I think about how many words I wrote about this band in the AP.net days (reviewing IDOTG, Anarcy, and Hebrews) and how much this shit sucks. To have some really fond memories of the band and Max to just end up like this sucks. I am sure @Jason Tate probably feels similar to me especially with the IARB review and everything I remember sitting in my office at Spin and Max just randomly called me to talk about his new comic book and the next Say Anything record (I think Lucy had just been born - this was 2013) and just having a really great genuine conversation with him and was one of the best interviews I feel like I ever submitted to this site. this shit just sucks.
how did you not see this coming, anarchy and Hebrews are absolute train wreck dumpster fires with zero redeeming qualities (especially Hebrews), what’s going on rn isn’t a new development by any stretch imo
both records are 10+ years apart - nothing in those records - at least IMO I haven't listened to them in forever - seem to indicate this type of behavior and lifestyle change from him.
I was gonna add that even if you are a Hebrews defender which would be weird; by the time I don’t think it is rolled around we all sort of realized what his deal was. I remember very similar convos happening around that album that were seeing right now
I listened to Hebrews recently and it’s still the worst thing I’ve ever heard and sounds equally as unhinged as the new songs I’ve heard to my ears
if you take IARB, IDOTG, and self titled in a vacuum yeah this current phase seems wild which is why I said this isn’t the life I imagined for max back in 09 when I got into them (the whole home schooling 5 children on tour thing is what I mostly referring to) but in terms of music quality and just general weird behavior the interviews surrounding anarchy kind of began a downhill slide unlike any I’ve seen outside of maybe saves the day (but even they had that one decent album with the grapefruit on the cover in the 2010’s)
Is the general consensus that "hebrews" is worse than "I don't think it is"? Because I don't think it is.
I do not remember conversations like this (re: Max, not the quality of music) happening around Hebrews, and I remember that that thread very well
I’m imagining a world where Auto haromnic Ass Fixation didn’t have such cum centric lyrics or that title & I weep for what could of been
I was talking about I don’t think it is @Aaron Mook I said by the time I don’t think it is rolled around people figured out his deal and the convos in that thread felt like the convos im seeing now
The Is A Real Boy review is how I discovered Absolutepunk, lol. It was an album I found on Amazon and I ended up Googling the name and now here I am like 20 years later
Listening to the Jeremy Bolm interview now and it’s really good. Jeremy is such a good interviewer and asks really good questions. Good info, Max says he got the structure outline and guidance for his unschooling from Christian of The Hotelier. Apparently he’s a counselor at an Unschooled camp.
I’ve been dreading making this post but here it goes. This band has meant a lot to me. I have fond memories in HS/College with my friends listening to their records, and associating that part of my life with this band. I feel a lot of people,(not just here) have always discredited them and made fun of them. They’ve always been a very polarizing band. So it frustrates me when people who never cared for anything other than IARB come in when Hebrews was about to come out or this new record who never had a personal connection to this band like me just talk shit. Then they’re people like @SpeckledSouls who you can tell were fans of SA but can’t justify the bad music because of how problematic Max is and that’s totally justifiable. There’s a lot of artists I don’t listen to anymore because I can’t separate the art from the artists. I’m just not there yet with Max. Trust me I’m getting there. I’m going to give the record a listen and separate their other albums I hold dear. It’s not the same band I once knew. The talent on this record looks to be really interesting. I love Weatherbox and I’m so happy that Brian is apart of this. I’ve also enjoyed all the singles thus far and don’t think they’re any different than other recent SA albums.
Just got a text from my best friend, who was once a big fan like me and fell out in the last several years: "so is the whole thing about cum?"
I can still remember my ex playing "Alive With The Glory of Love" on the way to Warped Tour and me being blown away by it. From there, I couldn't get enough of them. I played "Baseball" and all the B-sides a ton. They never reached those heights again, but I enjoyed about 2/3rds of IDOTG and smatterings of a couple albums that followed. Up until about a decade or so ago, they were always a reliably good live act. In fact, the idea of singing along to "Is A Real Boy," even with Max being checked out, is unfortunately enticing. Since then, it's been depressing. I hated Hebrews and IDTII. By the time Max released his goodbye novel for Oliver Appropriate, it was clear he was reaching the bottom of the gimmicks bag and the only thing he had left was to disband the band and reunite them. The new stuff is gross. I don't see how anyone can support a song asking Darren King to kill himself, no matter how nostalgic it sounds. He sucks. It sucks. Everyone involved should feel shame.
The Darren King stuff is still very weird. Like why has nobody talked about it or disowned it? Surely he knows about it as does his family? Same with the artists involved in the song like Brian and Fred.
It bothers me greatly because their Self Titled album meant a lot to me, especially Ah...Men and Do Better. And so did Saves The Day's Sound The Alarm and Through Being Cool. They helped me with my depression. And now to see this it's just so fucking upsetting. I want to love these bands again and I want to support them, but more importantly I want the people behind the music to be better people, to treat their fans and others with respect, but they've repeatedly shown they can't do that. It's frustrating. I've said many times before that people can change and if they owned up to everything, made the changes necessary and put in the work things would probably be very different, but I'm not quite sure how that would even work given the state of things today.
no one has a monopoly on how much a band means to you, and this website is full of people going into threads of bands they don’t even listen to at all and talking shit directly to the people who do listen to them. im on record of how much I love self titled so it’s not like I’m strictly wishing things were more like IARB. but ima keep saying his music sucks when it sucks because it sucks.