Rediscovering ‘People and Things’

~ Troy Sennett ~ Leave a comment

There’s something very satisfying about returning to an album you didn’t like when it was released and discovering that it’s actually pretty great. Whether it’s due to changing tastes, distance from the expectations and excitement of the release cycle, or a new perspective on life, you’re able to find value in something you dismissed before. You wonder how you didn’t see it in the first place. You get to say “I told you so” to yourself.

I had that experience yesterday with the third Jack’s Mannequin record, People and Things.

Like nearly everyone else I know, I adore Andrew McMahon’s first release as Jack’s Mannequin. Everything In Transit is a perfect union of powerful songwriting and pop sensibilities, and songs like “Dark Blue” and “Holiday From Real” will be mix CD (or playlist) staples for generations to come. McMahon started to lose me on The Glass Passenger. I could never pinpoint what I didn’t like about the project’s sophomore album, but it never resonated with me like McMahon’s previous work. When People and Things was released in 2011, however, I hated it, and I knew exactly why.

To understand such a strong, negative reaction to the artist who wrote “Konstantine,” one needs only a cursory glance at my music taste in 2011. Pop punk dominated the year for me, with new releases from The Wonder Years, The Swellers, Man Overboard, Transit, and The Story So Far forming the vast majority of my listening. I wanted personal and passionately delivered (read: yelled) lyrics over fast and loud music. Sure, there was some indie-folk as well, but if the electronic elements in a song extended beyond the occasional synth line, I probably wanted nothing to do with it.

While I was diving deeper into punk and its related sub-genres, Andrew McMahon was pushing the pop side of Jack’s Mannequin harder than ever. People and Things is a shiny album. The arrangements sparkle with synth lines, strings, and other flourishes, and the eighties influence is palpable throughout. In other words, it was everything I didn’t want to hear in October of 2011.

A lot has changed in the last three years. Four months after People and Things left my iPod with barely a second play, Fun. released Some Nights, an even more unashamedly pop record, and I loved it. Fast forward another year and a half, and I’m hooked on The 1975. Then there was Bleachers, then Smallpools, then Andrew McMahon’s solo album.

The last entry in that list is what finally made me revisit People and Things. Following the retirement of Jack’s Mannequin in 2012, McMahon adopted the moniker Andrew McMahon In the Wilderness and released the most electronic, synthesizer-heavy record of his career. On paper, I should hate songs like “See Her On the Weekend” and “Cecilia and the Satellite,” but I can’t get enough of them. I saw a few people calling it a continuation of People and Things, and after playing the latter a few times today, I agree wholeheartedly. In a way, it’s like a circle completing. I understand exactly why I didn’t like People and Things when it was released, but my changing tastes led me back to it at a time when I could appreciate it for what it is.

It would be easy to write all of this off by saying, “Oh yeah, everybody’s tastes change over time,” but I want to dig deeper than that. In some ways, my tastes haven’t changed at all – I still listen to new pop punk albums every week – but they certainly have expanded. From the pop records mentioned previously to the alt-country of Jason Isbell and Cory Branan (but never, ever pop-country), my iPod is full of albums that I would have scoffed at just a few years ago. It’s a trajectory that reflects (in my mind, at least) a slow realization that the kind of songwriting I value most can and does exist outside of the confines of two guitars, bass, and drums played at maximum volume.

It makes me wonder what else I’ve missed.

“Although It Wasn’t Changing the World, It Was the World To Me”

~ Troy Sennett ~ Leave a comment

To all the friends I saw at the Wonder Years show yesterday (and of course the ones didn’t see as well), thank you for making it one of the most fun nights of my life. Thank you for caring and buying a ticket and stage diving and singing along.

Last night felt like a triumph. The Wonder Years have been my favorite band for at least three years, and they’ve been an inspiration and a force in my life for even longer. I’ve laughed and cried to them, and their records have been the perfect soundtrack to my highest and lowest points. They are the band I want to share with every single person I meet because I realize that some people might not have ever felt like I have while listening to “New Years With Carl Weathers” in a freezing cold Toyota Camry or yelling the words to “Woke Up Older” when it mirrors your life all to closely or being moved to tears by the emotion in a live performance of “The Devil In My Bloodstream.” Everyone deserves to feel that deep, visceral connection with an album. It’s what music is all about. To see so many of my friends, some of whom I introduced to The Wonder Years and many more of whom I met through their shows or because we were both fans, experiencing that connection in the moment last night was truly incredible.

