Say Anything Band • Page 10

yeah, I'd say so

 

lol yeah no way does that come across.

 

W o w but also i do admire his admiration for current bands that's p cool

 

I wonder what some of those songs would sound like with IDOTG-ish production, I think 17 Coked Up would be an instant classic. Also love to hear hebrews with guitars, love that album though.

Yea, Max recommends some good bands on his twitter and whatnot. Takes out interesting ones on tour too.

 

This is going to be long and maybe not entirely focused, but I imagine a lot of people have similar feelings on this band and I thought I’d share mine.

For whatever reason this weekend, I was showing old vids of Max Bemis to my girlfriend (who is becoming a big Eisley fan) and just talking about how much both bands have changed and how crazy Max and Sherri got together. They seem to be a great couple, so right on, glad she found somebody who can treat her right and vice-versa. My GF is a relatively new fan of Eisley, but I’ve been fan of them since high school during the Room Noises era. Anyway, I filled her in what I knew about Max, the scene drama that was around them, who dated who kind of stuff, what this album is about, etc. It sounded weird to say I’ve been into them for 11 or so years or that I had seen them 9-10 times. It certainly doesn’t seem that long, but it has been.

Anyway, I haven’t really been into Say Anything heavily since college ended and a lot of that is just from having more going on in my life and I have a more passive interest in the bands I listen to. I find myself more obsessed with Father John Misty or St Vincent these days. Basically I’m getting old, but SA still garners general interest in me despite not loving a song they’ve made in about 7 years? There are a few songs here and there I like, but a lot I just feel nothing for. Also IARB is still my favorite album, ever. It’s exactly the music I wanted when I was 18, it felt genuine, it felt artistic, it was bold, it wasn’t exactly pretentious, and it was well assembled and there was plenty of it. It simply touched me and felt about as encompassing as an album could be. I can go back to it and love it as it is. It still gets stuck in my head. The b-sides are amazing and so are the various demos of that era. Those 20 or so songs together just can’t be beat for me because Max had something to express that complimented the sound of what he was going for, which was emo-pop punk rock (Saves The Day is arguably the biggest influence) that didn’t cater to the worst clichés that would eventually devour the scene. Say Anything felt unique but also utilized the best of what the genre had to offer. At a show a few years ago, I once heard Patrick Stickles from Titus Andronicus say IARB was the greatest pop punk album in the past 10 years and I concur completely. It’s a postmodern statement (I guess opera at some point) about what it’s like being in a band and being Max Bemis. If neurotic self-absorption was a flavor, ISAB was it and it was fucking tasty. That and Funeral are my go-to perfect 2004 albums.

So years go by, I pretty much dug everything Max musically did I’d say until A,MD comes out. I remember around that time Max describing the band being “Wilco-esque” during this period and I don’t quite know what he meant. It was reassuring at first, but now looking back I find it dumbfounding. If he’s the Jeff Tweedy, I get that point, but Wilco at least felt consistent to some degree and had some amount of traditional rock to bounce around with. The records themselves sound flat too, even coming from a Japandroids fan. Although that isn’t what has steered me away; it’s the vocals and the lyrics. I just consider them to be either middling, bad, or distracting. The thing that set Say Anything apart is now the thing I can’t gloss over because of how crummy they can be. It’s frankly weird. I’m also a huge STD fan, and while Chris has to me never released a “bad” record, he’s struggled with inventing new things to say. I was not a fan of the new Two Tongues record either. The first one had some spunk, but the new album was hard to digest.

But I can at least say Max hasn’t been lazy with the music. It all seems to be thought out and experimental for a band that survived the Myspace era when so many haven’t. Sometime he’s on, but he’ll never be the same guy who was lamenting lost love quite the same. Heck even Morrissey even dried up to a degree. It’s fairly common. People change and that’s fine. I do wonder if the song shop has curbed his desire to construct traditional songs. Heck, maybe that would be too easy. So I definitely give him kudos for being persistent and trying new things. However, I don’t know if Max has much to say anymore, forgive the pun. Maybe the Say Anything aesthetic just doesn’t translate into a dad in his 30s? It’s fairly understandable.

