It was such a huge pivot that I hated it for a long time. But then one day I decided to listen again and pretend it wasn’t The Ataris, and I ended up liking it a lot more haha. I don’t come back to it a whole lot, but I do like it more than I did initially, for sure. It would have been interesting to see what their trajectory would have been like if they had followed SLA up with something else in that same vein. Maybe they’d have been a Yellowcard or a Starting Line? But instead they kinda became an Early November. Releasing the triple disc album after TRTC was quite the move.
I don't really care about the sound pivot, I love when bands do that, I just simply think the songs are bad
The one concession I’ll make is that the lyrics are really melodramatic, but otherwise I stand by my love for this album.
I'm just now realizing how much of the current lineup of the band are actually longtime members. That's really cool.
Going from So Long Astoria straight back to Blue Skies at 13 years old was revelatory. The first time I heard "Losing Streak" was truly one of those "I didn't know music could sound like that" moments.
pretty sure the first burned CD I ever made was blue skies. couldn't find it in any store, saw the band live (with mxpx) and needed it downloaded it from IRC probably and used the networking team's brand new CD burner lost my mind that this was possible
Is "San Dimas" a perfect song? Probably. I don't know if Kris still lets people play it live with them and I didn't have the courage to ask when I opened for them a couple years ago.
I was wondering the same when I saw them in DC last month! Unfortunately they didn't have someone come up to play it. Maybe they just do it on their headlining shows. My band also opened for them about 16 years ago (that can't be right) and our guitarist got to play it with them. Still one of the coolest moments to experience.
Kris is very covid-conscious still so that might be part of it (and another reason why I didn't ask).
They haven't had fans play "San Dimas" live with them in 15+ years. I saw them 14 years ago and asked Kris before the show if I could play it. He said they don't do that anymore since they play it kinda different than they used to. But he taught me a drum build up part they do and he let me get on stage to do that with them, which was fun haha. Here's me hitting a floor tom next to their drummer (before he had drums thrown at him haha)
it's a bummer but honestly they should probably hold off on anything besides mayyyybe a single if we're going to be waiting a full 'nother year.