But that isn’t the only reason last night felt like a victory. It wasn’t just who was there, it was where we were. Since attending my first local shows during my freshman year of high school, I’ve worked as hard as I could at building the music community in Bloomington-Normal. At first, that meant inviting all of my friends to every show I went to, but then I started a band (and then another and another and…), and then I started putting on my own shows. With every step of that journey I wanted to grow the scene meant so much to me, and the fact that a few pop punk bands can sell over eight hundred tickets in the middle of Illinois is vindicating in some small way and proof that our scene can still be the powerful, important place of community and self-discovery that it was for me.

I’ve never been more proud of where I’m from

The Gaslight Anthem, Pianos Become the Teeth, and the Art of Reinvention

~ Troy Sennett ~ Leave a comment

There was a lot of talk about reinvention in the buildup to the Gaslight Anthem’s new album, Get Hurt. Brian Fallon called it the New Jersey band’s “weird album,” comparing it to stylistic left turns like U2’s Achtung, Baby, and freely admitting that it might alienate longtime fans.

Then they premiered the first single, and it was immediately recognizable as a Gaslight Anthem song. In fact, the raucous, energetic “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” is the closest thing to their beloved debut album, Sink Or Swim, that they have released in years, and I loved it. I wasn’t going to complain that one of my favorite bands had a great new single, but part of me wondered if the band had really branched out as much as Fallon claimed.

Get Hurt does have its fair share of fresh ideas. The opener, “Stay Vicious,” is the grungiest entry in The Gaslight Anthem’s catalog and probably the most off-putting moment for old fans, while the title track and “Underneath the Ground” explore the softer sides of their sound without slipping into the well-trod territory of acoustic ballads.

By and large, however, the songs on Get Hurt are not that much different from those on Handwritten and American Slang. “1000 Years,” “Selected Poems,” and “Dark Places” are likely to become fan favorites simply because they show, once again, that The Gaslight Anthem are one of the best rock and roll bands making music today.

As a result, the strongest criticism that can be leveled at Get Hurt is that it fails to accomplish the reinvention on which Fallon seemed so intent during the production process. Sure, there is less Springsteen influence and more Rolling Stones and Pearl Jam, but the shift is nothing compared to Fallon’s foray into “nighttime music” with his side project, The Horrible Crowes, in 2011. I wasn’t expecting a dance record, and more great Gaslight Anthem songs are never a bad thing, but I can’t help but think Get Hurt is a bit of a missed opportunity for a well-established band to try something different.

That feeling came into sharper focus this week with the announcement of Keep You, the new full-length from Pianos Become the Teeth. Over the course of two albums and numerous split releases, the Maryland group has come to be defined by dense, hard-hitting instrumentation and, above all, vocalist Kyle Durfey’s ragged, tortured scream and emotionally ravaging lyrics.

All of these elements were perfected on 2011’s The Lack Long After, which found Durfey examining death and loss so closely that the album can be hard to listen to without tearing up a little bit, even when you know what’s coming. It’s the sort of work that defines a band, that sticks with them for the rest of their career. It’s the one against which all of their future releases will be measured.

The easiest way for a band to let fans down and lose the passion evident in their early work is to stay stagnant and try to replicate exactly what made one album so special. The Gaslight Anthem certainly understand that much. They have been slowly shedding Springsteen comparisons for years and continue to push themselves as songwriters despite fans clamoring for The ‘59 Sound Part 2. It just wasn’t until Get Hurt that they made it a central part of the promotional push, but even then it felt like a half-measure.

Pianos Become the Teeth have taken reinvention even further than The Gaslight Anthem. On the two songs released since The Lack Long After – “Hiding,” from a 2013 split with Touche Amore and Keep You’s first single, “Repine” – Durfey doesn’t scream once, the distortion is dialed back, and there is more melody than ever before. On the surface, this might seem like a totally different band, but despite huge stylistic changes, Pianos Become the Teeth have managed to preserve the intensity that has become their calling card.

For instance, it’s easy to imagine how Durfey’s scream would underscore the emotion in a line like, “There’s no good in your eyes anymore, and it makes you want to drive home drunk and alone, curse the faces in the wheat, drown yourself in the gold because you can’t let it go,” from “Hiding.” Instead he sings it, and the shaking, vulnerable delivery sells it better than any yell ever could.

According to Noisey, the band has fully embraced this new style, leaving Keep You with no screaming at all. There will undoubtably be some backlash from fans, but it’s exactly the kind of bold move that Brian Fallon was talking about in the months leading up to Get Hurt. I can’t wait to hear it for myself and find out if they actually pulled it off.

