Something to Write Home About (1999)

 

I'm going to explore opposite ends of my spectral musical tastes now:

When you think of "emo", there's almost always a stereotypical corniness that materializes in your head. Dorky guys in thick glasses playing their own sappy, monotonous, redundant and unoriginal renditions of "Boys Don't Cry" over and over. Nerdy little teenagers sitting outside of Starbucks playing an acoustic guitar, singing like the mousy and nasal prepubescent ankle-biters they are. I, myself, having been one of the dorkiest dorks of them all, heard a couple emo/indie rock albums in my ankle-biting years, that completely broke the mold and stood out to me like a ray of sunshine in the dead of winter.

 

The Get Up Kids - Something to Write Home About....I'll be honest....I heard this record when I was 14. I was at the peak of my poseur-ness, completely confused, not sure if I was a "punk-rocker", a "metal-head", or a "hardcore-kid". I guess transitional and/or random music, when you're a teen, is what makes you realize..."Hey...I can like any type of music I want, I don't have to conform to a certain trend and maybe I'll start dressing like a normal human being now." What a weird realization, but, I feel like this album helped me realize that I'm ME and fuck anyone who says I'm not cool enough to fit into a certain crowd. Why? Because I was wearing plaid pants and putting glue in my hair every morning before I went to school, so, listening to a lame emo band was an extremely foreign thing and not punk rock enough for 14 year-old me.

 

I put this record on and holy shit, the opening guitars and vocal melodies had me hooked instantly. It was like someone took the early simplicity of the Cure, the raw musicality of a Seattle grunge band and the honesty and frailty of a Beatles ballad & subtly rolled it all up into one beautiful burrito of sound. I wasn't very familiar with contemporary mid-tempo, light music yet. The happiest or sappiest things I'd known at this point were, as stated, the Cure, the Beatles, and maybe...the happier Ramones and Green Day songs. There's an abundance of clean, twangy guitars and piano-styled keyboards, over-predominantly major-keyed, compromisingly forgiving (for a lack of less masculine words) song structures. These were songs any confused, distraught and angst-ridden youngster could relate to. I mean, shit, I dated a girl who made me a card, on Valentine's Day, decorated and done up with the lyrics to "I'll Catch You" written out.

 

To conclude, the best way to put it: all of the best qualities of indie rock, upbeat punk, synth-pop and general emo-tion, if you will, blender set to "pulse" instead of full-power. (I hope you guys aren't getting tired of my cheesy metaphors yet). I'll save it for another post, but Jimmy Eat World's masterpiece "Clarity", is regarded, among the general indie and emo connoisseur population, to be the #1 emo rock record of all time....I think The Get Up Kids' "Something to Write Home About" was and still is one peg up on the emo totem poll.

 

 

 

I've got pictures to prove I was there.

 

 

Last Stop: Crappy Town (2008)

James Dewees.....Since I was 14, this dude has been so mysterious to me. The Get Up Kids are my favorite indie/emo/whatever band, period. I heard Something to Write Home About in 9th grade and I thought it was the absolute best record of the genre, next to Clarity, by Jimmy Eat World, but when someone handed me a copy of "Promotional Copy" by a band called "Reggie and the Full Effect" and told me, "This band has members of The Get Up Kids and Coalesce", the band's name AND personnel seriously intrigued me. They easily became my favorite pop-punk-ish band thereon. James' ironic sense of humor, wittiness, sharp and to the point songwriting, usage and blending of pop-punk, alternative rock, hardcore and all-around chaos made it a no-brainer to become a lifelong fan of the band.

Last Stop: Crappy Town comes out in 2008...After waiting months for it, reading cryptic MySpace posts by James, being unsure of its release as he was in between touring with NFG and My Chemical Romance, on keyboards, myself and many fans alike were beginning to think it wasn't ever going to be released. When it finally did, I learned that it was a concept album with metaphoric song titles that coincided with his regular trips to rehab on or around the time of the album's recording sessions. I'd never, to this point, ever heard a Reggie album that was even semi-serious from start to finish. My opinion on the music is the same way I rationalize my favorite Poison the Well albums: Opposite of December will always be the catchiest, recognizable and undeniably timeless album by the band, but, my favorite album of theirs musically and maturity-wise, is Versions. So, with Reggie, their most timeless and recognizable record to me is Promotional Copy, but Last Stop is my favorite record by the band, thusly, for its matured songwriting, seamless genre-blending and bending and overall seriousness and urgency. James sounds like a tortured soul caught between Heaven and Hell, throughout, almost like a goofy Downward Spiral era Trent Reznor. His clean vocals are perfectly in key and his hooks are as infectious and catchy as ever, while also having fully developed his hardcore/metalcore style vocals to a T, this time, without the outside help of Coalesce's Sean Ingram (who had previously accompanied James with his trademark Coalesce screams on previous Reggie albums). The music varies from his signature synth-drenched pop punk style, to alternative rock arrangements, to subtly chilling piano-laden interludes, to blatant chaotic metalcore overtures. The melancholy backdrop of the recording and lyrical subject makes this the eeriest and realest Reggie album to date. If you're expecting Greatest Hits or Promotional Copy for a 4th time, you may be disappointed, but if you're expecting the most brutally honest and heartfelt record by James Dewees aka "Reggie", get this one.

 

Sorry the party had to start and stop with me.