Liner Notes (April 10th, 2021)

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This week’s newsletter, like all of them, looks at the music, movies, and tv shows I enjoyed over the past week. There’s also a playlist of ten songs I enjoyed this week and the supporter Q&A post can be found here.

If you’d like this newsletter delivered to your inbox each week (it’s free and available to everyone), you can sign up here.

Two Things

• I hope everyone had a good week this week. Mine ended up being busier than usual, but I have grown to enjoy those weeks more when the work itself is stimulating and challenging. My mom got her first vaccine dose, and now that Hannah is completed vaccinated, part of me is starting to see the finish line of this past year. I’m hoping to get the shot the moment I can and then going to cross my fingers for minimal side effects. Hannah had basically none. It also means that my cousin’s (outdoor) wedding in September will probably be happening, so I’m happy for her. That meant I spent this morning shopping for a new suit. I own one suit that I bought for a friend’s wedding back in like 2008 or something, and it does not fit anymore (way too big). Usually, I just rent a suit, but I figure with the world (hopefully) opening back up, it would make sense to be an adult and own a suit. Hannah will have more concerts she’ll be performing, or as part of her new job putting on, and there will be more occasions where on short notice I should probably wear a suit. This is the most adult thing I’ve done in a while, but I have enjoyed doing all the research around the various options and looking at replacing my, also ancient, dress shoes. I find this stage of adulthood … interesting. Is interesting the right word?
• This (very good) essay was going around a lot this week about digital memories and the way it can be painful to see specific photos, and it’s had me thinking a whole lot about living most of my life online and what that’s meant. It also makes me incredibly thankful that the worst parts of AbsolutePunk no longer exist.

Sponsor

Pacific Ridge have released a New Found Glory cover album featuring 33 artists covering 33 classic New Found Glory songs. Today We’re No Gentlemen have debuted a video for their rendition of “Vicious Love,” and all of the songs can be streamed on your platform of choice.

In Case You Missed It

• All Time Low Perform on Kimmel
• Julien Baker Performs on Corden
• Florrie – “Walk Away”
• AFI Share Two New Songs
• Jughead’s Revenge – “American Gestures”
• Mark Hoppus Playing “Anthem Part 2” on Twitch
• Record Store Day 2021 Releases
• Paramore Release Tiny Hot Topic Bitch T-Shirt
• Sufjan Stevens Announces New 5-Volume Album
• Rage Against the Machine Reschedule Tour for 2022
• Twenty One Pilots Announce New Album
• The Maine – “April 7th”
• Albums in Stores – Apr. 9th, 2021

Music Thoughts

• Florrie released a new single, and it’s one of her best yet. I’m just begging for an album at this point.
• The embargo on reviews of the new Manchester Orchestra remains, but I did find it rather funny that some didn’t get that the last blurb in last week’s newsletter was … uh … about this album. Shhh, don’t tell anyone.
• I got on a mini-Marianas Trench kick this week, and spun their records again for the first time in a while. Masterpiece Theatre remains an absolute stunner of an album—very solid discography all around.
• I’ve never been a huge Taylor Swift Fearless fan, and the new recordings don’t do a whole lot to change that for me. Some of the vault songs are pretty good, but this has just never been my favorite version of Taylor, and so I find the entire idea behind the re-records much for interesting than the actual music itself. Related to that, I found this thread a good read, and this little nugget in a response fascinating as well.
• This Dream Job album is a nice little pop-punk release with some good guitar riffs and youthful angst. It would have been a summer obsession back in 2003.
• I haven’t listened to the new AFI songs, or the new Maine song, because I want to wait to hear the entire album. I did listen to the new Twenty One Pilots track and liked it more than I have anything from that band since the Mute Math sessions.
• I am very into this new Chaser album. It’s basically an old school sounding skate punk release. It’s catchy, fast, and I keep putting it on repeat and tapping my toes for hours. Very into this.

Entertainment Thoughts

• There’s no good reason for the Tom & Jerry movie to exist. It’s also not that bad, but it’s not really anything at all. It was a “let’s give it 15 minutes,” and that turned into “eh, this doesn’t suck, we don’t really have anything better to scratch that dumb entertainment itch, I guess we’ll finish it.” I can’t really recommend it, but I also … didn’t hate it?
• Defending Jacob was as I expected. Predictable, but not amazing. I don’t have many thoughts about it beyond that. It was just there.
• After watching so much bleakness over the past few weeks, we wanted something that was a completely different tone and so decided to try out that Julie and the Phantoms on Netflix. What a joy. It’s got an old-school Disney channel show feel to it, but I found it charming and entertaining as hell. And the music was, dare I say, pretty damn good as well. Some legit good original songs performed well, and even a Panic! at the Disco mention in the final episode. Netflix should renew this show, it deserves a second season, and it made me want to re-watch Sing Street. I’ve got a complete soft spot for these coming of age mixed with the power of music stories. More, please.
• Hannah had a few nights last week and a few coming up, where she’ll be working late nights, so I started a re-watch of Mad Men. I’m four episodes in, and my word, what a great show.
• I watched the first four episodes of Invincible, and am mad at myself for having done so because I thought the entire season had dropped. It hadn’t. Now I have to wait and watch one per week. Boooo. On the one hand, the first three episodes are fantastic. If you like comic books, this is quite good (and gory). The fourth was only ok, but I’ve heard good things about the latest episode, and I plan to watch that as soon as I finish this. I’m also going to buy the comic set. I can’t decide if I want to read the entire story now or wait for the show to finish? Decisions. Decisions.

Random and Personal Stuff

• Not much on my mind in this category this week.

Ten Songs

Here are ten songs that I listened to and loved this week. Some may be new, some may be old, but they all found their way into my life during the past seven days.

1. Florrie – Walk Away
2. La Bouquet – Easy
3. Dream Job – Afterlife and Times
4. Matt and Kim – You Don’t Own Me
5. Scott Sellers – Back to Reality
6. Twenty One Pilots – Shy Away
7. Skullcrusher – Storm in Summer
8. Chaster – 2020
9. PONY – Chokecherry
10. LUN – Girl Brain

This playlist is available on Spotify and Apple Music.

Community Watch

The trending and popular threads in our community this week include:

• Twenty One Pilots – Scaled and Icy (May 21, 2021)
• Weekly Poll: Favorite Pink Floyd Album
• Director Spotlight: Guillermo del Toro
• 1963 in film.
• 1964 in film.
• General Politics Discussion VIII
• Blink-182
• Nintendo
• Tour Prediction and Speculation Thread
• Pokemon GO (mobile)

The most liked post in our forums last week was this one by emt0853 in the “General Politics Discussion VIII” thread.

Previous editions of Liner Notes can be found here.

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