Mixtapemotions

  • “다시 만난 세계” (Into the New World) by Girls’ Generation (소년 시대 SNSD), Tuesday, September 20, 2022 (updated repost)

    Composed by Kenzie, the professional name for SM Entertainment‘s songwriter Kim Yeon-jeong, the debut single “Into the New World” by what would become one of the biggest K-pop groups, Girls’ Generation, set the tone for a ten-year career of fun, bubble-gummy, uplifting songs. Composed of nine young women all born between 1989 and 1991,  Girls’ Generation has been been called “the Nation’s Girl Group,” in South Korea due to their popularity between 2007-2017. Beginning with a sample of Don Henley‘s 1984 classic “The Boys of Summer,” (covered last August by The Ataris), “Into the New World” builds on the nostalgic piano and synth sample. Rather than calling back with longing for the past, this song propels listeners forward into the future.

    I LEAVE BEHIND THIS WORLD’S UNENDING SADNESS. I’ve been pretty critical of K-pop in the past for being a-political. I used to think that music in America was too political, especially when I was a Republican teenager (cringe). I was annoyed when Coldplay’s Chris Martin said at the 2004 Grammy‘s “May John Kerry be your president someday.” Of course there were also right-wing musicians, too, but being found have Republican tendencies could end a rock band’s career in some cases. In South Korea, because the government subsidizes the industry, idol groups are to be politically neutral. There are very few songs that are overt protest songs which can be found in rock and pop and even country in America. However, today’s song, with its hopeful message of stepping into the unknown future, has become a famous protest song in South Korea, starting in 2015, when students led a peaceful protest against Ewha University in Seoul. Both Tiffany and Yuri of SNSD expressed their appreciation to their fans for using the song to rally for change. Tiffany said, “Right now is the generation for feminists, and it’s an era where messages of women empowering other women are important. I feel like our song played that role, so my heart was happy.” A year later, the song was sung at protest rallies against President Park Geun-Hye. The massive protests against the leader accused of corruption had the people singing a song of hope, demanding more from their leaders. Fans also sang the song on April 11, 2019, when criminalization of abortion was recognized as unconstitutional in South Korea. Finally, in 2020, the song was sung in anti-governmental protests in Thailand, fans translating the message of the song to spread hope in Thailand. With the globalization of K-pop–the ripples in East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and North America–it seems inevitable that some songs will be used in protest. 

    LOOKING INTO YOUR EYES, NO WORDS ARE NEEDED. I don’t think that “Into the New World” credits its sampling of “The Boys of Summer,” as it’s never mentioned in most sources. Last September, I talked about how Olivia Rodrigo was inspired by “Misery Business” and eventually gave writing credit to Haley Williams and Josh Farro. Musicians get into trouble all the time for borrowing too heavily from their sources. There are several video compilations of similar sounding songs. Whether it’s Sam Smith listening to Tom Petty or Lana Del Rey listening to Radiohead, we can hear musical similarities if we keep our ears open. I could make a list of songs that I think sound the same or songs that I’ve mashed up, even disguised as church songs when I played for church (“He Is Exalted” and the guitar from “Don’t Stop Believing“). Some groups like The Verve had their career paralyzed by the litigious Rolling Stones‘ manager. And as much fun as it would be to make a playlist of similar sounding songs or funny mash-ups like “Creep but It’s All I Want for Christmas” it seems like the project could get out of control. There’s a reason why I only pick one song a day. Tom Petty said it best when he decided not to sue Red Hot Chili Peppers for the similarity between his song “Dani California” and “Mary Jane’s Last Dance“: “A lot of rock & roll sounds alike.” And that similarity can draw parallels in theme in listeners minds. “Into the New World” and “The Boys of Summer” may build off of the same arpeggio, but one looks back without any hope for the future, the other uses the past to build a brighter future.


  • "나만 그래" (Am I the Only One?) by SF9, Monday, September 2022 (Partial Repost)

     

    Sensational Feeling 9, better known by the acronym SF9, debuted in 2016. Before their debut, the group performed in Japan with 11 members, but ultimately only 9 members would make the final cut when they released their Feeling Sensation single. The group enjoyed modest success in Korea and toured Japan, Taiwan, and the U.S. In January 2020, they released their first full-length studio album, titled First Collection.

