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Golden Days: Remembering Loved Ones Through Music Even After They're Gone
Growing up I had a friend named Clint. He was the drummer for a hardcore band in Central Florida (which is where I grew up). He was my first "musician friend" and one of my favorite people to share music with on the planet. We weren't the kind of best friends that hung out incessantly, but when we spent time together at shows or playing music for each other it was like it had been mere minutes not months since we last saw each other. As #teens living in a state notorious for its plethora of retirees, we were huge fans of all things Fueled By Ramen because it felt like there was a glimmer of hope that Florida wouldn't suck forever. People used to tease him a lot that he looked a lot like Patrick Stump, singer of Fall Out Boy, which as a huge fan of Take This To Your Grave at the time he wore as a badge of honor.
Clint and I stayed in touch after I headed to Nashville for college, reuniting during holiday breaks to share the records we had discovered while we were apart. Just before I headed home for Christmas in 2005, he excitedly called me to play, "The Only Difference Between Martyrdom And Suicide Is Press Coverage", from Panic! At The Disco's debut album, A Fever You Can't Sweat Out. Just like him, I was hooked within seconds. I made sure to grab the record before I headed south so that when we hung out we could sing along to the record together driving around - a thing we always did.
Even after I moved to New York in 2006. Our ritual stayed the same. Any time I was in town we hung out and played music for each other. In 2007, homegrown label Fueled By Ramen became an imprint label of Warner Music Group and yours truly was called in as a temp executive assistant to help them set up their New York offices. That Christmas I came home with the latest FBR releases to give him, including the deluxe box set version of AFYCSO. We continued to keep in touch despite going back to Florida less and less, checking in when a band we both loved released new material to share our critiques of it. Most of the time it was us gushing to each other about our favorite songs on the records.
In the fall of 2009, Clint very abruptly passed away. It was a very sudden thing that literally no one could have seen coming. He was my first close friend to die, so it hit me incredibly hard. I was so upset that I had to leave work early and could barely walk to the subway to go home. I wasn't able to attend his funeral, so I mourned in the most fitting way - by listening to the music we shared with each other: hand crafted mixes I made him and vice versa, records that I knew were his favorite, anything I could get my hands on.
Despite it being almost 7 years since Clint's been gone, my habitual desire to talk to him about records from artists we both loved hasn't gone away. About a month after his passing, Paramore released their third studio album, Brand New Eyes. That first time I felt the kneejerk reaction to text/call him but couldn't was hard, but it has gotten easier to acknowledge as a beautiful learned behavior that I hope I have somewhat successfully both demonstrated and inspired in others. Memorizing and publicly lauding an album is a wonderful thing, but the level of intimacy that comes from very intentionally sharing music with someone is something that no algorithm can reproduce (not yet anyway).
This past New Music Friday, PATD released their 5th studio album, Death Of A Bachelor. Of all the FBR artists that have released albums since he passed, I'm always the most anxious to hear their albums immediately. I think it was because of that eager phone call in 2005. Either way, the trail of singles leading to DOAB's release had me anxious to feast my ears on it. It's been fun to watch this band evolve over the years. Singer Brendon Urie's voice continues to blow my mind just as much as it did with that first taste in '05, if not more. I'd like to think that Clint would share this sentiment.
Like I have with all of their previous records, I've carefully poured over every word and note, taking a mental inventory of sorts of what I think Clint would appreciate. I'm fairly certain that this would have been his favorite of the ones that have been released since his passing. It's been an equally difficult and exciting few days binge listening to the record, especially with all of the recent deaths that the music community is still recovering from. Even still, I hear songs like, "Victorious" and can practically see him air drumming in his red pickup truck with carefully chosen band stickers. I think of how we'd laugh at the absurdity of our attempts to falsetto as well as Urie during, "Emperor's New Clothes", "Death Of A Bachelor", or "Hallelujah".
At the time of publishing this, I'm still unable to get through the entire record without crying a little bit because I know he would have appreciated this record as much as I do. This usually happens during, "Golden Days", which appropriately enough features a line that Urie's voice soothingly reassures that, "time can never break your heart but it can take the pain away", which to an extent it has been the case of missing one of my favorite music comrades. That said, knowing that even after someone is gone that it's possible to still feel connected to them through music both old and new is something that will always be priceless to me.
Death Of A Bachelor is in stores worldwide. Panic! At The Disco is heading out on tour with Weezer this summer. You can head here for dates.
[News] Reading & Leeds Festival Line-up Announced. Foo Fighters, The Cure, Kasabian Headlining
Every bank holiday weekend in August a music festival takes place in Leeds and Reading, both of which have the same line-up playing alternate days and as preciously reported, last night the line-up was finally released. Rumours had been flying around for quite some time about who would be making an appearance and it's always nice when the rumours become a reality. As you can see from the above poster, arena conquerors Foo Fighters will return to their comfortable headline slot with The Black Keys playing before them. The Cure will also make a return to the festival, their first in 30 years! Paramore will play beneath them. Florence & The Machine will also play beneath Kasabian on the 3rd day.
