living the dream

So for people that we’re looking forward to reading the memoir I planned on writing on here; Good news: I’ve finished the first chapter of it which details four days in Vegas with The Summer Set. Bad news: A lawyer has advised me to not post it until I have written confirmation from a specific person who is mentioned because we feel that they will have the biggest problem with what I am going to write about them. 

Since I haven’t talked to that person in about a year and a half and I am on very bad terms with them, we really don’t know how long this might take to hear back from them. Also, I want to warn people that parts of what I plan on writing in the next few months will be pretty graphic in terms of drug use and sex. 

Hopefully I can have this posted in the next few days!

Not sure if many people read my entire Elsie review (It was very long) but at the bottom of it, I wrote about a new project I am going to be working on.

I will be writing my memoirs on here starting next week. I’m really not completely sure how this will work out but once a week (I think?) I will be posting what is essentially a chapter of a memoir of my life. I might make it shorter due to this being the internet age with ADD. My goal is to then have it published with new edits. 

This will detail the events of my life from August 2009 to March 2010. At this time, I had taken about 6 months off from touring and had been in a very unhealthy relationship. It will start from the first time this girl and I broke up and I had gone back on tour with The Summer Set. There will be many underlying themes to this which include: displacement, alcoholism, coping with mental disorders, falling out of love, amongst many other topics. 

Album Review: The Horrible Crowes - Elsie

If you’ve ever talked to me or read anything I’ve ever written, it will be very easy for you to understand how passionate I am about the things I like. Lost, Bruce Springsteen, Big Fish, The Catcher In The Rye, and especially, The Gaslight Anthem. Most people know that I am a die-hard fan of The Gaslight Anthem; Who I consider to be the best band to be started in the past 20 years. When I found out frontman Brian Fallon would be teaming up with his guitar tech to release a new project, The Horrible Crowes, saying I was just excited would be almost insulting. I was ecstatic. I don’t think I had ever been this excited to hear a record. 

What made this project so interesting was that Fallon said it would be nothing similar to The Gaslight Anthem, that it would be an album built on the moods that you only feel at night time, and also that they talked about it for about 3 months before a single clip of a song was released online. The thing that intrigued me the most was how a record could sound like night time. Then I continued to consider how different records sound better at different times of the year. Beirut, Sigur Ros, and Lydia sound much better in the fall when it’s a little colder. Artists like Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens, and City & Colour sound better in December. And it’s not necessarily that they sound better; They capture the mood better when it’s cloudy and cold out. 

When I played the first song, Last Rites, it was very apparent how this record would be better in the fall in the night time. Very atmospheric with a piano that sustains most of the song and shakers but very little percussion. The last line “My baby just ain’t no good.” sets the mood, lyrically, for most of the record. It then jumps into a song called Sugar. This song showcases the new sound very well; Dark, moody, and filled with soul. It almost has an early 90s adult contemporary vibe, as well. I would recommend showing this one to older people who might have trouble getting into The Horrible Crowes, as well as Gaslight. 

My main concern for this record was that it might sound too much like The Gaslight Anthem. I mean, I wouldn’t mind that. But when you’re expecting to hear something different, you’re much more excited. Well, my concerns weren’t a problem as this record sounds nothing like a Gaslight record. The biggest crossover to The Gaslight Anthem that occurs would be track 3, Behold The Hurricane. It could easily have been on American Slang but it’s on this record and that’s really the only comparison you can make to any Gaslight record.

This record sounds much more soulful and classic rock than a Gaslight record (Which is saying a lot) and you can really hear it on songs like I Witnessed A Crime and Go Tell Everybody (Which I would say could very well be a song by The Police). This record is really time and genre bending. This record could’ve been released at any time period and I feel that it would be an instant classic. Ladykiller is a great example of this. It has a soul similar to that of Sugar; Very 90’s-esque about being young and in love with someone who can’t make up their mind. 