    This record has been the band’s most successful release, shattering their previous record sales and chart placements. The group also garnered award nominations. 

    THE DAY IS QUITE LONG. EVEN WHEN I CLOSE MY EYES, IT’S ALWAYS THE SAME DAY.  Not to be confused with what Todd in the Shadows deemed 2021’s worst song of the year, the racist single by former Staind lead singer-turned outlaw Country singer Aaron Lewis, “Am I the Only One,” is the second track on SF9’s First Collection. The song wasn’t a single, but its accessible smooth harmonies, minor key, and edgy rap parts, give the song an early ’00s feel, making the song hard to place with its 2020 release. Whether released in 2002 or 2020, the theme of pining over a lost love will be relevant forever. This pinning looks different at different ages in our lives, though. It feels like the end of the world at 13 when a cross country move makes a relationship untenable. Or maybe it’s a crush on someone and the feelings aren’t reciprocated. Maybe it’s illogical because the crush is much older and immoral if the other person reciprocated. At an older age, it’s two people who want different things. Sometimes it’s ending a longterm, mature relationship that you tried to make work by sacrificing who you are and your life’s goals, only to find that you don’t like the person you’ve become.

    I PRAY THESE FEELINGS OF LONGING TURN INTO HATE. But today I heard a rather disturbing story about an acquaintance who has been involved in a toxic, controlling relationship. Without sharing too many details, it’s a story about being controlled by a partner who has cut him off from friends and family, all because he thought he found the one. And what does the one look like in one’s early 20s when you’ve been sold this idolatrous idea that somehow sex is the most fragile thing and that if you slip up you will most certainly be broken forever and that all your future relationships will be cursed? As I was listening to this crazy love sick story, I thought about my own experiences, how in my late 20s I decided that I was going to forsake all of my friends’ advice and pursue sex first. I thought about how guilt and my beliefs eventually forced their way back into my life from time to time. I thought about how dangerous it could have been going completely solo into the realm of Internet dating. And I thought about how lucky I was to have found love. Certainly there are some parallels between my gay dating experience and a kid who has fallen in love with the wrong girl, how sex changed him in a very negative way. But who created this perfect storm of a situation?



  • “About Damn Time" by Lizzo, Sunday, September 18, 2022

    Melissa Viviane Jefferson, better known by her stage name, Lizzo, released her disco-infused fourth LP this year titled Special. The album was a smash hit, debuting at number two on Billboard‘s top 200, and the album’s lead single, “About Damn Time,” topping the single’s charts for two weeks. Lizzo began her career performing and recording Hip-Hop independently in the Minneapolis scene. In 2016, she released a major-label debut EP, titled Coconut Oil and a 2019 LP Cuz I Love You. But it was her 2016 hit, “Truth Hurts” that took the singer to the top of the charts for the first time. 
    I BEEN SO DOWN AND UNDER PRESSURE. With the Apple Music version of Special, Lizzo recorded a message for her fans, a voice track titled “A Very Special Message from Lizzo.” In this 99-second track, Lizzo explains why she hasn’t released an album since 2019. The singer certainly wasn’t cutting corners, as she wrote hundreds of songs over the span of three years. She explains that she wanted the record to be perfect in the way that she envisioned it. Furthermore, she explains the meaning of the title. To Lizzo, Special means first learning to love yourself, shutting out all of the negativity from the world. She claims that once you “treat yourself the way that you deserve to be treated, and then treat somebody else with the same love and respect[,] that expands . . . and that can save a life.” Love for oneself, in Lizzo’s case, is partly in accepting her body type. Body positivity has been a theme throughout the singer’s career, from posing nude on the cover of Cuz I Love You to referring to herself as thick (sometimes thicc). Like many other female rappers, Lizzo reclaims the word bitch, repurposing it to describe a sexy lady who is completely in control of herself. Furthermore, Lizzo smashes homophobia by identifying as “mostly straight,” but admitting “Everybody’s Gay.” To this her LGBTQ+ fans identify themselves as “Lizzbians.” “About Damn Time,” though, is a musical anxiolytic, an anthem of self-love when you need it the most.
    TURN UP THE MUSIC, TURN DOWN THE LIGHTS. On a recent episode on Into It podcast, Switched On Pop‘s Charlie Harding and Reanna Cruz joined Sam Sanders to talk about their picks for 2022’s “Song of the Summer.” Lizzo’s smash hit “About Damn Time” was considered among the likes of Beyoncé‘s “Break My Soul,” Harry Style‘s “As It Was,” and Kate Bush‘s “Running Up that Hill” (A Deal with God).” While Kate Bush’s “Running Up that Hill” and Bad Bunny‘s entire album Un Verano Sin Ti won as a tie, the hosts talked about how “About Damn Time” pays homage to Queen and David Bowie’s 1981 hit “Under Pressure” and to other songs of the past to make it sound “manufactured” yet “delicious” in the same way that fast food is delicious. Like Doja Cat, Lizzo’s 2022 sound declares that the ’70s are back, baby. MTV also considered “About Damn Time” as the song of the summer, but lost to Jack Harlow‘s “First Class.” “About Damn Time” is the surprisingly the first song that topped the Hot 100 with the word damn in its title, and the mild profanity is almost a throwback to the ’70s when a title like “About Damn Time” would be a bit more scandalous. And as the last vestiges of the summer, the Indian Summer pool party or barbecue, we can remember the happy memories of this summer and look forward to summer ’22. Lizzo’s hit will certain still be around as we catch more UVB rays.

