H2O - Go was a pinnacle album for me. I knowwwwww it's considered their "pop" album (which in every other world but hardcore world is crazy to say), but i think it's a great album. It's the album that really really really opened the punk world to me. And it was because of the major release of that album. But yes, they never play shit from this album because h2o fans consider it their pop album and i guess they must also agree to that notion. Other than GO, i agree FTTW is #1...and also agree that pretty much all h2o albums have at least a handful of classics. If i told someone who never heard h2o what album to listen to? FTTW definitely.
Go is a "pop" album in production alone. The songwriting is still pretty consistent with what they had been doing/have done since. Some of the tempos are a little slower, some of the intros aren't what they normally would have gone for previously or since then, etc. But it's still essentially the same band writing the same songs. With the same lyrics. With an added sheen to it. It's definitely a solid album with some huge stand-outs (for me, those are "Out Of Debt," "Self-Reliable," "Role Model," and "Memory Lane"). Just doesn't compare to the two post-reunion records or F.T.T.W.
planning out my schedule and thinking about the guy that yelled at me two years ago for not knowing how important jawbreaker was and I was like I was 2 when they broke up.
Tentatively mapped out my schedule each day, and god damn, Im going to be running a marathon on Saturday, sooo much back and forth from 2 main stages to the rebel stage in the first 1/2 of the day, and then constant bouncing in the evening to try and catch partials of rise against/wutang/slayer/bloc party
I've always wondered how that discussion went with the label. "You know that secret track on the album that you guys did for fun? Yeah, we want that to be the next single..." That and the All We Want E.P. that the band seems to hate, I've always been curious about how those came about. I mean, I know why they did the Madonna cover but why it was released as a single or whatever.
If you're a Mike Wiebe devotee and you've been wanting to see them live for a while now? Drakulas is worth checking out for at least a few songs. Especially since they aren't a very active band. Compared to Turnstile, who tour very regularly and are showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon. That's the move I'd make. Watch 85% of Turnstile's set but pop over to the smaller stage for a song or two from Drakulas set to see if it grabs me.
Speaking of Wiebe, has Riverboat Gamblers ever played? Or played recently? I saw them at Warped 2010 while waiting for a We Are the In Crowd signing, have since gotten into them, and want to see them at some point.
They played back in 2009 but I don’t think that they have since. Which is too bad because I love seeing him do crazy stuff. Edit: I guess I forgot about that 2010 show since I must have gone to a different late show that night.