A month ago, clips of all the songs were released online. My least anticipated song to hear was called Crush. This song sounded way too poppy and fun to be sang by Fallon. It seemed almost immature. ”I know a secret/Everybody tell/Who goes to heaven?/Who goes to hell?/I know one thing sure is true/I’ve never kept a secret/I’ve got a crush on you” This is a prime reason to never let a 30 second clip of a song fool you. This ends up being one of the coolest songs on the record with one of the best endings I’ve ever heard. It’s just a beautiful song about being young and the random crushes that come along with that. It also has very strong religious undertones: “Sometimes, I’m up Lord/Sometimes I’m down/God’s gonna trouble the waters/If you should go to heaven before I do/God’s gonna trouble the waters/I’ve got a crush on you”

The night time and autumn vibes are very strong on tracks like Cherry Blossoms, Black Betty and the Moon, Blood Loss and I Believe Jesus Brought Us Together. These songs capture the mood of this record best. Most are slower with a lot of dissonance and atmosphere. Most are also filled with strings, acoustic guitars and different types of pianos. This makes the most notable differences between The Horrible Crowes and The Gaslight Anthem. While TGA does write some beautiful songs, they don’t write these kind of beautiful songs.

I apologize that this might be poorly written but I just listened to the record for the first time and wanted to get a review up as soon as I could. Elsie is now streaming on RollingStone.com and I highly recommend you go listen to it. This generation is filled with horrible bands but people need to not lose faith in good music, especially rock and roll. Good music still exists and Brian Fallon, The Gaslight Anthem and The Horrible Crowes are the proof of that.

Also: Next week, I am going to be starting an online series of blogs which will be memoirs from my life from August 2009 to March 2010. This was the time in which I went on my last tour with The Summer Set. It’ll detail from my first trip to Las Vegas with the band, to being re-hired by them, to taking a train to Philadelphia for no reason, to going back to working a “real” job and what happens when you’ve been traveling non stop then going back to a routine life style. 

This is going to be insanely long but I really hope you read all of it: 

There are only a few interests that I have that I consider I have been exceptionally talented at: Acting, creative writing, music business/management and playing poker.

For the past year, I have revolved my life around poker. I have studied almost every theory, strategy, and idea about the game as I possibly could. I have sat down for hours upon hours and tried to make a fool-proof bankroll management plan for myself. I have built my bankroll but also have had my downswings. The problem is that I wasn’t playing enough and my winrates weren’t strong enough. The more I have thought about playing professionally, the more it became a pipe dream. 

About three and a half years ago, I was hired by a band called The Summer Set as a merchandiser. After one tour, I was promoted to tour manager. We were a group of 18 year old kids who really had no idea what we were doing but we were having a hell of a time and trying our best to be professional. I was on top of the world. I was loving it primarily because my friends in high school who had just worked so hard to get good grades were posting Facebook statuses like, “I hate my calculus professor.” and I was waking up in a new city every morning and meeting new people every day. 

After working with The Summer Set and a couple other artists for a little over a year, I took about 6 months off to focus on other things. After a while, I became so bored with such a mundane and routine lifestyle, I decided to go back on the road with The Summer Set. There was a minor problem: In that 6 months, my anxiety disorder I had from when I was younger suddenly came back and I had been drinking very heavily. Both of these factors forced the band to have to find a new tour manager after about a month into the tour. I will never forgive myself, not for losing a job, but for letting down my best friends who gave me such an amazing opportunity in my life.

Not only did I lose a job, I ended up burning bridges and losing references with certain people in the music industry. I had went home and started working random jobs at restaurants in Arizona but I was so bored with life. As time rolled on, I became more accustomed to that lifestyle and because I was content with it, I ended up meeting the love of my life. Now, almost two years after I have left touring, I am left with nothing at all. I am now seeing all my friends who I used to laugh about being in school, now graduated. One of my friends even published his memoir about his college experience. 

Feeling distraught over this situation of feeling like nothing, my best friend and I went out for a few beers. We were discussing how we hadn’t graduated, let alone finished much schooling at all. And I figured out that it is because we both aren’t ready to be adults yet. While the majority of our friends are starting a career that they will have for the next 35 years, we don’t even know what we want to do yet. After hearing this, I became a lot more content with my impending choices. 

