This is very much how I feel. Not counting on it being good but also stoked on some potential jams. If not, who cares?
Yeah if they put out a bad album I won’t really care because I’ll forget about it but if it’s good, we win
Yeah honestly I feel this. As much as I am annoyed with Tom these days and will certainly vocalize it ... I still listen. AVA and blink meant a lot to me and I’ll still give it an honest chance. I will defend the first 3 AVA albums to this day. Everything after ... meh. I really liked Voyager on the last EP, tbh.
Idk Dream walker has its moments. Ilan brought fresh ideas to the band, but if you can mix some of that experiemental (for AVA) song writing with the ‘strength’ of some of those earlier tracks, it could be a return to form. Or it could suck ass
I feel a very big challenge for Tom to overcome was losing essentially the unsung 5th memeber of AVA in their prime. Jeff Newell (known as Critter) was his producer and sound engineer and helped staple that signature “AVA sound.” I really enjoyed his sound and production, and he’s truly missed and still bummed about that.
Idk, only because there’s some movement in this thread, I’ll add that I think Ilan ruined AvA but I’m glad Tom feels pushed. I am pretty sure Ilan had little to nothing to do with the EPs though, right?
I don’t think he did much with Chasing Shadows, but I believe the Of Nightmares he assisted there. I’m kinda going on memory. I wouldn’t say it was Ilan who “ruined AVA” (if you didn’t care for TDW), I would blame it on Tom and his lack of keeping the band a full time thing and forcing the guys to leave. He allowed it to get where it was and I think they got sick of his shit. Trying to toggle 2 full time bands (one being obviously massive) at a time when you didn't really want to even pursue music was bad planning and tough to maintain. Atom literally wanted a full time band playing drums so he found a great home with Against Me! David started a coffee company, and Matt got a stable job doing I think finance or accounting type stuff.
I with Atom he just wanted to tour more as well. He also did say to me one time he’d definitely go back if it all fell into place with his schedule.
I thought everyone knew about Critter's passing. The Diary music video was a dedication to him. The spoken word at the beginning and end was actually taken from Critter's diary.
Yeah he passed away on New Years Eve too, it sucks. He was Tom's sound engineer and producer for the first four AVA albums. He helped create that "AVA sound" Tom was trying to create (that "space rock", atmospherical, big build U2 sound) and you can hear the big difference from LOVE to TDW. It is good Ilan helped push him out of his comfort zone on TDW: as it was a pretty standard critique every AVA song sounded the same. However, my ears enjoy how those albums sounded. Ahhh you beat me to it manoverboard365, I was just about to recommend to watch that Diary video. That was Tom and Ilan's first song together and it was very nice to do it as a tribute to Critter.
I saw AVA at one of those smaller SoCal shows back in 2012... In fact, it was Ilan's first show with the band, first of that SoCal tour... They came out with a Diary "intro" to the set, before anyone knew what it was... Man dude, the way it built up the excitement and energy in the room, it was unreal. In fact... Forgot that I shot this lol. When you were there though, you felt it.
On the most recent Last Podcast on the Left episode about Skinwalker Ranch, they briefly talk about Tom and TTS and their government disclosures. Wish they dove more into it though. I just get a kick out of that sorta stuff, but not enough to devote my life to it haha.
Oh my god I work for History and haven't heard anything about this. Part of me is excited to possibly see Tom in the office, another part is worried that this'll be an absolute mess to work on lol