  • “Time Lapse” by Taeyeon, Saturday, September 17, 2022 (Partial Repost)

    Bright, happy music is what you could describe Taeyeon‘s 2015 debut EP, I. The label also fits for her debut studio album, 2017’s My Voice. However, amid the happy, soaring melodies, there is a twinge of wistful nostalgia in the lyrics. Songs like the lead single “Fine” and the standout track “Time Lapse,” give the Girls’ Generation singer a mature sound. Taeyeon’s solo career is more about ballads, but the occasional electro-pop song sounds more grown up than her bubblegum pop days in the once biggest K-pop girl group.


    BIRTHDAYS HAVE PASSED SEVERAL TIMES. The title of Taeyeon’s debut album, My Voice,  alludes to her relationship with her standout feature. In middle school, Taeyeon’s principal encouraged the young singer to pursue her talents and convinced her parents to invest in their daughter’s talents. This investment came to mean a Sunday drive from Jeonju to Seoul, a 2-and-a-half-hour drive each direction, for Taeyeon to study vocal lessons with famed vocal coach Jeong Soon-won, better known as The One from the late ’90s boy band Space A. “Time Lapse” was composed by Nell‘s lead singer, Kim Jong-wan for the soprano singer, but “Time Lapse” wasn’t the only collaboration between one of Korea’s most famous pop stars and one of Korea’s most famous pop rock groups. Taeyeon also released a cover of Nell’s “Time Spent Walking Through Memories,” one of the band’s biggest hits, as a bonus track on the My Voice deluxe edition. The late-’90s pop-rock sound of “Time Lapse” is part of Nell’s signature sound also present in Kim Sung-kyu‘s “Shine,” which I talked about earlier this month.

    TEARS WELL UP WHEN I CLOSE MY EYES. September has certainly been busy. It’s back to school and starting up other projects. Coworkers have gotten sick with Covid, making us who are well pick up the slack. And I’ve been lazy; rather than coming home energetically ready to write my blog, I’ve thought about what’s the easiest way I could maintain my goal of posting every day. So many of my posts this month have been reposts from last year. Last year when I was writing a new post every day, I had different goals. I get a little discouraged when I see so many reposts in my feed, but I tell myself that they have been edited, and most are not complete reposts. But there is something more to this reposting. Fall makes me nostalgic. There’s something about the mostly cooler temperatures and the occasional last grasps of summer in September that make ’90s-sounding songs like today’s track feel right. So, I’m not going to apologize for the reposts, but shamelessly keep it up as long as it feels natural. I have plans to write new posts and even have a few drafts waiting to be published. September is a kind of mid-season break. The second half is coming soon. Until then, let’s nostalgically enjoy the beginning of Fall!


