I will second this and say that this is one of my favourite books I've ever read. Got the etext on my phone and literally could not stop reading and finished the whole thing by the end of day 1.
Also be sure to check out the documentary! Used to be on Prime, but last I saw, it wasn’t any longer.
Left of Self Centered is a weird one for me, as I started listening to Butch the same time as you. I used to really love it, but after stepping away from it and coming back it didn’t have the same effect it did originally. There’s still a few tracks I love, and I like all of it, I just think he’s overshadowed it on both sides. But I certainly wouldn’t complain if he decided to drop Alicia Amnesia back into the set
It's certainly an album that has dropped in my esteem as he's moved forward in his career and matured a lot as a songwriter. It probably doesn't help that he basically excised that album from his history as far as his live setlists are concerned. But it's still stacked with great songs, for me. I don't love stuff like "My Way" and "Suburbia" like I did when I was 14, but then there's "If" and "Take Tomorrow," which are both definitely up there with my favorite Butch songs.
I think Left of Self Centered is pretty great personally Another random question, does he ever play Freak of the Week live anymore? Just curious since it's probably his 1 song that your average non-fan would know.
Also - not sure I like Letters quite as much as everyone else seems to. I do like it......but it's not in my top 3. It definitely has a vibe though, very summery. Good album, just not my fave.
Here’s a 2015 bootleg with Freak of the Week (fan sung). There’s probably a million more on YouTube. 2015-05-22 Minneapolis, MN - Cedar Cultural Center - Google Drive
Did you ever listen to The Spade? Cause The Spade and Stay Gold are far and away my favourites. Seems like you'd love The Spade if you liked Stay Gold, just sayin'.
Interesting, I tried some of his earlier stuff but it never really grabbed me, this I haven't tried though! I'll check it out, thanks!
Damn, you weren't kidding! This give me the same "I feel like I should hate it, but end up loving it"-vibe that made Stay Gold so, so, good. Highlights on first listen Sweethearts, Summer of 89, and damn it if Synthesizers isn't a jam! I doubt it'll stay that way after more spins. Thanks so much for the recommendation!
Absolutely. I honestly like EVERY song on The Spade. All the ones you named especially plus Bodegas and Day Drunk.
Fuck yeah. I've had some more time with this and it has really grown on me! Day Drunk is so good! Closest thing to you I'm gonna find is really, really fucking good. He makes me feel nostalgic in a way I can't explain. Happily nostalgic. Like I'm looking back at moments in my life that I thoroughly enjoyed... I'm getting old, aren't I?? There's some many different parts on this album that I absolutely fucking love. Does he have any other stuff I might get into? I always thought he sounded a bit too "immature" (if that makes sense) on anything pre-Afraid of ghosts. Anything worth giving a second chance?
Give Sycamore Meadows a chance. It’s an excellent album. also make sure you track down Answering Machine Girl, the bonus track to The Spade
It came out in a weird way. If you preordered the album through Butch’s site, it was included in the download they made available on release date. But there was no mention of it being included or anything. It was just there. I think it later became the UK bonus track or something. Other tracks from the same sessions: Are You Getting All the Love You Need, I believe was from the same time, but released exclusively with some digital version of Butch’s book. In Bloom - A Nirvana cover that appeared on a freely released tribute album The Kids Don’t Care Anymore - there’s no studio version of this, but there’s a pretty high quality live recording from the residency the band did during their time recording the Spade (if anyone has a full recording of one of those by the way, uh... give it). The Out is Focus documentary gets into why this was eventually dropped from the album recording sessions.
Off topic, but i recently stumbled onto a three hour youtube video of Butch Walker and Eric Valentine talking about Weezer's Mexican Fender. If you have any interest in production or things like that, i highly recommend it. They open the pro tools session and go through it track by track, basically. It was very insightful to listen to these two talk about the creative process.