Author: Troy Sennett

Ten Years of Anhedonia

~ Troy Sennett ~ Leave a comment

Ten years ago, The Graduate released Anhedonia. I don’t think there was a more important and influential album for me and my friends at the time. It came from central Illinois, just like us, but this record felt so much bigger than our towns, our state, even the midwest. It shaped how I think about every instrument I play and every song I work on. A decade later, I still compare all of my own bass lines to “Sit and Sink,” and mine are never quite as cool.

“I don’t want to die today. I want to live and love and write it down.”

All In Our File, My Fellow Traveler: 2016 In Review

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I started 2016 in a recording studio and I’ll end it on a stage (specifically, Double Door in Wicker Park). Those are fitting bookends for my busiest and most productive music year yet, but I’ll get to that in a moment. First, however, the biggest change in my life this year: After two years in the city, I moved out to the suburbs. Liesi and I got a place together in Villa Park and adopted the best little cat named Jazz. It has been a great seven months so far, and I look forward to many, many more.

The Cubs won the World Series this year. While I’m not a Cubs fan myself and I don’t follow the sport closely anymore, these were the most exciting games I’ve ever watched, and I’m so happy that my friends and family, especially my grandmother, got to see their favorite team on top.

A couple more non-music things:

  • Favorite book I read this year (including non-2016 releases because I don’t keep up with new books outside of my favorite authors): Special Topics In Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
  • Favorite movie of the year (with the caveat that I haven’t seen many of the big late fall/early winter releases): Arrival

I went to 90 shows in 2016, the most of any year yet. My favorite was a seated Conor Oberst performance at the beautiful Thalia Hall in Chicago. His setlist included all ten songs on his raw, sparsely arranged new album, Ruminations. True to the recordings, Oberst switched between acoustic guitar and piano and had a baritone guitarist as the sole backing musician.

My Favorite Shows I Attended In 2016

  1. Conor Oberst – Thalia Hall – 11/27
  2. Thursday – Double Door – 9/17
  3. Copeland – Double Door – 12/1
  4. The Junior Varsity – Castle Theater – 9/1
  5. LCD Soundsystem – Lollapalooza – 7/31
  6. Julien Baker – Lincoln Hall – 4/14
  7. Bruce Springsteen – Bradley Center – 3/3
  8. Against Me! – The Metro – 6/19
  9. Ben Folds – Summerfest – 7/9
  10. The Sidekicks – Wicker Park Fest – 7/23

Of the 90 shows I attended, I played at 55 of those, also a record for me. All of my bands got great opportunities this year, but the highlight was Movies About Animals opening for The Junior Varsity at the Castle Theater in Bloomington. The Junior Varsity was a cornerstone of my early interest in music, and I usually cite Wide Eyed as the first album that made me care more about guitar playing than lyrics.

In April, I went on my third tour with City Mouth. We hit new cities around the midwest, got to hang out with Whale Bones again, and made some great friends in our tourmates, Old Fox Road. I’m looking forward to doing a lot more of that in the near future.

My newest band, Pelafina, played our first shows and released our debut EP, Pelafina 64. It was my first experience recording and mixing on my own, and I can’t wait to do more of that with Pelafina and eventually others as well.

I’m not sure how many new albums I listened to in 2016 (maybe I should keep track of that next year), but it felt like there was something new and interesting coming out every week. From the smallest indie bands to the biggest pop stars, every scene and genre seemed to have standout releases, and my own lists are just a miniscule sample of what’s out there.

My pick for album of the year isn’t much of a surprise. John K. Samson has been my favorite songwriter since I discovered the Weakerthans in high school. Like Springsteen writing about New Jersey, Samson is a master at giving his songs a sense of place. The settings on Winter Wheat range from bustling cities to rural dive bars, TV studios to recovery centers, all the forgotten corners of Samson’s native Canada. He even ventures across the Atlantic Ocean for "Fellow Traveler," which takes place in England. In relatively few lines, Samson manages to make each location feel lived in and loved by an ensemble of characters as vividly realized as that of any novel or film. On Winter Wheat the spotlight turns to struggling grad students, eccentric outsiders, beautifully personified trees, of course, a cat named Virtute. It’s a deep and rewarding listen for both fans of the Weakerthans and newcomers to Samson’s work.

Unlike last year, I did decide to rank this list, but the numbering feels arbitrary after the top three, and I can wholeheartedly recommend everything on these lists to just about anyone.