Tour, Day Nine: A Recap

~ Troy Sennett ~ Leave a comment

Tour’s over, and that’s a bummer.

After nine days on the road with City Mouth and Mighty Ships, I’m back at my parents’ house. I move to Chicago tomorrow, and I have a lot of packing to do today, but I want to take this morning while Matt is still sleeping in the basement and before my responsibilities for the move kick in to look back on one of the coolest experiences of my life.

Ten days ago, I had a friend named Tyler who played in Mighty Ships. I didn’t know him all that well, but I liked his music. I don’t think I had ever formally met his bandmates. Now, Tyler, Harry, and Charlie are among my best friends, and leaving them to drive back to Bloomington after our show at Rozz-Tox in Rock Island was a lot harder than I expected.

Together, we put 2485 miles on my parents’ minivan. We traveled through eight states and played shows in six of them. We got noticeably better as musicians and as bands. We learned each other’s lyrics and sang them back, filling in new lines as we picked them up. Even if we didn’t play for big crowds or make much money, it still seems like we really accomplished something. I’ll never forget how this feels.

Could I do it again? I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about that a lot over the past few days. For years, my dream was to be in a band that toured full-time. I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything, but I learned that there are a lot of aspects of touring that I doubt I would ever really get used to. I struggle with the inherent disorganization of DIY touring, and the late nights and bad diets wear on my body easily. I can see so clearly how relationships and friendships at home suffer, especially on longer tours.

At the same time, I see exactly why people make those sacrifices. There is so much thrill and excitement in putting your art out there for the world to see, in exploring new cities, in pulling up to a venue you’ve never heard of and hoping the shows goes well (or hoping they know there’s a show that night), in watching how other local scenes function and meeting small bands from other areas. I could keep listing things for a while, but the point is that nothing else I’ve done or will do is quite like touring, so I’m glad I got to do at least one.

Also, some thanks are in order:

My parents, for letting us use their minivan. Tyler, for booking this tour. Harry, Charlie, Tyler, Matt, and of course Dan Bretz, for being the best tourmates. Sami and her family, Dan, Gabe from Cinci, Matt Kennedy, Josh from the Turncoats, Zach, the Sovereign States dudes, and Tyler’s for giving us places to stay and hang out. Josiah from Lions, for opening up his house for a sweet show in Knoxville even if City Mouth couldn’t play. Liesi, for being awesome. I’m sure there’s more. There’s always more.

If you read along this whole time, thanks. These little updates have been really fun to write. Now, I’m on to the big transition into “adulthood.” See you soon, Chicago.

#mightymouth2014 forever.

Tour, Day Eight

~ Troy Sennett ~ Leave a comment

I’m glad Lawrence, Kansas was at the end of the tour instead of the beginning. Yesterday will be a hard one to live up to.

We played at the Bottleneck, serving as the opening acts for Sovereign States’ farewell show. I hadn’t heard the emo quartet’s music before this tour, so the breakup doesn’t mean as much to me as it does to Tyler and Harry, but it didn’t take me long to realize that “Tired” is one of the genre’s best songs.

The crowd didn’t really show up until after City Mouth and Mighty Ships played, but for once, that hardly mattered. I spent the time between sets catching up with Rachel and Joan, and then we watched in awe as Baiowolf took the stage. Baiowolf happened to be the seven-hundredth band I’ve seen live, but even without the milestone I would have remembered their set for a long time. They invited the crowd on stage to share their crazy samples (background music from Big and “Our God Is An Awesome God,” for instance), live drums, and over the top, truly ridiculous lyrics, and it was more fun than I ever would have expected.

After Baiowolf, Sovereign States played their brief but incredible final set. Tyler and Harry sang on “Tired,” and the members’ old bands, My Brother, The Vulture and Coronado Left For Dead, even made appearances, but the best part of the night was yet to come.

In addition to playing in Sovereign States, the members moonlight as Taking Back Monday, a pop punk cover/karaoke band. They play the hits from Taking Back Sunday, Brand New, Saves the Day, and the like, inviting everyone up on stage to sing and dance. It’s a brilliant concept, and they were blast to see in action. I almost didn’t mind staying up until past 2:00 AM for that, and I’d really like to attempt a similar thing with Movies About Animals in the future.

I haven’t even hit on the rest of our day in Lawrence, which included one more record store stop, where I found a Jimmy Eat World single and some great dollar bin CDs, and a great ice cream cone, which was made even better because there was a Whopper at the bottom.

