The Starting Line Band • Page 5

I was so nervous it wouldn't be as good on record after hearing it live but the studio version absolutely kills it!

 

Last year at the Taste of Chaos festival, I watched one of the most heartwarming things from the audience. When The Get Up Kids were on stage, you could see side stage Kenny Vasoli, John Nolan, Chris Carraba and Anthony Green, all together singing along to every single word, it was pretty amazing to watch these people who came up in the same scene having a great time together

 

That's so awesome!!

 

Someone is looking at this thread bump and hoping for some news ha

 

I always thought it was weird how similar of careers Yellowcard and The Starting Line had for a while. Bare with me, ignoring their early releases and all...

Ocean Avenue (2003) - Say it Like You Mean It (2002): Absolute pop punk classics. Really broke both bands into the mainstream spotlight for a while. Both were kind of the immature but still upbeat and great pop punk we all loved back then. Poppy, loud, and fast with some acoustic gems on both ("One Year Six Months", "The Drama Summer"). Also produced the biggest classics from both bands "Ocean Avenue" and "Best of Me".

Lights & Sounds (2006) - Based on a True Story (2005): Both bands took a dark turn and didn't live up to commercial expectations coming off of previous records. Both albums went in a darker, slower direction with tons of different styles and instruments. Both albums are fairly polarizing among fans; Some think both records were too much of a stylistic leap while tons of fans think these are the best records of each band's career. Strangely, both albums are thematic in their titles and lyrics - both centered around Hollywood/movies.

Paper Walls (2007) - Direction (2007): Both bands took a brighter turn here. Both albums returned closer to their previously established sound (but more mature) with mostly mid-tempo rockers with a couple of slower jams mixed in, all mostly using conventional song structures. Both are very down-the-middle, but these albums are viewed almost unanimously positively among fans for how solid they are. Strangely enough, both bands broke up after these albums.

Obviously, Yellowcard returned for quite a while and had a much different career when they split off, but you can't help but to see all of these parallels. They were practically the same band to me for many years.

 

I'd love for them to reunite and give us four more great albums like Yellowcard did!

 

Great post though, for real.

 

haha thanks. I always thought the parallels of those two bands were weird but none of my friends really listened to either of them growing up.

 

I wish there was a way to mash up the best parts of The World on the album and the Tim O'Heir versions

 

What kind of friends are those?!

 

I thought the same thing. I felt really bad when Tom (I think it was him, I haven't watched it in a while) was talking about the recording process for BOATS and how they turned down Neal Avron to produce the album, then Fall Out Boy got him instead and had one of the biggest records of the year.

Not saying the amount of success would have been the same, but you never know.

Edit: I hope this was in the documentary. I thought it was for them but I'm beginning to second guess myself. I'll have to rewatch it tonight haha

 

No, I'm pretty sure you're exactly right about all of that. I distinctly remember him saying that. haha.

I remember them all talking about how they kept writing and mixing as they went, it never started to sound "good". And I know they had a lot of conflicting ideas with their producer about song structures and basically everything else. They specifically said that one time they were showing their new stuff to people from the label, but the label just put on the newest New Found Glory album and said "Make it sound like this". haha.

 

Definitely remember that NFG comment haha. So funny. How do you even react to that? So ridiculous

 

Ugh, I hated that documentary because they were so pumped to leave Geffen and get over to Virgin after all of that. Then all of their supporters there were immediately fired and the same thing happened to them all over again. haha.

 

I have to appreciate that if that record label drama didn't happen we wouldn't have Inspired By the $ or Ready since I think those were both written and recorded because of those interactions

Would've been awesome if they had some support at Virgin. They must've been so frustrated with that situation lol

 

Imagine working at virgin, hearing a song like island, and not devoting all yr resources to making that song blow up

 

TSL could have reached FOB level if it wasn't for label troubles. It's funny because before TTTYG was released FOB wanted to get signed to Drive-Thru Records because of bands like TSL, but Drive-Thru wasn't interested in them.

 

Funny the first concert I saw of either YC or TSL, was on their tour together in 2004.

 

I feel like "Best of Me" was even less appreciated than it could have been. That song was massively popular, but I think it could have been even bigger. But yeah, I agree, if they would have had some better luck or made some better relationships during the transition from their first album to second, they could have blown up. "Island" also should have been fucking massive but it received hardly any exposure. It's almost criminal how things went for them.

 

I remember seeing Island on TRL so the exposure was there, but maybe not to the gravity it should have been. I was fortunate enough to see TSL in NJ a few years ago for a reunion show, and this year at Taste of Chaos in So Cal. I wish they were doing their own Christmas show and not underneath Taking Back Sunday cause I'd for sure fly out for it.

 

Really? I remember seeing the music video on Fuse a lot back in the day, but otherwise it didn't seem like people had the opportunity to hear it that much. I remember them saying something about how it was still getting pushed to rock radio for some reason so it didn't really get much play there. It should have been pushed towards the pop market.

 

It was like right towards the end of TRL I remember being shocked/stoked to see the music video.

 

I feel like Fireworks and TSL have a similar parallel.

Generic pop punk album
Pop punk leaning pop rock album
Highly regarded pop rock by pop punk band album

Break up after peers take off and you don't. Can also be seen as a "band's band"

 

In that same note pop-punk based bands making pop-rock albums are my favorite. Those two bands above and another in Cartel

 

Cartel deserved a lot more too. Say Anything Else and Honestly both blew up, but it died off when it came to commercial success for them after that. Say Anything Else was in Madden 07 which had a sick soundtrack.