My Favorite Albums of 2016

  1. John K. Samson – Winter Wheat
  2. The Hotelier – Goodness
  3. Jimmy Eat World – Integrity Blues
  4. Pinegrove – Cardinal
  5. Jeff Rosenstock – Worry
  6. Camp Cope – Camp Cope
  7. The 1975 – I Like It When You Sleep For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It
  8. Conor Oberst – Ruminations
  9. Touche Amore – Stage Four
  10. All Get Out – Nobody Likes a Quitter
  11. Brian Fallon – Painkillers
  12. Joyce Manor – Cody
  13. Butch Walker – Stay Gold
  14. Chance the Rapper – Coloring Book
  15. Empty Houses – Daydream
  16. Anthony Jay Sanders – I Will Be the One Who Goes
  17. Drive-by Truckers – American Band
  18. Balance and Composure – Light We Made
  19. Mitski – Puberty 2
  20. Yellowcard – Yellowcard

A few bands who released really solid EPs this year deserve honorable mentions. These are all midwest bands, some local and some from a little further out, who are making this a really exciting time and place to be involved in the music scene.

  • Hot Mulligan – Opportunities
  • Kayak Jones – Memoir
  • Classic Schmosby – Part 1: Makeshift Happiness
  • Everyone Leaves – The Lonely End
  • Short Handed – Peace of Mind

My Favorite Songs of 2016

  1. Mitski – "Your Best American Girl"
  2. The Menzingers – "Lookers"
  3. John K. Sampson – "Virtute At Rest"
  4. The 1975 – "Paris"
  5. Pinegrove – "Old Friends"
  6. Chance the Rapper – "Same Drugs"
  7. The Hotelier – "Two Deliverances"
  8. Butch Walker – "Wilder In the Heart"
  9. Brian Fallon – "Red Lights"
  10. Conor Oberst – "Till St. Dymphna Kicks Us Out"
  11. Touche Amore – "Flowers and You"
  12. David Bowie – "I Can’t Give Everything Away"
  13. Jimmy Eat World – "You Are Free"
  14. Joyce Manor – "Fake ID"
  15. Modern Baseball – "Just Another Face"

"Challenge" by Anthony Sanders gets an honorable mention since he still hasn’t released a studio version, but I listened to the live recordings more than anything else this year. Rarely, if ever, have I heard a song that speaks so strongly to my own experiences and emotions about choosing not to drink.

So what’s to come in 2017? As I write this, I’m listening to the masters of the full-length album that Movies About Animals spent all year recording. It’s my favorite record that I’ve ever been a part of, and it will be out in January. Pelafina’s EP will be getting a reissue in January as well, with some of the recording touched up and a new mixing and mastering job. City Mouth is almost done writing a new EP that should be out in the first half of the year. Between all of my bands, I’m playing fifteen shows in the first two months of 2017 (hopefully this winter is a mild one). As always, keep an eye on this page for upcoming dates.

As always, if you come to my shows, listen to my records, support anything I do in any way, including just reading what I write here, there’s no way I can thank you enough.

See you next year.

Substream Magazine 2017 Preview Guide

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I wrote a bit about the upcoming Japandroids album for Substream Magazine’s 2017 preview. It’s available as a free digital issue right here.

Edit (6/27/2020): It’s been long enough and who knows who long these links will stay up, so the full text of my blurb is below. The album ended up being as great as I had hoped.

> Japandroids already have one modern classic under their belts with 2012’s Celebration Rock. It is at once a familiar album and a refreshing one, bursting with the youthful vigor and unbridled energy of thunderous drums and overdriven electric guitars. With earnest, fiery anthems like "The House That Heaven Built" and "Younger Us," the Canadian duo carved out a space somewhere between indie, punk, and pure rock and roll and became the de facto soundtrack to wild parties, late night drives, and raucous rock shows.

> Expectations for the follow-up to such a beloved album would be high no matter what, but three years of complete silence has elevated Japandroids to near mythical status. They had conquered seemingly overnight and then returned home just as quickly, leaving only a thank you note and no guarantee that they would ever play another show or go into the studio again. Fortunately, any fears that Japandroids would actually sleep forever, as their final Facebook post in 2013 indicated they might, were assuaged by their recent comeback tour and the announcement of Near To the Wild Heart of Life, due out in January.

> Japandroids have favored refinement over reinvention thus far in their career. The core themes and qualities of their 2009 full-length Post-Nothing and the preceeding EPs are found again on Celebration Rock, only with tighter performances and a more grandiose vision. The first taste of Near To the Wild Heart of Life bears this trend out. The rousing title track is a bold guitar rock tune with an instantly singable chorus about hitting the road and singing at the top of your lungs. Considering how well that formula has worked up to now, a major left turn is unlikely on the rest of the album. In other words, it should be more of what Japandroids do best, and that is great news for old and new fans alike.