Today marks the final day of tour, and for as much fun as I’ve had over the last eight days, I’m glad. I miss home and I miss Liesi, and I can feel myself getting sick, plus I’m just ready to finally move and get settled in Chicago.

Tour, Day Seven

~ Troy Sennett ~ 1 Comment

We’re a week into tour, and we’ve finally settled into a fairly smooth routine. We all have a spot we tend to claim in the van, and we know roughly how long it takes each of us to get ready to go. We figured out the best way to pack our gear around the pile of luggage and sleeping bags that we’ve affectionately named Stuff Mountain, and we’re getting pretty good at killing afternoons at record stores and parks.

So it’s strange to think that we’re on the home stretch. Last night, we played a small but surprisingly fun show at Lemmon’s in St. Louis, which, it’s safe to say, was our favorite venue so far. Between the free pizza and drinks for bands, a pre-show playlist that included multiple Weakerthans songs, and a bartender who talked to us about The Lawrence Arms, it just felt like a Firehouse show. Even though it wasn’t particularly well attended, everyone who was there seemed very excited about all of the bands and that anything was going on in their little scene. A couple of them even signed up for the City Mouth email list, so we’ll call it a success.

We’re getting an early start today so we can hang out with Harry’s friends in Lawrence, Kansas. Before we hit the road, I’ll add one more tour highlight: Yesterday, I had cookie dough soda, which was not something I had even imagined was possible. It was actually pretty good. If you’re ever at a Rocket Fizz, I recommend it.

Tour, Day Six: A Day Off and Some Thoughts On Jimmy Eat World

~ Troy Sennett ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday was the most uneventful but also the most stressful day of tour so far. After a good talk about the post-Beatles discographies with Josh from the Turncoats, we hit Waffle House again (I actually had a waffle this time), parted ways with Dan, and started the drive to St. Louis.

In the meantime, we were encountering two small crises.

First, we realized we were double-booked for Friday. A show in Kansas City that we thought fell through suddenly had an active Facebook event, but we had already replaced it with a show in St. Louis. Second, we had nowhere to stay at the end of our off day. Eventually, we settled on playing the St. Louis show because the KC one had no locals on it and springing for a hotel, but the process was rough, and I’m glad it is only going to happen once on this tour.

Somewhere in the middle of all of that, we had one of the best of moments of tour so far. During the drive, Harry put on Jimmy Eat World’s Bleed American. A quick survey showed that everyone in the van had had a different experience with the record. Harry latched onto it right when it was released and knew every word and guitar line better than I do. I love the album to death, but I discovered it primarily after Futures was released. Matt knew most of the songs but only through shuffling the band’s discography. Tyler had heard the singles. Charlie was asleep.

Even so, I realized there was something unifying about that album. It was a gateway to punk and emo for an entire generation. As we moved from the blistering opener to Davey Von Bohlen’s obscenely catchy guest spot to the megahit to the deep cuts, I was revisiting and remembering the emotions and moments I had so inextricably linked with these songs years ago, and I could tell everyone else was too. A truly great record can do that. It can sum up the separate experiences of four (or four million) people and preserve them forever in a melody or guitar solo.

But here’s why it was special for me: There was no longing to go back to where I was when I first heard “The Middle” or the very specific moment that I link to the line, “I would write to you from Museum Mile,” or the time Derrick and I talked about “My Sundown” at the end of high school. I wanted to be right there in the van in that moment. We were all quiet during “Hear You Me,” not quite looking at each other because that song has too much something in it that is always on the brink of overflowing and every Jimmy Eat World fan knows it. I’ve been trying to figure out what the something is for years, and I think I got it. When Jim Adkins sang, “What would you think of me now, so lucky, so strong, so proud?” this time, it meant as much to me as any lyric ever has. I can finally look back at every person I’ve ever opened up to about my dreams and my passions and my pains and my setbacks, every person who has influenced me and pushed me and pulled me back and supported me, and I can say that I’m where I want to be. I’m happy with where I’m at and where I seem to be going. I’m not settled, but I’m not directionless.

Tour, Day Five

~ Troy Sennett ~ Leave a comment

Nashville is a special city. There’s really no other way to put it. You can walk down the strip and hear spectacularly talented musicians playing in every bar. You can find relics of music history on every corner. You can put three dollars into a parking meter before an old guy on the street tells you they don’t get checked after 5:30.