Ok, let’s move back and talk about my anxiety a little more. I have always had a bit of anxiety, no matter the point in my life. Sometimes, it’s very minor. Sometimes, it’s very severe. Right now, it’s the latter. My anxiety has become so intense over the past four months, I can barely leave my house and apartment. I also can’t: Drive a car, drive on the freeway with another person driving, be in large open places such Target or a grocery store, walk long distances if it’s in an open area, be around more than 20 people at once, amongst other things. It’s literally ripped apart my life. I have been medicated Celexa for this but every time I have had severe anxiety problems in my life, I have been able to fix it myself. But as this goes further, I feel that I need to take medication and I am going to start on Tuesday. 

In the time that I have been confined to my house and apartment, I have been watching a LOT of Netflix. I have Instant Stream on at almost all times. I have been watching a lot of dramas, action/adventures, LOST, and That 70’s Show. A few performances have stuck out in my mind: Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, Robin Williams in What Dreams May Come, Almost every performance in LOST. Especially, Matthew Fox as Jack Sheppard and Terry O’Quinn as John Locke. Also Topher Grace as Eric Forman and Ashton Kutcher as Michael Kelso in That 70’s Show are very note-worthy. After watching these performances, I had so many mixed feelings: How much I missed acting, where I might be right now if I pursued acting after high school, and most importantly, how I can get back into acting. 

As of January 2012, I will be going back to school and pursuing a degree in Entertainment Business from Full Sail University. In that same time, I will be taking acting classes at a university that I haven’t chosen yet. After all of this, the plan is to move to New York to either A) Attempt to get into Julliard. B) Look for my future career. 

Thank you so much if you took the time to read this. 

Album Review: Everything’s Fine

This being my first blog in a very long time, I thought I’d review The Summer Set’s ‘Everything’s Fine’. 

When The Summer Set released their first record, Love Like This, in 2009, their ages ranged from 18 to 20. Now, ranging from 20 to 22, they have experienced much more as their lives progressed. It really is amazing how much you can experience in two years, especially when you are living your life on the fringes of society in what most people consider an unorthodox lifestyle. The band toured almost non-stop and experienced things that very few people will ever experience. 

To say that the band progressed musically from 2009 to 2011 would be a heavy understatement. What I would consider to be the biggest difference between Love Like This and Everything’s Fine would be the lyricism. The songs on EF have much more soul and much more truth in them than anything on Love Like This. By soul, I don’t mean the genre - But the songs tell a story and it’s easy to believe that these stories actually happened.

While talking about storytelling and how it relates to the writing of Everything’s Fine, I feel that it is important to point out that Everything’s Fine could definitely be considered a concept album. Every song tells a piece of a story of one person’s first love and almost everything that happened in that time. It’s story of a boy so in love with a girl that he managed to put her in front of everything else, despite his plate being loaded with priorities. It’s personally the most heartbreaking and beautiful love story I know of. 

One of the best things about Everything’s Fine is it’s consistency, which is one department I felt that Love Like This lacked in. It feels like this is the sound the band was always going for but were never able to achieve previously. Every song flows into each other seamlessly. These songs just sound honest. You can tell that they believe in what they are writing. The record was originally supposed to titled “Naked” which I felt would fit very well due to the open nature of this record.

I still feel that Everything’s Fine is the best title though; Everyone who has been in a relationship can relate to the title. Adding the =( to the title completely changes the connotation of it. This is what everyone can relate to. It’s that point in a failing relationship when you try to tell yourself that everything’s fine when it’s the complete opposite. 

When I first discussed the record with the band after hearing About A Girl for the first time, I was told that About A Girl is basically the thesis for the record. After hearing the record, I can absolutely agree on it. About A Girl is a stand out track on the record because it doesn’t actually tell a piece of the progressing story but more of an overview of everything on the record. 

When describing this record to someone who hasn’t heard anything, the best I could do would be: OneRepublic meets The Lion King meets Train meets Parachute. Perfect examples of this would be Thick as Thieves, Someone Like You, and Love To You. The OneRepublic vibes are definitely apparent on Back To The Start.

While The Summer Set took a new approach on this record, they still have songs comparable to their older music. These influences are obvious on songs like Begin Again, Mannequin and Must Be The Music. 