Repairing a Broken Pair of Boston HD-5 Speakers

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A couple weeks ago, I started noticing weird sounds coming from my stereo speakers. The long, low tones that score tense scenes in movies like It Follows and Hush (both highly recommended) were full of pops and cracks that seemed all wrong. This particular pair of Boston HD-5s I got for free from a family friend, and they sound better than free yard sale speakers have any business sounding, so I want to keep them around as long as possible. I opened them up to see if anything was obviously wrong, and this is what I found:

image

At first I thought the cones were completely shredded and figured I would be dropping significant money on replacements, but some Google searches on DIY speaker repair led me to Simply Speakers. I learned that, thankfully, my cones weren’t broken. The foam between the speaker cone and frame degrades over time, so this is a common problem in old speakers. The even better news: It’s an easy fix.

Simply Speakers sells foam repair kits for every size and brand of speaker imaginable, and a Boston 5.25″ kit was only $25. Much better than a new set of speakers.

The first step of the repair was to remove the speakers from the cabinets and clean the old foam off. Some of it had chipped and fallen into the cabs, and a few remaining large pieces were easy to pull away, but the foam that was still glued to the edge of the cones and and frames was more challenging. After a lot of careful scraping, I felt like they were at a point where the new foam could be glued on smoothly.

Gluing the new foam on is pretty straightforward, but it’s important to keep the cone aligned directly in the center of the frame (a second set of hands helps – thanks Liesi!), or you’ll end up with worse sounds than you had before. It took a little trial and error for us to get the first speaker right, but the second one came out very clean. Take a look:

image

I ran some test tones through the speakers after the glue was completely dried with no issues. After a couple weeks of TV and music through them every day, I’m completely satisfied with the fix and looking forward to using these speakers for the foreseeable future.

Years To Come

~ Troy Sennett ~ Leave a comment

There’s a goldmine of subculture history buried in the depths of MySpace. From fliers for shows at long-defunct punk houses to great local bands that never used any other tools to promote themselves, entire scenes lived and died by that website. Visiting today, you’d never know. Huge swaths of content were lost in the transition to sideways scrolling and whatever else keeps the lights on over there. The songs that were only ever uploaded there don’t even play anymore. It’s a real shame that the company did such a bad job preserving the history of the scenes it created and fostered.

I didn’t want my own high school band to be completely lost in that graveyard. Years To Come may not have been an important band to anyone except the people who played in it and a few of our close friends, but it meant the world to me for four years. We learned our instruments together. We learned how to write songs together. We learned how to be a band together.

In order to preserve Years To Come on something other than my hard drive, and for anyone besides me who might care, I created a Bandcamp page for us. There you can find our only official release, and EP called Don’t Let the Future Scare You, and a collection of demos and other songs we recorded over the years. It’s all free to download, and you can also click the “info” link on each song for a bit of background and reminiscing about the writing and recording process.

An Album That Changed My Life: The Power of Failing by Mineral

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I wrote this piece up for a forum I frequent, and I figured I’d post it here as well.

I was sixteen years old and browsing one of the old B-Sides R Us blogs when I came across a post with a link to Mineral’s first album, The Power of Failing, accompanied with a challenge: “If you can listen to this and feel nothing, then you don’t have a heart.” It was rare in those days to see a full-length album on the B-sides blog, so with no other context or background on the band, I dove in.

To this day, it remains one of my most memorable first listens. It’s an imperfect record in so many ways, but the songwriting and the passion shone through the messy production and rough musicianship to a degree that I’ve yet to hear replicated. The guitar tones aren’t what any producer would pick out today, but Scott McCarver’s parts stand out nonetheless, from the tension of the feedback solo on “Slower” to the cathartic release of the pre-chorus riff in “Parking Lot.” Chris Simpson is not a technically proficient singer – his voice cracks and strains in ways that make trained vocalists cringe – but he puts every fiber of his being into every word he sings. And the lyrics were exactly what I needed to hear at the time. Simpson writes about perennially relatable topics like overcoming loss and personal failure, and his lyrics are steeped in Christian themes and imagery that made the songs hit even harder for me. I was in tears by the end.

The Power of Failing also challenged how I shared the music I loved with other people. My friends ignored it because it wasn’t on the radio. My brother wouldn’t listen to it because of the production. I had to beg people to drop any preconceptions they had about emo or whatever and just close their eyes and listen. I would print out the lyrics and include them when I burned the CD for someone. I’m not sure any of my friends ever really got Mineral the way I did, but I recently heard Frank Turner tell a story about doing almost the exact same thing, so I know I’m not alone.