     

  • "Closer" by Tegan and Sara, Friday, September 16, 2022 (reworked repost)

    The best music doesn’t happen in isolation, but rather comes out of a community movement. I would define community, when it comes to music, as a mixing of artist who bring different ideas together ideas from various genres. The result of musical community is stronger musicianship by all those involved. Collaboration, the meeting of minds, happens naturally. Throughout the course of my blog, I’ve talked about various communities. Tooth & Nail, Christian Rock, exvangelical communities are definitely the biggest themes. Tegan and Sara grew out of the Northwestern Canadian/American Indie Rock community in the late ’90s, and by 2013 became pop stars. 

    HERE COMES THE RUSH BEFORE WE TOUCH. Many fans may have been introduced to Tegan and Sara when Meredith Grey and Christina Yang danced to their early acoustic, angry girl music on Grey’s Anatomy‘s earlier seasons. The musical duo of Calgary-born identical twins Tegan and Sara Quin started on the acoustic guitar at home and eventually lead to being signed on Neil Young‘s label, Vapor Records. The band gained traction in the indie scene. The White Stripes covered one of their songs, co-writing with Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie also helped them gain indie cred in their early career. But in 2013, the duo changed directions. The result was the big-production, synth pop-driven Heartthrob. “Closer,” Heartthrob’s opening track and lead single, sees the sisters explore new lyrical territory in addition to their musical change up. Tegan sings lead vocals, but Sara encouraged her to sing a straight-up love song, without the dark and dreary lyrical content the group had been known for. According to an article in Rolling Stone, Tegan’s lyrics were about “a time when we got closer by linking arms and walking down our school hallway, or talked all night on the telephone about every thought or experience we’d ever had. It wasn’t necessarily even about hooking up or admitting your feelings back then.”
    THE LIGHTS ARE OFF AND THE SUN IS FINALLY SETTING. THE NIGHT SKY IS CHANGING OVERHEAD. In a video series the twins released talking about the songs on the album, Sara pushed the lyrics to “make things physical,” referencing high school romance. Tegan best sums up the atmosphere, stating to Rolling Stone, “These relationships existed in a state of sexual and physical ambiguity.” The music gives the impression of a late-’80s early-’90s slumber party, with the sisters singing karaoke on ancient, faux wood entertainment stand in which the television is built in–younger millennials may not remember that artifact–and childish games like spin the bottle and applying lipstick. The video celebrates couples of all genders and sexualities. Both Tegan and Sara are openly queer musicians from their musical inception, and have used their music as a platform in recent years to advocate for equality. “Closer” scored pop radio play and has been featured in several television shows including Glee and Bojack Horseman. The song is a beautifully innocent track about desire–wanting to take things to the next level, but being too young, too naive, too shy to do so.

  • “Foundation” by Years & Years, Thursday, September 15, 2022 (Repost)

     

    Olly Alexander grew up next to a church, and as a boy he was fascinated by the what he heard and saw from his home. His parents were not religious, but his impressions of the rituals that took place, during particular liturgical holidays sparked his interest in organized religion. However, as Alexander grew up in his sexuality, he came to realize that the church next door was not a place for him. He was still captivated by the symbolism of ritual. He sought community in gay clubs, which became like a church to him. If you listen to Years & Years albums, the themes of religion may almost trick you that you are listing to a Christian album.

    I DON’T REALLY WANT TO BE FINE. The opening track to their debut album, 
    Communion, Years & Years start their brand of Pet-Shop-Shop-Boys inspired electronica with an atmospheric, lyrically minimal track. However, it doesn’t take a lot of words to convey the complex emotions in this song. And if you take the track with the highly symbolic music video, you’ll have something to think about for a while. The video depicts Olly Alexander’s funeral with a hypnotized audience. There are so many symbols calling back to nineteenth-century spiritualism. The song itself sounds like the calm before a storm on the edge of front. It gives me the feeling of the time when a sunny day starts turning ominous, just as the cloud start rolling in–angry clouds. Standing in a field when the first bolt of lighting strikes from out of graying sky. And just as the hail starts to fall, you make a run for it. It’s the atmosphere of the dreams I had when I was young, storm clouds and being completely alone when the thunder rolls and the lightning strikes.