With all praise comes complaints. This is that part. I honestly only have one complaint about this record and it’s the order of the tracklist. I understand why it is the way it is but I enjoy it in a chronological order to where it tells the story in order. The way it currently is tells the story out of order but certain songs are placed where they are for better effect. About A Girl and Don’t Let Me Go absolutely needed to be the opener and closer, respectively. Don’t Let Me Go works amazingly as the closer for the album. It also has some of the strongest lasting power out of The Summer Set’s entire catalog. It’s a song that will stay in your mind for the next hour while thinking about the emotions of the writer.

I feel like, as a concept album, it would be more effective in the order listed below. With all due respect to the band and the original order of the songs, I recommend re-ordering the songs on your iTunes in this order to tell a chronological story.

1. About A Girl

2. Love To You

3. Someone Like You

4. Mona Lisa

5. Must Be The Music

6. Thick As Thieves

7. Mannequin

8. Back To The Start

9. When We Were Young

10. Don’t Let Me Go

11. Begin Again

I’m sure most of you have already picked up Everything’s Fine. If you haven’t it’s in stores, on iTunes and available on their current tour with We The Kings!

So, I’m going to make a list of my 50 favorite songs of all time. I won’t allow myself to post more than one song by each band and I will not change my original answer after I’ve posted it (If I think of a different song from a band after I’ve posted this, I’m not going to change it.) This isn’t in any given order.

1. The Gaslight Anthem - The Backseat

2. Death Cab For Cutie - Stable Song

3. Eric Clapton - Layla

4. KISS - Beth

5. Taylor Swift - The Best Day

6. Kanye West - Big Brother 

7. Jay-Z - A Dream

8. The Killers - All These Things That I’ve Done

9. Sleep Station - Oh, Mary

10. Stars - Set Yourself On Fire

11. Garth Brooks - That Summer

12. Tim McGraw - Everywhere

13. George Strait - Living For The Night

14. Kings Of Leon - Knocked Up

15. Fun. - The Gambler

I’ll add more later

“Well, I do remember the swing in your step. The life of the party; you’re showing off again and I roll my eyes then you pull me in. I’m not much for dancing, before you I did. Because I love when you smiled meeting my mother.”

The humility involved in admitting to yourself that you might be falling in love with someone is an extremely poignant and intense experience. I’m really enjoying it. 

“Lydia: A Goodbye & Farewell”

Seven years ago this summer, (2003) I went to see Sum 41 play a show in a parking lot on top of a bus at a mall (Weird…?) I saw the opening band and thought they were decent. Didn’t really hear much about them. I walked past a poster for the show in the parking lot and I found out their name was Lydia. This was their first show ever and I think they had like 4 songs, Maria wasn’t in the band, and they weren’t as fine tuned as they would end up being.

Flash forward to a year later, (Summer 2004) I go to a local show at The Clubhouse in Tempe. At this point, there were two stages inside The Clubhouse so there was no waiting between sets. I’m walking from the bathroom towards another stage and I look over to the other stage and just hear the two prettiest voices I’ve ever heard harmonizing. I was instantly overwhelmed by the music and just stopped and watched the rest of their set. I come to find out this band is Lydia.

I instantly became a huge fan boy of Lydia; Buying any t-shirt they had, (I actually still have the first t-shirt they ever printed) buying all of their demos, going to any show they’d play, etc. As I went further down the rabbit hole, things ended up getting weirder. I had mutual friends with them and at random times, I’d end up being around them. This was the equivalent of the time Bruce Springsteen showed up to a Gaslight Anthem show.

One night, I was with about 6 friends and Lydia’s drummer (who I didn’t know that well) at a mexican restaurant. Somebody dared me to chug a bottle of hot sauce and of course, I said no because that’s fucking ridiculous. But when Lydia’s drummer asked me to do it…Well, I downed the bottle. And to this day, I still fan girl about that band despite one of my best friends being the person to fill in for Mindy on the final tour and me eventually becoming friends with all of the dudes.

Tonight will be the final show Lydia will be playing. So, here’s to seven years of one of the greatest bands Arizona has ever produced. I eventually became friends with these guys but I will always be a bigger fan. It’s been an honor to watch this band for a huge portion of my life.