Our Nashville exploration was based mostly on recommendations from Dan’s friend Chris from The Scurvies and our own past experiences. We splurged a little on food, eating at cool local places like Café Coco and Jack’s, and we made it to a couple more record stores. Jack White’s Third Man Records was as interesting as we had hoped, with tons of vintage music gear and White Stripes memorabilia on display. The record store portion only sells titles from the Third Man catalog, so I didn’t pick anything up there, but I really wish I could be back here in a couple weeks when Lazaretto is released. Our next stop was a huge record and book store called Grimey’s, where Harry and I nerded out about literature and I found EP’s by The Swellers and The Skies Revolt. My tour total is now up to seven.

For the show, we met up with some old acquaintances in The Turncoats. I had seen and played with them numerous times in Bloomington-Normal over the years, so it was cool to catch them again now that they’ve settled into Nashville. The show itself was sort of a bust, taking place at a dive bar in serious disrepair called Springwater Supper Club. The bartender/sound guy/(presumably) owner was nice, but the ceiling leaked, the regulars were wasted when we showed up and almost certainly hated us, and it’s somehow still legal to smoke inside.

In typical #mightymouth2014 fashion, however, we had fun anyway. We were mostly playing for each other, but City Mouth sounded our best yet on this tour, with Dan’s drum parts really coming together, Mighty Ships rocked like they always do, and The Turncoats showcased their sweet blues rock skills.

Today is our day off, so we’re making a leisurely drive to St. Louis. Unfortunately, it also means we’re saying goodbye to Dan, who has been a blast to hang out with and play with these last few days. On the upside, we’re over halfway through tour with no serious mishaps yet. Three shows and four days to go.

Tour, Day Four

~ Troy Sennett ~ Leave a comment

One of the coolest things about playing outside of your own town and your own state is seeing how other local music scenes function, and I have seen very few as vibrant and passionate as Knoxville, Tennessee.

The show was at a house run by members of a local band called Lions, who just got back from a tour of their own, and despite some booking confusion that resulted in City Mouth not being able to play, it was the most fun night of tour so far. There was a fairly large crowd gathered before the bands even started – credit that to Josiah’s smart tactic of charging only two dollars before that show started and full price afterwards – and most, if not all of them, attentively watched all four bands that played.

Even Mighty Ships, a band with no prior foothold in the area, seemed to get a really positive response. The highlight of the night for me, however, was watching Little Big League, an emo/punk group that I had been wanting to see for a while. They sounded huge even in such a small room, and they were great to talk to afterwards about touring and the business side of things.

Speaking of seeing new bands, I’m edging towards a milestone of my own on this tour. For as long as I’ve been going to shows, I’ve kept track of every band I’ve seen, and I’m on track to hit seven hundred later this week.

I think today is the halfway point of the tour. So far, everything has gone pretty smoothly. We’ve had places to stay every night (huge thanks to Sami’s family, Gabe in Cinci, and Matt Kennedy), we’re close to breaking even on gas money (thanks to my parents for letting us use a reliable, efficient van), and we’re only on each others’ nerves a little bit. We’re in Nashville, Tennessee at Springwater Supper Club tonight, but before that, I’m looking forward to exploring the city and checking out some more record stores, especially Third Man.

It’s sort of strange to think of what I’m missing at home. Friends are moving in and out of new places, May Term is wrapping up at IWU later this week, and rad shows are happening at Firehouse. Out here, we’re so far removed from all of that. This is great as a vacation, and Facebook and phone calls with Liesi keep me connected, but I don’t know if I could spend weeks or months as, in the words our host’s former band, a “permanent tourist.” That has been quite a realization.

Tour, Day Three

~ Troy Sennett ~ Leave a comment

This will be a short one since I slept later this morning than I ever have in my life. That’s what happens when I spend an entire day without air conditioning (which may not yet have been invented in Ohio) and stay up until 2:00 AM playing a show.

Last night’s show was bizarre for a number of reasons. First, the venue – The Rake’s End in Cincinnati, Ohio – had a sign outside, but instead of the bar’s name, the sign was just a bunch of closeup pictures of eyes. It was also full of weird but very cool art. Then there was the lineup: We played with small time country music star with a boy band and some TV appearances under his belt and a band who broke up weeks ago and never cancelled because the member Tyler talked to forgot to tell them it was happening. They were cool and played anyway, which was great because they gave us a place to stay.

In other great news, Dan Bretz decided to hang out with us for a few days and play percussion and saw in City Mouth!

Today, we’re off to Knoxville, Tennessee to play a house show with Lions and Little Big League. Hopefully I can find time to preorder the new album from Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties and spin today’s releases from Masked Intruder, Sad and French, and Junior Battles. Rock and roll.