    IF I TRIUMPH, ARE YOU WATCHING? Lyrically, this song makes me think about feeling unworthy of happiness. In my own life, I’ve tried to take the righteous path because I thought it would keep me holy. I felt that pursuing my happiness would lead me away from God. That’s why I  chose to go to Seventh-day Adventist university, rather than a cheaper state school. I avoided people I thought would take me off the straight and narrow. However, in 2014 I couldn’t put off my own happiness anymore. That year opened up my eyes and made me question the systems put in place to make me feel like I was afraid of the world. I often wish I had learned my lessons earlier. It would have saved me a few thousand dollars and maybe I would be on a different career trajectory. Then again, I want to think that I’m on the right path now, and I should just learn as much as I can. Love is possible. I should stop sabotaging my happiness.

  • “Enough for Now” by The Fray, Wednesday, September 14, 2022

     

    The Fray’s eponymous second record was propelled by the success of their first record How to Save a Life. While it’s true that television dramas can still make the careers of bands, in some ways it seems like the storytelling lyrics of bands like The Fray were going out of fashion with each subsequent release from the Boulder, Colorado-based band. But with still eight million monthly listeners on Spotify despite not releasing anything new since 2014, and even lead singer Isaac Slade leaving the band last year, there still is a market for coffee-shop lyricism, even if you don’t hear it on Top 40 stations anymore.

    HE’S NO LONGER WITH US, BUT HE LEFT THIS DUSTY ROOM. Like many of the songs on The Fray’s second LP, “Enough for Now” deals with an emotional subject related to family. The seventh track on the record deals with the death of lead singer Isaac Slade’s maternal grandfather. The lyrics of the song paint a bleak picture about a bitter man who longed to pass on his name with a male heir. Only Slade’s mother was born to the couple. The song accuses Slade’s grandfather of not loving his daughter and leaving his daughter and his wife “without so much as a kiss.” Slade told The Sun that “Enough for Now” was written after a year after processing the grief. This is a conflicted grief for all family members involved. Feelings of love, resentment, abandonment flavored the grandfather’s life and are heightened by death. When the ideal of the family structure contrasts with the cold reality of dysfunction, the underpinning of the house isn’t correctly installed.

    SIXTY YEARS OF SORROW, HE GOT FIVE OR SIX OF BLISS. Even if you do your part, some family conflicts cannot be solved. In recent years, the idea of chosen family has become more and more popular. In the case of family dysfunction and toxicity, it’s much better to chose with whom you spend your time. Chosen family has been a long-standing tradition in queer spaces, but especially in a time when political and religious polarization run high, many people are choosing to forego a Thanksgiving dinner with uncles and aunts in favor of “Friendsgivings” and other occasions in which close friends with compatible ideologies can create meaningful experiences rather than fester in toxic environments. Recent songs like Elton John and Rina Sawayama‘s “Chosen Family” and Harry Styles‘ “Matilda” how comfort of friends can replace family ties. While you might need to keep your cortisol levels in check during the holiday season, it may be impossible to block the emotions associated with a terrible family completely. A chosen family may be a great way of coping with some of the loss one feels when making a choice for mental health.

    Read the lyrics on Genius.

    Audio:

    Studio Live:

    Concert:

  • “Cat” by Relient K, Tuesday, September 13, 2022

     

    Starting out as a three-piece band, expanding to four members, and five members, and finally reducing to back to core members Matt Thiessen and Matt Hoopes, Relient K has been through many changes both sonically and thematically in their discography from their All Work & No Play EP in 1998 to their latest record, 2016’s Air for Free. The band’s maturity on their later releases certainly goes unappreciated by the majority of youth group kids whose parents just wanted their kids to listen to the Christian version of Green Day and Blink-182. Air for Free is mature in that it is nostalgic for childhood and not obsessed with adolescence like the band’s earlier catalogue.  

