME it was on the radio. In late 2006, it was basically guaranteed that at least one station would be playing it at any given moment. I am only very recently able to stomach Snow Patrol again).

I’m sure I missed tons of fantastic material, but here it is. Enjoy!

Class of 2006 from xanne on 8tracks Radio.

Track list:

1. "Prelude 12/21" - AFI

2. "The Fallen" - Franz Ferdinand

3. "Dani California" - Red Hot Chili Pppers

4. "Unwritten" - Natasha Bedingfield

5. "Graduation Day" - Head Automatica

6. "Leave Like A Ghost (Drive Away)" - The Juliana Theory

7. "For You I Will (Confidence)" - Teddy Geiger

8. "We Intertwined" - The Hush Sound

9. "Move Along" - The All-American Rejects

10. "Casey's Song" - City and Colour

11. "Dog Problems" - The Format

12. "Chasing Cars" - Snow Patrol

13. "Soul Meets Body" - Death Cab For Cutie

14. "Crazy" - Gnarls Barkley

15. "Snakes On A Plane (Bring It)" - Cobra Starship

16. "Living For The Weekend" - Hard-Fi

17. "Walk Away" - Kelly Clarkson

18. "You Owe Me An IOU" - Hot Hot Heat

19. "Sugar, We're Going Down" - Fall Out Boy

20. "Taxi Driver" - Gym Class Heroes

21. "Get Him Back" - Fiona Apple

22. "The Gift" - Angels and Airwaves

23. "A Certain Romance" - Arctic Monkeys