So while stating all of these things, I am still going to see them live this upcoming spring. Not only is it a good tour (Hot Rod Circuit!), but I feel like Max has been good to his fans and he is one of the few artists I can remember who gave “emo” and “pop-punk” the dignity that they don’t often get. Max is at least nice enough to play the hits and deep cuts fans love. I feel he understood that this music resonated with a lot of people and had positive impact on its audience (as much as I love Spoon, they never gave me much comfort), nevermind what kind of shallow sham-bands it ended up producing. I give him a lot of respect for that. I find comfort knowing he’s still plugging away and trying to be Say Anything. He might just be doing this to pay his mortgage, but who isn’t? Anyway, hopefully they tour some more and maybe co-headline with Manchester Orchestra if possible. Great pair up. Hell, bring Piebald or Days Away out of retirement too. And yes, I miss the (classic?) line-up to some degree. But it’s cool to see other dudes out there with Max. I still wonder if Say Anything will make some kind of In Utero classic, but I don’t know how likely that is at this point. But fuck it, at least he’s trying.

Anyway, thanks for reading people.

 

Max talks on tour how his band will never be as relevant as like 2004, he clearly understands. He's pretty in touch with his fan base on twitter and such. I'd be interested in a "greatest hits" of his song shops. I've dug every album except the last one, while I think the peak of this band is over they certainly could be relevant again. Some hardcore fans got into the last one, but I think when only half your fan base enjoys an album that's not a good thing. Ironically, Max always thought the emo label was a stupid one.

I think he ran out of material on autobiographical stuff, and his next album is a concept album based off another person/story so, could be interesting.

His songs were not simple, ever.

 

Max did a Reddit Q&A session with Anthony from Bayside last night. At one point he confirmed that there will be a 10 year anniversary tour of In Defense by the end of 2017. Plus a new album will be released in 2018.

 

still one of the tightest live performances ever.

 

this one too

 

Great performances, this Band shreds

 

does anyone know if all the same members shown in the video above are still in the band?

 

I'm pretty only Parker (keys) might be

 

yeah, just Parker

 

Ugh.


I miss those days/lineup so much.

 

I thought he just confirmed that he would do something. Did I miss somewhere else where he explicitly said he would do an In Defense tour? That is something I want so bad, but I can't imagine he'd actually play the whole album in all it's 27 song glory.

I also can't wait for the inevitable vinyl reissue.

 

I miss the Casper days /hipster


Actually here is an opinion that may shock y'all

IARB is my favorite obviously...

2nd fave? Hebrews.

3rd? In Defense of the Genre.

 

To add the early stuff discussion, I prided myself on having all of those old songs and still listen to all of them. If anyone only knows this band from the self titled on, you're missing out on SO MUCH.

 

I gotta listen to the JamisonParker album again. It's probably been a decade.

 

The b-sides and unreleased tracks from pre-IARB and right around that time are so goddamn good it's unreal.

 

I'm pretty sure I got a lot of them from a website called aboutfalling .net or something of that nature. They are remarkably good. IARB era had about 25-26 amazing tracks in all. Crazy to think about. The first time I heard Say Anything was on this Tsunami Relief compilation I got at warped tour back in 2005. It had We Will Erase All Life on Earth on it and I can't find this release anywhere online. Nothing too special from what I recall, but neat.

 

Real question (for anyone here): Is this opinion that unpopular? I thought this was more or less the consensus, maybe swapping In Defense with Self-Titled, at least when Hebrews dropped. It seems like once IDTII came out, people started coming out of the woodwork saying they weren't so keen on Hebrews. I always had some serious issues with the album, so I remember being a little confused with the seemingly-unanimous praise for it at first, even though I have grown to like the album (production aside) a lot more with time.

 

I think it's always been an incredibly divided opinion on Hebrews. It seems like people really love it or hate it, which I guess could be said to an extent for all post self-titled work, but you don't see many people putting Anarchy or IDTII in their top spot after IARB, even if they like them (I like both), but I think the people (myself included) who like Hebrews really like Hebrews, which is probably why you perceive it as having more unanimous praise (the praiser's were just louder).

 

People were really upset about the whole "no guitars" thing on Hebrews

 

Hebrews is still cool as shit. I think how into Hebrews I was kinda played into how disappointed I was when IDTII came out.

 

Likewise.