Redux: Saves the Day, “In Reverie”

I’ve essentially owned “In Reverie” three times. I found it years ago, shortly after it was released, at the $.99 bin at Underdawg Records in lower Queen Anne. I listened to it and found a few tracks to be pretty decent, but not enough to keep my attention, or to really keep the CD. I sold it soon afterwards and went along my merry way.

When Saves the Day released “Bug Sessions Vol. 1,” the acoustic version of “In My Waking Life” blew me away and I suddenly regretted parting with my copy of the album from which it came from. Like all great music fans, I found a copy online and downloaded it and fell in love with the album. Not too long ago, I found it for $3 at a Half-Price Books and snatched it up with the quickness.

In many ways, it’s a natural progression from “Stay What You Are” – Chris Conley’s lyrics are still biting, clever and delicate. The polished production is very much in the favor of the album and “In Reverie’s” big rock sound is an accurate of a time when Saves the Day was playing arenas with the likes of Green Day, Blink 182 and Weezer.

Unfortunately, the record tanked for a variety of reasons and the band went into a hiatus for a couple of years before releasing anything new.

This kind of slump from a critically and commercially successful record is something that’s seen often but it’s been happening to several bands like Fall Out Boy and Plain White T’s (who, surprisingly, released the ridiculously catchy “Big Bad World” in 2008). But if they can follow the sample that Saves the Day put forth, it’s that a few years to regroup can lead to some pretty amazing music.

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Why I am Not Watching "Watchmen"

As anybody who knows me is aware of, I'm sort of a comic book nerd. And not the kind of asshole who will dismiss every comic book movies because, let's face it, the print medium allows for a lot more leeway in terms of what can be accomplished versus the film medium. I love the Chris Nolan Batman movies as much as I love The Rocketeer and the three X-Men films.

Historically, Alan Moore's work has seldom translated well to film and Moore tends to distance himself from every bit of work of his that has been adapted (see: V for Vendetta, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, From Hell, etc.). Watchmen is by far most popular work (next to maybe "The Killing Joke") and with all the hype surrounding it, I'm far more interested in watching "I Love You, Man."

The fact of the matter is that Watchmen was a great story for the 1980s, but these ideals that were explored in the graphic novel have been redone and, in the case of Kingdom Come, done much better. More than anything, however, there's about a million douchebags who are just discovering this shit now which makes it all the more anti-climatic.

Boycott the Watchmen.

Review: Two Tongues, “Two Tongues”

Two Tongues
“Self-Titled”
(Vagrant)

On paper the combination of Say Anything maestro Max Bemis and genre stalwart/Saves the Day frontman Chris Conley is a great idea. Recently, the pair collaborated for a project called Two Tongues (along for the ride, Bemis and Conley are jointed by S.A. drummer Coby Linder and STD guitarist Dave Soloway taking the bass duties).

For the most part, “Two Tongues” is enjoyable. The album starts off pretty strong with Bemis and Conley trading much of the vocal duties. The first two tracks, “Crawl” and “If I Could Make you Do Things” are remarkably good and could be very big radio hits. Midway, however, the album falters and the novelty of a Say Anything-meets-Saves the Day superband gets rather stale.

At the end of the day, there’s really only about an EPs worth of excellent material, but if this project is ever sequelized, it will be interesting to see where Bemis and Conley will go with it.

Special V-Day Video: MxPx, "Want Ad"

No matter how many crappy albums they put out, the first four MxPx albums (as well as "Let it Happen") will always have a special place in my heart. Enjoy.

breathe easy

Apparently Blink 182 announced their intent to reunite on the Grammys last night. I did not see it live because a) I was eating some sweet apple pie at B&O and b) the Grammys are dumb. Actually, all award shows are pretty dumb. Anyway here are some stray observations:

1. Mark Hoppus is clearly the attention hog between the three

2. Tom DeLonge looked super awkward (and fat).

3. I half expected Travis Barker to rip the envelope open with his teeth. It would've been hilarious if he did.

I could shit on this whole announced reunion as I have done to many other bands in the past (Get Up Kids, Hot Water Music, I'm looking at you), but I won't. The 15 year old in me is too stoked.