The Starting Line Band • Page 117

All the songs yall just mentioned im like that’s my fave on the album, no wait it’s that one. Wait..

Love B-List, Stay Where I Can See You

 

And of course, Ready. That build up is unreal, and the Bemis (sigh) of it is so well done

 

Still probably one of my favourite TSL songs.

 

I always thought “Surprise Surprise” would have been an amazing opener instead of “Making Love To The Camera”. It has the same instrumental qualities as “Up and Go” right from the jump.

Hard to say what have done well as a single back then but you have to imagine that that song (arguably the best on the album) or “Stay Where I Can See You” would have at least been equal to or greater than “Bedroom Talk”. Who knows.

As for track listing… I don’t think there’s a bad song on the album but I’m removing “Bedroom Talk” and “The World” and throwing in the few songs from these sessions that didn’t make the cut. Those songs have all held up better for me over the years.

 

You're awesome

 

Maybe I'm imagining things, but wasn't Stay Where I Can See you released as a promo song before the album came out? I have this memory of it being on their purevolume like a month before the album came and the response was tame.

Still a great song. But the crown for this album has to go to Ready.

 

I love TSL as much as the next guy but when you compare any of the BOATS material to say Dance, Dance or Sugar, We’re Goin Down, there's just no contest in the singles department there for radio play.

 

Was Nintendo Fusion supposed to be a co-headliner at first?
I went to Bamboozle 2005 which was a week or two before FUCT and BOATS were released. TSL were the headliners but after FOB finished that place cleared the hell out. The writing was on the walls that FOB was gonna be the biggest thing in the scene at that point.

 

I love making love to the camera as an opener

 

Me too, I agree with a lot of the other proposed edits here and especially so Surprise Surprise as first single, but the album opens perfectly imo.

 

I might give a listen with the b sides swapped in for bedroom and world, just to see how it sounds

 

I adore Ready but have always thought when Max comes in right at the end was basically a wasted feature, you can only really tell it's him on that last awkward "for you" - really not adding anything to the song for me, but I guess it's cool for Say Anything fans.

Also I do remember hearing that story about the label and Catalyst back in the day, it's funny/sad that the label wanted TSL to adjust course to be more like NFG - did NFG ever even have another mainstream hit after All Downhill From Here?

 

My hot take, which based on the Neal Avron comments from the band may not be that hot of a take ... the label wasn't really wrong about that being what woulda had the best shot at being a big hit.

 

The band is/was obviously good enough that they should've been bigger, but I also totally get why BOATS didn't do it for them and I have a hard time pointing to any particular song that might've taken off. It's so catchy, but it's just slightly off-center in a lot of ways, just not quite safe enough. As much as a bummer that is for what their career could've been like, I still think it's their best album, and the stuff that goes against the grain of what was popular at the time is a big part of why it's so good.

I remember reading that Kenny hates the outro of The B-List, but that sort of thing is what makes the album for me. I get them not being proud of The World (especially the lyrics) because of how it came about, but I really love that chorus. Stay Where I Can See You is a little unusual, I guess, but it's got one of their best choruses.

This is how I feel about Inspired in particular. I think it's a pretty strange song in the context of this genre and the band's music up to that point, especially as the third song (essentially) on their big follow-up album, but it'd be in the running for my favorite TSL song. When they played it during the 2019 reunion shows, I remember Kenny looked shocked at the response to it and said something like, "I don't think we realized how much you all love that song."

I've never thought about this before. That intro might be my favorite 20 seconds of music the band has written, it's just got this magic energy to it. Would've been a crazy way to open the album. Kind of reminds me of how the Futures title track just hits you in the face.

 

bedroom talk kinda grew on me the last few years lol it’s fun. nights and weekends shoulda been the single

 

Love that TSL covered this

 

Still one of the worst things i’ve ever heard haha. Somehow made a bad song worse, and exponentially at that.

 

Any time my old friends from high school talk about the Best of Me being the greatest starting line song I always respond with - sure it's their most well known - but Surprise Surprise is THE quintessential TSL song. I remember seeing them back in the summer of 2002. By the time we go to the venue it was sold out and we were so bummed, but then met the people in Zolof and the rock and roll destroyer at a McDonalds across the street and they gave us their guest list passes because they didn't know anyone from our town and saw how bummed we were. One of the best shows I've ever seen and I remember them debuting surprise surprise at that show and it blew my mind. Core memory.

 

I like to imagine that there was some former emo/pop punk kid who wound up being a c-level person at Ford marketing who got to choose what song they did for that spot and thought "wouldn't it be awesome to sneak in some old pop-punk song I used to love" and then in the meeting sees the first cut of the video and thinks to himself "oh my god....what the fuck did I do."

 

Fine I’ll do a discog run

 

How the fuck have I never seen this and why didn’t it stay that way??

Also kinda reminds me of like when scene bands that hadn’t quite exploded like Thursday was in a car commercial that had Running From the Rain and Gold Motel being in a McDonald’s commercial

 

I was living abroad during the lead up and release of Direction. What can y’all remember about it?

 

It was a fun summer lead up with Paper Walls, Secret Weapon, and Direction. Loved that summer for pop-punk.

 

i never knew bax memis was on ready til all this BOATS talk, i never noticed him at all