Relient K Band • Page 89

gonna run back Air For Free today, always a great listen

 

The past few weeks I've been playing through their discography (Two Lefts... and forward) and again, I can't believe I slept on these records. I don't even remember Mmhmm being this good when it came out. Granted I was like 13-ish, but still. I think Forget and Not Slow Down is my favorite. Air For Free is also really solid. Yeah, can't get into Collapsible Lung, and I need to give Four Score another play through.

 

I don’t think there’s any real reason to believe they won’t do anything ever again. I think they just have weird way of promoting themselves and just sort of do what they want. That said, it wouldn’t be at all surprising if they just never made any sort of announcement and never released anything again lol.

 

AFF would be a fitting way to end things on, but I would be really sad to never hear those songs live.

 

AFF would be a great final album but it would be a let down if they just faded away without a final sendoff. I still think in the next few years there will be another album and hopefully another tour. The AFF songs sounded great live when they did their tour with Switchfoot a few years ago.

 

Personally I've been pining for a 10 year Forget tour, but I'm skeptical if it will happen. That album is at least as good if not better than MMHMM.

 

It's way better than Mmhmm.

 

I dunno, I could see them playing a few FANSD shows but not a full tour. Similar to what Jimmy Eat World did with Futures.

 

I heard from a little bird that Hoopes wanted to do a 10 year FANSD tour and Thiessen didn’t. So they’re not.

 

Can you ask that little bird if RK have any show plans coming up?

 

They are indefinitely on hiatus.

 

My hopes for a FANSD tour were ignited and then immediately extinguished

 

Not surprised at all about this. I mean, the title of the record kind of says it all.

 

I'm not expecting to hear from Relient K for a long, long time. But I am expecting to hear from them again one day. I'm ok with that because Air For Free was brilliant.

It's funny because the silence between FANSD was infuriating (possibly due to being a younger person and feeling entitled to an album every three years) and the silence between Collapsible Lung and Air For Free was infuriating (because Collapsible Lung was ultimately underwhelming and it felt like they had just ended without a proper goodbye). Silence and an indefinite hiatus now seems more natural and expected. I wish them well with all their endeavours and hope both Matts are ok.

Glad to see that Thiessen is enjoying the Earthquakes side of things and has played a few shows. Hopefully we'll get another album there at some point.

 

Yeah I loved Wind Up Bird so I'm ok if he just does that for a while.

 

Does anyone know why they lost so much steam between Five Score and Forget?

Like, I'm pretty sure they got dropped after Five Score, but was that album really that unsuccessful?

 

Five Score hit number 6 on the Billboard 200 selling 64,000 in the first week. Not bad (and a higher position than mmhmm).

Apart from leaving a major, I don't think they really lost steam until after FANSD.

 

That is pretty damn good! Even Collapsible Lung hit like 15 I think

 

I wish I liked Wind Up Bird more...sort of came and went for me. Never really feel like going back to it...

 

I like it more than most RK honestly.

 

I love Mmhmm. My mom bought me that one from church lol. Very good record, same with five score.

 

Mmhmm still holds up for me. Crazy that it turns 15 this year.

 

Yeah, I felt like the song just all blended together and didn't feel like an album, but more like a collection of thoughts/demos.

Need to revisit it.

 

Wind Up Bird is cool but every song feels like it's ALMOST great, and then doesn't quite get there.

 

RK fans really used to get spoiled knowing there would be either an album or EP coming out every year. Their EP's were always solid, a lot of those tracks could have been on the full length albums. That was a crazy pace from 2000-2010, there had to be at least a dozen albums and EP's released.

As far as slowing down, it seems like they just got involved with a lot of other projects. I know Hoopes produced a few albums and Matt T wrote with other bands/artists. I think they were more involved with the Mono vs Stereo label for a while too.