    GRAB ANOTHER DIRTY TAMBOURINE AND SHAKE IT . The spiritual sequel to 2009’s Forget and Not Slow Down, Relient K’s eighth studio record Air for Free has a similar approach to production. After Relient K had released tons of EPs, K … Is for Karaoke, and a panned attempt at a pop career on the disjointed record Collapsible Lung, Relient K returned to the studio with their longtime producer Mark Lee Townsend, the former dc talk guitarist who had started their career by recommending the barely-graduated boys to Toby Mac and Gotee Records. Townsend has collaborated with Relient K during various stages in the band’s history. But rather than making a Tongue in Cheek punk rock record like their early days, Theissen and Hoopes wanted to record something organic, and in order to into the right mindset for the record, they decided to record on a farm about an hour south of their Nashville homes. Hoopes said of the atmosphere of the farm that it had the feel like they were in their Ohio hometown, despite being in the South. Although Relient K had relocated to Nashville years ago, Air for Free continues to have a northern Ohio feel to it, especially as the band recalls childhood in the sometimes childish lyrics. 

    HE LOOKS A LOT LIKE ME. “Cat” is the 4th of 16 tracks on the standard edition of Air for Free.  Many of the tracks are whimsical on the record. The new summertime classic and Ohio-pride anthem “Mrs. Hippopotamuses’” and “Elephant Parade” join “Cat” as the trilogy of the most whimsical tracks on the record, but many of the others like “Local Construction” and “Mountaintop” have a whimsical air to them as well. In an interview with WJTL radio, Hoopes said that the farm they recorded on had animals running around, and the record feels like a few strays get loose here and there, such as the effect of the cat walking on the piano at the end of today’s song. “Cat” feels like a William Blake observation that speaker witnesses the innocence of a cat hutting a butterfly. The truth is that cats hunt both for food and for sport, so the pretty butterfly, who just woke up from “a new cocoon” might be dead soon. Rather than focusing on the butterfly, though, the speaker is fascinated with the cat. This ragged cat that has wandered into the band’s practice space is dirty and has lived outdoors, eating whatever scraps it can find. The cat takes risks “like [it’s] got nine more lives” and the speaker draws a comparison between the cat and himself when the speaker declares: “it looks a lot like me.” Is it Matt Thiessen’s shaggy hair? Or is it the “Bummin’” spirit of the record that draws a connection between the speaker and the cat?


  • “Here Is Gone” by The Goo Goo Dolls, Monday, September 12, 2022 (Updated Repost)


     The Goo Goo Dolls’ 1998 album Dizzy Up the Girl encapsulates the acoustic alt-rock sound that listeners can instantly identify late ’90s rock. The follow up to their massive 4x platinum record released four years later, Gutterflower, charted higher than their previous records, but ultimately sold much less than Dizzy. The band continues to release music from time to time, including this year’s Chaos in Bloom,
    but their heyday remains in 1998.
    Gutterflower is a fine record and “Here Is Gone” is a fine song. But the acoustic rock band from Buffalo, NY had been there and done that, and the 2002 music scene was moving past pop rock aimed at adult contemporary radio.
    I WAS NOT THE ANSWER SO FORGET IT WAS EVER ME. Johnny Rzeznik has said that the music video for “Here Is Gone,” which features some of the time film tricks, sped up footage of several scenes, cost more to produce than the entire album. The video at youth counterculture in what looks like urban decay. The youth show aggression toward symbols of cultural establishment. It’s kind of an odd video for a an adult contemporary band to make. The song itself is about a break up, about “want[ing] to be free.” The idea that “somehow here is gone” recalls the end of a relationship when a partner is simply going through the motions, often before even realizing that he or she is unhappy. The other partner may be happy and savoring the moments, living in the here and now. However, when faced with the reality of the relationship’s demise, what the other thought was here is actually not real. The moment passed. “Here Is Gone” could apply to any passing trend. It could apply to the world we live in now, which is rapidly changing. How the standard of living you thought you can and should achieve when you were young is seemingly out of reach and perhaps the wrong goal. It could be the pulse of a political trend, one side is grasping for power in what seems to be effective, but it turns out that that ideology is actually in the minority and the people will not tolerate it in the long term. Somehow we hit the target, but the arrow stuck only for a minute before falling onto the ground. This is what became of the Goo Goo Dolls post-Dizzy Up the Girl.

