Happy 15 years, Cork Tree. Such an important album for me. The end of my sophomore year in high school and the summer leading into my junior year. It was really around that time, and because of albums like this, that I started to learn about dealing with and expressing emotions. I remember it was also one of the first times that listening to music made me feel like I wasn't going through the things I was going through alone. I got to see FOB live for the first time the next spring on Black Clouds and Underdogs, and I've been a diehard fan ever since. I love these guys forever and ever.
Three Cheers hit 15 last summer and that's what did it for me. But this one doesn't help. Posting my thoughts on Twitter this morning about Cork Tree and saying that I was a sophomore/junior in high school, while realizing that a lot of my Twitter friends (turned into real life concert friends) were probably 6-7 years old when this album came out.
I have cousins who are like 13 or 14. So you're saying when FutCT came out they weren't even born? Dang.
I remember my friend's brother got him the CD when it came out, but he didn't like it so I borrowed it. Fell in love with them immediately. I was 10
I was one of those kids who hated FOB at first. When that new wave of pop punk bands started rising in 2003-2005, I thought most of them were shit (Yellowcards Ocean Avenue, FOBs TTTYG, All Time Low, Boys like girls, Hawthorne Heights are the ones I remember most.. I loved Motion City Soundtrack though)cause those were the albums that people told me I would love and to me they just didn’t hold and candle to blink, NFG, Sum 41, MxPx). It wasn’t until a few months after FUCT came out, i saw some kid at school speeding with his windows down listening to Dance Dance and I asked him what song that was cause it sounded so fucking cool. That day was when i became a FOB fan. It’s a great album, but IOH was my first FOB album and as a fan and was looking forward to it. Probably why to this day, TTTYG is my least favorite FOB album. No memories attached to it and it really is their worst
FUCT and IOH are still their best albums for me (literally whichever of the two I listened to more recently is always my favorite FOB album)
I personally think their best album (and most underrated) is Folie A Duex. That record is incredible and had the perfect balance of pop, rock, and soul. FUCT and IOH are pretty much tied for the second spot in my book.
Folié was such a cool direction for them, they didn’t really get back to that type of soulful songwriting until MANIA, which is why MANIAs probably tied with IOH at #2 for me
Here we go: Folie A Deux FUCT IOH TTTYG SRAR AB/AP Mania Honestly though - I never really listen to anything post Folie these days. There’s a few gems on each record post-reunion but they’re overall just not for me ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Since it's unofficial 504 Plan day, here's an old song (2003) featuring Patrick. 504 Plan were a Chicago pop-punk band from the early 2000's and contemporaries of FOB. Members of the band went on to be part of The Academy Is, Empires, Wax On Radio, and Panic At the Disco.
I always remember them on this day since it's my friend Cate's birthday (who I went to my first FOB show with, actually) and when we first met, before I knew her birthday, I got her AIM screen name and it had "504" in it and I (excitedly) asked her if it was for 504 Plan.
Haha Goodness, the early 2000's were such an awesome time to be a suburban teenager in Chicago who listened to pop punk.