Other artists announced in this first round include Justice, Maccabees and At The Drive in heading up the NME stage with the line-up being filled out by riff mongrels Pulled Apart By Horses who will open up main stage on the Friday at Leeds. Also filling out the bill are Cancer Bats, Crystal Castles, The Cribs, Miike Snow, The Horrors and SBTRKT. The Shins will make their return also! Soak it all in and make the jump to see which bands play which day at the two festivals. See you there!
Every bank holiday weekend in August a music festival takes place in Leeds and Reading, both of which have the same line-up playing alternate days and as preciously reported, last night the line-up was finally released. Rumours had been flying around for quite some time about who would be making an appearance and it's always nice when the rumours become a reality. As you can see from the above poster, arena conquerors Foo Fighters will return to their comfortable headline slot with The Black Keys playing before them. The Cure will also make a return to the festival, their first in 30 years! Paramore will play beneath them. Florence & The Machine will also play beneath Kasabian on the 3rd day.
Other artists announced in this first round include Justice, Maccabees and At The Drive in heading up the NME stage with the line-up being filled out by riff mongrels Pulled Apart By Horses who will open up main stage on the Friday at Leeds. Also filling out the bill are Cancer Bats, Crystal Castles, The Cribs, Miike Snow, The Horrors and SBTRKT. The Shins will make their return also! Soak it all in and make the jump to see which bands play which day at the two festivals. See you there!
FRIDAY IN READING, SATURDAY IN LEEDS MAIN STAGE
The Cure
Paramore
Bombay Bicycle Club
You Me At Six
Crystal Castles
Angels and Airwaves
Coheed and Cambria
Cancer Bats
Deaf Havana
NME/RADIO 1 STAGE
The Maccabees
Foster The People
The Courteeners
SATURDAY IN READING, SUNDAY IN LEEDS MAIN STAGE
Kasabian
Florence & The Machine
The Vaccines
Enter Shikari
The Shins
Odd Future
Mystery Jets
Blood Red Shoes
NME/RADIO 1 STAGE
At The Drive-In
The Cribs
Billy Talent
Miike Snow
SUNDAY IN READING, FRIDAY IN LEEDS MAIN STAGE
Foo Fighters
The Black Keys
Kaiser Chiefs
Bullet For My Valentine
All Time Low
The Gaslight Anthem
Eagles Of Death Metal
Band Of Skulls
Pulled Apart By Horses
NME/RADIO 1 STAGE
Justice
Two Door Cinema Club
The Horrors
SBTRKT
[Listen] Paramore - "Hello Cold World"
Today Paramore released a new track as part of their Singles Club collection where fans can pre-pay to get three new songs from the band over the course of a few months. After previously releaseing "Renegade" the band followed up today with the latest single, "Hello Cold World". The third and final single, "In The Mourning" will be available on December 5th.
Bay area radio station Live 105 has the full stream of the song (and if you're fairly decent at reading HTML a goodie for you to download in their embed code) which you can check out below.
[Listen] Lupe Fiasco - "Airplanes" (Demo) Feat. Hayley Williams
So here's the original version of B.o.B's hit track "Airplanes" featuring Paramore's Hayley Williams which was originally intended for Lupe Fiasco's LASERS. Check out the story behind track from Lupe below:
“I was actually working on a session in Chung King [Studios], and [Atlantic Records chairman] Craig Kallman called me during that session with that particular track, to work on it for Lupe Fiasco,” Jonsin told MTV News. “I told Craig, ‘I like the song a lot. It’s a smash and could be somebody’s single. But it’s not Lupe’s record. I need this record for B.o.B. Please give this record to B.o.B.’ I guess they went through whoever they went through, convinced whoever they needed to, and it got to B.o.B.”
This isn't the first time B.o.B has got a hit single from his labelmate. The orginal version of "Nothin on You" with Bruno Mars was also originally intended for Lupe but was later given to Bobby Ray as his first single off his debut album. Man, it just seems like the original LASERS album woulda destroyed the released product. Let us know what you guys think of this alternate version in the comments below.
Lupe Fiasco - "Airplanes" (Demo) Feat. Hayley Williams by Some Kind of Awesome
[Listen] Tunnel - "Hide Your Eyes" (Ex Paramore Drummer's New Project)
This weekend Paramore announced that two of their members, Zac and Josh Farro were leaving to persue different paths. Now that's a pretty big decision to make as Paramore are pretty much dominating the world right now. I also found it highly unusual last month when at a Local Natives gig in Manchester seeing Josh chilling at the bar, yet no-one in the hipster crowd knew who he was, but that could become more of a regular thing for him now that he has parted ways with the band.