    SOMEHOW HERE IS GONE. This twenty-year-old song brings back so many memories of late middle school and early high school. I was thinking the other day that you can truly feel old when you can remember 20 years with no problem, and this 2002 hit makes me feel both old and young. Of course, this was kind of the last attempt for aging rockers, The Goo Goo Dolls, to write a “cool” pop song that breeched the monoculture of MTV’s TRL, or it may have just been on VH1 or MTV2, when we switched the channels after school because there was nothing on MTV. This song reminds me of going to my friend Michael’s house after schools some days. We had started a band and wrote some pretty amateur songs and practiced them until Robby, Michael’s mom’s boyfriend, a musician himself, suggested we learn to play covers of the classics like Tom Petty, The Doobie Brothers, and other ’70s and ’80s groups. Learning to play simple older songs would have helped us learn to play better, but the band was short lived as Mike couldn’t get along with other kids we brought in to fill out the band, and eventually, I was also out of the band. This was around the time that Mike started dating my sister and things were kind of weird. Somehow here is gone.








  • "Hero" by Family of the Year, Sunday, September 11, 2022 (repost)

    The 2014 film Boyhood was a highly acclaimed film that has an incredible Rotten Tomatoes score, yet nobody talks about it anymore. The film was shot over the course of 12 years from 2001 to 2013 using the same actors and feels like a piece of turn-of-the-century Americana, a kind of early 2000s rendering of a Norman Rockwell painting of the imperfect white, working- class American family. The film not only explores boyhood and coming of age, but also parenthood and the complications of raising a family while trying to better oneself as well as the struggles of co-parenting through a divorce. Woven into the human themes are the events and pop culture throughout the years. The soundtrack for the film is a combination of famed indie artists of the early ’00s and popular music of the time. Seamlessly joining the soundtrack was virtually unknown folk-rock band Family of the Year, with their song “Hero.”

    I DON’T WANT TO BE YOUR HERO. “Hero” appears in the movie toward the end when Mason, Jr., played by Ellar Coltrane, is driving his old pick up down the Texas highway. He is now 18 years old, graduated, and become himself. This comes after a scene with his mother, Olivia (Patricia Arquette). She wonders, “What was it all for?” when she reflects on the hardships of parenthood. She had raised her kids and wonders what’s next for her. She tells her son, “The next big event is my fucking funeral.” She had kept her family a paycheck away from eviction at some points, but ultimately raised a successful family, yet she wonders what it was all for. Family of the Year’s “Hero” serves as a reflection on the themes of the movie. The song talks about the conflict between wanting stability and wanting something greater than what you have right now. You long to be allowed to leave, but you still hold down a job to keep the girl around. 

    ‘M A KID LIKE EVERYONE ELSE. Watching Mason’s family struggle in the late early 2000s reminded me of growing up in a family who lived paycheck to paycheck in the ’90s to ’06 when I graduated high school. I remember church pantry handouts and hand-me-downs from cousins. Clinton-era social programs let us go to the doctor when we needed to, and our moldy old house had me sick quite a bit a kid. My dad worked as a logger in New York until the payment was so bad that he decided to go to truck driving school. When my dad became an over-the-road truck driver we started making more money, but we didn’t have health insurance. We prayed we didn’t get sick or injured, and thank God nothing bad happened. My mom would eventually go to nursing school and go to work when I was in high school. I’m very proud of what my family did, but I remember talks with my dad that echoed what Olivia said in Boyhood. What is it all for? The existential question that haunts us with every passing year. What is it all for? “Hero” tells us “Everyone deserves a change to walk with everyone else” but what does that mean? Boyhood, life, marriage, divorce, the economic depression–rituals of the American Dream. Everyone deserves it, but isn’t it all just vanity and vexation of the spirit?
    Trailer for Boyhood:
    Music Video (original cut):

     Music Video (Boyhood cut):