From there, the floodgates opened. I couldn’t get enough of this “midwest emo” sound, and within months my iPod was full of The Get Up Kids, Texas Is the Reason, the Promise Ring, and many others that I still count among my favorite bands.

It wasn’t until their reunion tour in 2014 that I finally got the chance to see Mineral. I truly thought it would never happen, and I could do little more than stand against the stage and stare at the four people whose words and music had affected me so deeply over the past seven years. I cried again during “Five, Eight, and Ten” and “Parking Lot” and especially “Unfinished,” and I’ll never forget it.

2015: A Year In Review

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In 2015 I…

  • Attended 82 shows. I’m not sure I could pick a favorite, but highlights included Laura Stevenson’s solo acoustic set at the Abbey Pub, Hostage Calm’s farewell tour, Jason Isbell at the Chicago Symphony Center, and every time I saw the Menzingers because that band is unstoppable.
  • Performed at 40 of those shows. The venues ranged from the tiniest of basements and a high school cafeteria to Chicago’s Thalia Hall, the biggest and most beautiful place I’ve ever played. If you came to any of these, thank you.
  • Toured and released an EP with City Mouth. I couldn’t be more proud of what we accomplished as a band this year. Listen to Tell Me I’m Alright here and be on the lookout for a lot more from us in 2016.
  • Read 30 books. Only two of those (Volumes 1 and 2 of Mark Z. Danielewski’s The Familiar) were released this year. The best book I read in 2015 was The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro.
  • Watched 62 movies. Fourteen of those were 2015 releases, my favorites of which were Mad Max: Fury Road, Inside Out, and Spotlight. An honorable mention goes to Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens for giving the most fun theater experience of my life.
  • Saw the west coast. Liesi and I spent a week in Oregon and Washington in May. We hiked some beautiful trails, walked through the former World’s Fair grounds in Spokane, and took a picture in front of the Goonies house. I can’t wait to go back.

I don’t have a proper resolution for 2016, but I hope to release more music and tour again. I hope to keep growing and pushing myself towards new experiences. I hope I come a little closer to fully appreciating the life I have and the opportunities I’ve been given.

But for now, let’s play “This Year” as loud as we can and celebrate.

I Blur All This Hurt Into Sound: My Favorite Albums of 2015

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I almost decided not to make a list this year. It would be the first time in a decade of considering myself a serious music fan and occasional amateur critic that I didn’t cap the year with a retrospective post about my favorite albums, songs, and more. Every time I opened up my “All 2015” playlist in iTunes, I felt hopelessly behind on new music. There was too much there, and at the same time there wasn’t enough. I was more conscious than ever of what I wasn’t listening to. There’s just no way to give every critically and culturally significant album a fair shake in one year, but that’s okay (and if I’m being honest, I can’t complain – I spent a precious half hour of my life listening to the Lil Bub album). In the end, I decided that it was still worth it to take a little time at the end of the year to collect my thoughts on a few of my favorite releases. I’m not going to pretend this is a definitive best-of list. It’s just ten records I loved this year, and I hope you love them too.

My Favorite Albums of 2015

Beach Slang – The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us

I like to call Beach Slang “the best band in the world.” I know it’s a ridiculous statement, but when I’m immersed in this album, I genuinely believe it. It’s an urgent, electrifying ode to the present tense, to the importance of being alive right now.

mewithoutYou – Pale Horses

While the band is in top form as always, Aaron Weiss’s lyrics are the true highlight – a beautiful tapestry of religious philosophy, literary allusions, and personal anecdotes in which the intimate and the apocalyptic are addressed in equal measure.

Desaparecidos – Payola

Political firebrand has always been my favorite of Conor Oberst’s many modes, and his biting indictments of Wall Street executives, racist cops, and more on Payola are an ideal match for the band’s raucous guitar work.

Laura Stevenson – Cocksure

Wheel is a tough record to follow. Cocksure lacks the gravitas of Stevenson’s 2013 masterpiece, but it charts new territory as her most rock and roll album yet while maintaining the wordplay that makes her songwriting so great.

The Wonder Years – No Closer To Heaven

I have more negative things to say about No Closer To Heaven than any other album on this list. The muddy mix buries the vocals in a wash of guitars and cymbals. The three-act structure makes for strong theme building, but the divisions between the acts are so sharp that I wish it had been a series of three EPs. And I won’t even start on Jason Butler’s guest spot. Despite all that, I still listened to this album more than anything else this year. The guitar and drum work is great, and Dan Campbell remains the best vocalist and lyricist in the scene.

