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Substream Magazine 2017 Preview Guide

~ Troy Sennett ~ Leave a comment

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.

Review: The Appreciation Post – ‘Slip Away’

~ Troy Sennett ~ Leave a comment

Originally posted on Under the Gun Review.

Sometimes great bands are like old friends from high school. You might not think about them every day, but you know when you do get a chance to catch up that it’s bound to be a good time. Such is my relationship with The Appreciation Post. While they’ve never been constant headline-grabbers, the Boston, Massachusetts band have proven to be a reliable source of catchy, intelligent pop punk, which is exactly what you’ll find on their latest EP, Slip Away.

It’s been almost four years since the last proper Appreciation Post release, 2010’s Work/Sleep (although B-sides from those sessions have periodically seen the light of day, and they were all compiled for a 2012 deluxe edition), but there are no signs of rust on Slip Away. The quintet’s distinct hybrid of early Weezer and Motion City Soundtrack is in full force on “So Much For Memories” and “The Not Knowing,” which feature precise guitar and drum rhythms interwoven with bright synthesizer lines. Frontman Jim Keaney’s production brings all of the elements together, giving the songs just the right amount of gloss to sound huge without losing their edge.

Keaney’s lyrics on Slip Away are at times viciously self-deprecating, as on the EP’s opening track, when he sings, “Quick, brain, think, brain, what would a human say?” but his ability to poke fun at himself lets him tackle topics like aging and isolation with candor. The result is a collection of relatable quips like, “And as the years escape, I’ve yet to accept that there’s more adding up than shitloads of debt.”

Everything great about The Appreciation Post comes together on “Auxiliary Floor Toms.” “I’m so irrelevant, still banging my head,” sings Keaney on what is probably the best song in the band’s entire discography. It’s an anthem for anyone confused by current trends and anyone who’d rather listen to rock and roll than whatever has taken over the radio this week. If you’ve ever found yourself missing the glory days of Drive-Thru Records, this song will serve as a powerful reminder that you’re not the only one.

Keaney sums up his band perfectly in the song’s bridge when he asks, “At least I’m consistent, but does that count for anything?” In context, the question is rhetorical, but I’ll answer it anyway: Yes, it does. As long as The Appreciation Post is releasing music as good as Slip Away, I’ll be listening.

My Favorite Albums of 2013

~ Troy Sennett ~ Leave a comment

Originally posted on Under the Gun Review

Let’s talk about moments.

Around 5:00 PM on June 8, 2013, I watched Spitalfield play “Stolen From Some Great Writer” to an empty theater. This was a band I never thought I would have the chance to see live soundchecking for a ten-year anniversary performance of Remember Right Now, a record that had a huge impact on me as a musician and as a person in my early teens. It was intensely personal and universal at the same time, one of those moments that made me feel like a part of something bigger than myself while also acting as stepping stone in my own life.

Great records make for those kind of moments, and there were some seriously great records released this year.

A band I play in likes to cover “Passing Through a Screen Door” by The Wonder Years. I’m always wary about playing it because it’s still a fairly new song, but every time we break into that first verse and people actually jump and sing along instead of rolling their eyes, I understand the weight and significance that song carries for myself and my peers, both as individuals and as a community. We may not be twenty-six yet, but we still feel the same uncertainty about our choices and our futures, and if screaming those lyrics along with a room of five or fifty or seven hundred people does just a little bit to alleviate that uncertainty, then that song has accomplished more than I can express here.

I could say something similar about every album on this list, but I’ll save time and get to the point. I had an easier time picking my top ten albums this year than I have in the past. It wasn’t for a lack of quantity: I listened to more new records than ever in 2013, and there were thirty-five or so in contention for this list. It wasn’t for a lack of quality either. Allison Weiss, Vampire Weekend, Polar Bear Club, The Airborne Toxic Event and a bunch of other bands all released albums that were just below the cut, but ones that did end up making it stuck with me in a way that nothing else did. These were the records that got under my skin and resonated with me in the most important moments of 2013. These records were the soundtrack to a year of growth and rebuilding, a year of my friends and I trying to figure out our post-college plans, a year of drives to Kansas and Chicago and across town with a van full of guitars and amps and friends to play a local show that probably didn’t mean much to anyone but us.

But it’s what this music means to us that really matters. Whether it’s an international radio hit or a local band in a basement, music has the power to be meaningful on a deeper level than almost anything else. Every year, I find proof of that in something new, and this list is my best attempt at drawing a map to those places.

This has been my 2013.

My Top Ten Albums of 2013

  1. The Front Bottoms – Talon of the Hawk
  2. The Wonder Years – The Greatest Generation
  3. Into It. Over It. – Intersections
  4. Jason Isbell – Southeastern
  5. Laura Stevenson – Wheel
  6. Jimmy Eat World – Damage
  7. Mixtapes – Ordinary Silence
  8. Frank Turner – Tape Deck Heart
  9. The Swellers – The Light Under Closed Doors
  10. The World Is a Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid To Die – Whenever, If Ever

My Top Five EPs of 2013

  1. You, Me, and Everyone We Know – I Wish More People Gave a Shit
  2. Some Stranger – Some Stranger
  3. Pet Symmetry – Two Songs About Cars. Two Songs With Long Titles
  4. Pentimento – Inside the Sea
  5. Ghost Key – Winter