“There was so much more we wanted to accomplish as a band” said Living With Lions’ lead vocalist Chase Brenneman after previous singer Stu Ross left in 2012. With such a bold statement, it is a clear indication that Island (No Sleep/Redfield), their first full-length album featuring former guitarist Brenneman on vocals, was meant to be ground-breaking.Continue reading
Tag Archives: pop punk
Good Charlotte – Generation RX
It’s hard to fathom that Good Charlotte has been around for over twenty years – it doesn’t seem that long since the Maryland natives were the one band to really thrive in the pop-punk MTV explosion of the early 2000’s with the very successful The Young and The Hopeless (Epic/Daylight). They’re released a number of hits since then, the Madden brothers took time off for a side project, got married to Hollywood darlings, and came back with 2016’s Youth Authority (MDDN) to much praise from old fans, and not so much from others.
Boston Manor – Welcome To The Neighborhood
Boston Manor began their rock stardom journey in 2013 with the release of their first EP, Here Now. Three years later, Be Nothing put them on the map and showed a darker side to the enthusiastic Pop-Punk of the time. Their sophomore release, Welcome To The Neighborhood (Pure Noise) manifests into a dramatic avalanche of progressive pop-punk expressed through emotionally driven, raw lyrics—leaving behind what you would typically think of pop-punk.Continue reading
Alkaline Trio – Is This Thing Cursed?
As we move into the Post-Warped Tour era (don’t write letters, we know it’s coming back as a festival in a year or two), it’s a comfort to know that there are still classic 1990s pop-punk bands you can count on. The mid-to-later half of that decade was full of great punk bands with a lot of fire, and some killer melodies. One of those bands was Chicago’s Alkaline Trio, led by founding vocalist/guitarist Matt Skiba, also doing time in Warped mainstay Blink-182. Their ninth and most recent release, Is This Thing Cursed? put out on their longtime label Epitaph, feels like a win early on. In spite of a five-year gap between albums, the enthusiasm of the band can be felt in the songs and was intended to recapture the feel of their earliest work. Continue reading
Muncie Girls – Fixed Ideals
Muncie Girls are following up their 2016 release From Caplan to Belsize (Animal Style) with Fixed Ideals (Specialist Subject), and it confirms they are one the best female fronted projects since The Distillers. This sophomore effort is superb, and absolutely the soundtrack which summer should end with. Continue reading
Wilson – Tasty Nasty
At some point around the implosion of nu-metal and the saturation of pop-punk, and the rise and fall of emo, fattened and emboldened by social media, the everyone’s-a-critic mentality of today was born. And at some point along this journey, we (and by we, I mean fans of rock and metal music) seem to have lost sight of the fact that music is allowed to be fun.Continue reading
Bayside Announced New Acoustic Tour Dates
Pop punk vets Bayside have announced a full band acoustic tour for late 2018/early 2019. This will be I support of their upcoming new album Acoustic Volume 2 due out September 28th via Hopeless Records. Pre-sales for the album, like the tickets for the tour, are on sale now at the links below. General on sale for the tour will begin this Friday, August 24th at 12pm ET.Continue reading
With Confidence – Love And Loathing
Fresh from being part of the final Warped Tour lineup, Australian pop-rock trio, With Confidence are set to release their sophomore album in Love and Loathing on Friday, August 10 via Hopeless Records. Produced by Mike Green (All Time Low, Paramore) the LP carries beloved emo lyrics and escalating melodies to become a summer favorite. Continue reading
Trophy Eyes – The American Dream
Over their past couple of albums, the pop-punk quintet, Trophy Eyes has been quite easy to group in with a smaller section of emo/pop-punk acts like Basement, Trash Boat, and Boston Manor. With the latest album in their discography, The American Dream (Hopeless Records), however, the band move on with some new influences and a new-found maturity in their lyrics. Whilst pop-punk as a genre on whole has been mostly known for the use of angsty/teen themes in their material, Trophy Eyes has moved onto a more mature way of writing about mental health, band life, etc. The most notable change in the act’s third album is the definite improvement in singer, John Floreani who adopts a more of a baritone sound to his voice during the majority of the main verses, contrasting fantastically against his more well-known tone in choruses, it feels like Floreani takes influences from earlier big alternative rock bands like U2 to show off more range and flow in his material.Continue reading
Fine Creatures- Electric La La Land
Describing one’s self as “The Dirty Beatles”, however tongue in cheek is pretty self-evidently a bold statement of intent. When it’s a claim made by a group in such an early stage about to release their debut EP release its definitely going to raise some eyebrows. At first glance/listen Electric La La Land (Symptom) may feel like a fairly generic but fun, sunshine ready release; but upon closer inspection Fine Creatures have provided an unexpected level of depth.Continue reading