The Island of Misfit Toys – I Made You Something

I recently watched The Island of Misfit Toys play this album in full for the release show at Lincoln Hall. I’ve never seen a band more visibly proud and triumphant on stage. It was a joyful experience.

The World Is a Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid To Die – Harmlessness

Harmlessness is sprawling in the best way, expanding outward from emo in all directions and taking cues from post-rock, folk, and elsewhere. It also has the best drum sound I’ve heard all year.

Jeff Rosenstock – We Cool?

Jeff Rosenstock may have retired the Bomb the Music Industry! name, but We Cool?“ still feels like a natural successor to Adults! and Vacation.

Jason Isbell – Something More Than Free

My growing interest in country music is almost entirely due to Jason Isbell’s Southeastern. The same vivid storytelling that drew me into that album returns on Something More Than Free, and Isbell’s stellar backing band takes a more prominent role without upstaging the songwriting.

Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Just Sit

Courtney Barnett is the only artist on my list that I hadn’t listened to before 2015. I think it was the title that initially caught my attention, but her clever lyrics and crunchy guitar riffs kept the album in rotation throughout the year.

Honorable Mentions

Here are some of my favorite songs from albums that almost made this list.

  • Noah Gundersen – “Topless Dancer”
  • Dawes – “All Your Favorite Bands”
  • Butch Walker – “21+”
  • Sorority Noise – “Using”
  • Tobias Jesso Jr. – “Hollywood”
  • Speedy Ortiz – “The Graduates”

Modus Aurora – “Plague” / “Until Our Lungs Collapse”

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A few months before Modus Aurora ended, we were asked to be part of a compilation that a small record label in Peoria was putting together. Katie was already living in Chicago, and I think we only had a couple days together to write these songs before we went into the studio. The recording process was similarly quick. We drove out to Peoria (or some tiny town outside of it) and tracked both songs in one afternoon at Steve Lambaise’s house. Cale and I recorded bass and drums live, and we didn’t do more than two takes of either song. It was the polar opposite of the leisurely pace at which we assembled The Ghosts Inside of Us, but I think the end result is better for it. When I listen back to “Plague” and “Until Our Lungs Collapse,” which are more concise and focused than anything we had released previously, I hear all of the urgency of the writing and recording process, but I hear more than that. I hear a band that knew we had something special and not enough time to prove it. I don’t remember talking about it until well after the recording session, but I think we understood all along that this was our coda. I think it’s a fitting one.

Listen here.

Tour, Days Eight and Nine: A Wrap Up

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We wrapped up the City Mouth Traveling Petting Zoo Tour over the weekend with two small but very cool house shows. On Saturday, we played our friend Tyler’s house in Aurora, which meant that we shared the bill with Mighty Ships. It was a nice respite from the parties and punk houses we spent most of this tour at, and the first act of the night dropping meant that my new band, also featuring Tyler, Dan, and Katie, could make our live debut. The first Pelafina show was short and a little sloppy, but we’re all excited about what we’ve written so far.

On Sunday, Mighty Ships joined us once again for the most rural show of the tour, in the tiny farm town of Elburn, Illinois. The house was hard to find, but the show was really cool. We surprised our tourmate, Pat Egan, by jumping in for a full band version of his last song. He’s been a really fun guy to have on the road with us, and I’ve watched him improve as a performer every day. In typical fashion for this tour, the City Mouth set was sweaty but a lot of fun, I have to admit that it was strange not doing it again last night.

Looking back on this tour, I’m filled up with pride for the rest of City Mouth. We’ve become a tighter, stronger band over the past week and a half than we ever were before, but it’s more than just musicianship. It’s seeing Reece put together something really special for Pat’s last show of the tour. It’s watching Dan connect with these songs and sing along every night behind the drum kit. It’s seeing Erik happier and more confident than ever on stage. It’s catching Matt’s eye in the middle of a song and smiling, knowing that everything he’s been building with this band for past three years is finally coming together.

There’s a part in one of our new songs where Matt repeats the line, “I don’t know if I’ll make it past twenty.” I remember when Matt sent me the first demo of that song. It was Christmas Eve, or maybe Boxing Day, or New Years, some holiday in December of 2013. Matt had decided not too long before that that he wasn’t coming back for his fourth semester at ISU, and the song made me tear up. I’ve never wanted anyone to succeed more than I want him to. The song scared me, but it also helped me see more clearly than ever that success means such different things for different people. The most cathartic moment of this tour for me came on the first night, when we closed our set with “Dropout.” An older, stronger Matt than I knew in 2013 added a line that he had never sung live before to the end of the song, and I can’t express how much it meant to hear him say it.

“I don’t know if I’ll make it past twenty, and I don’t know if I even want to.

But I fucking did.”