Mixtapemotions

  • “Man” by Relient K, Tuesday, November 15, 2022

    For some musical acts, it takes a while for their audience to take them seriously. Take for example Relient K. After three records of lyrics about Marylin Manson eating girlfriends, manipulating emotional girls to wear mood rings, and fantasizing about showing up to an ’80s-themed prom in a pink tux listening to Tears for Fears, the band scored two mainstream pop hits from their not-quite-as-cheeky Mmhmm album. 

    TOO OLD TO BE GROWING UP.  Relient K’s latest effort Air for Free was released in 2016 and the band continues to tour with the record. While the band gets playful with songs like “Local Construction,” “Cat,” “Mrs. Hippopotamuses‘” and “Elephant Parade,” there are serious moments on the record. One of the most serious songs is “Man,” the fifth track. Relient K’s early music was almost exclusively punk rock–electric guitar, bass, drums, and vocals. But little by little, Relient K began introducing other instruments–acoustic guitars, piano/ keys–and production elements. Now the band freely incorporates piano without fears of not being punk rock. Today’s song is both lyrically and musically masterful. Starting out at a laid-back pace, “Man” gradually gains tempo. In a 2016 interview, lead singer Matt Thiessen stated that “Man” is a follow-up to the band’s album-closing tracks for Forget and Not Slow Down, “This Is the End” and “(If You Want It).” To signify the growing urgency in the song, the tempo continuously speeds up until the final chorus which presents the lyrics as a swirling round. 

    I SPENT THE LAST SIX YEARS LIKE HOFFMAN IN THE SWIMMING POOL.“Man” is, coincidentally, the third track this month that references Peter Pan following Tyson Motsenbocker‘s “Wendy Darling” and Anberlin‘s “Godspeed.” Peter Pan is often used in songs and literature as a symbol of the struggle between staying young and growing up. The beginning of the song references Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate, spending his summer in the pool, eyes locked on Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), waiting to see where life will take the young man. The song also subtly references one of the band’s covers, the Veggie Tales silly song “The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything.” In “Man” the speaker feels the gravity of waiting around for life to happen. As time is slipping away, the speaker has many impulses: hide from it, try to delay it, die prematurely, but ultimately he realizes he has to face it. There also seems to be some regret for the singer’s careless attitude in the past alluded to in the song’s lines. With millennials and Zoomers demanding accountability for misogamy and homophobia in Christian and secular media, many songs and artists have suffered losses in streams and have become irrelevant. Just this year, Matt Thiessen apologized for the problematic lyrics in “Mood Rings” after a TikToker went viral with a message about how the song stereotyped young women as emotionally turbulent forces in a young man’s life. While much of Relient K’s most remembered tracks may be muddied by some of their past statements, it seems that the band is waking up and seeing the role they played in it and taking accountability. 

    Read the lyrics on Genius.

  • “Magnetic” by Flyleaf, Monday, November 14, 2023

    When a successful band records a new record and the announces the departure of their lead singer— the face of their band, it can be industry suicide. That’s exactly what happened when Flyleaf’s frontwoman Lacey Sturm quit the band soon after releasing their third album, 2012’s New Horizons. After the car accident and death of the band’s sound engineer Rich Caldwell and after reevaluating her life, Sturm decided to quit the band to focus on her family. Before leaving, though, she and the other band members selected Kristen May, formerly of the band Vedera, to replace Sturm.

    PULLING ME FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD. Momentum for the third Flyleaf record withered with the departure of the signature sound of their front woman. Dropping out of Flyleaf meant dropping out of all album promotion, save for the singer’s farewell videos, “New Horizons” and  “Call You Out.” Kristen May stepped into touring duties immediately following Sturm’s departure. The next year, Flyleaf released an EP with Kristen May on vocals. This was the first exposure for many fans to the new sound of the band. The EP featured a new song with P.O.D.‘s Sonny Sandoval, but the rest were live songs, mostly from New Horizons, but one track from the band’s self-titled, “Sorrow.” Many fans failed to see the continuity of the band. May, the band’s new lead singer was more akin to Paramore‘s Haley Williams or Fireflight‘s Dawn Michele. Whereas Sturm’s voice is low and her stage persona mysterious and somewhat tortured, May’s voice is upbeat and her stage presence is like a pop-punk star, more like Sara Dallin or Keren Woodword of Bananrama than of Lacey Sturm, and the EP Who We Are sounded like a pop band covering Flyleaf. 

    ALWAYS GONNA FIND EACH OTHER SOMEHOW.  Flyleaf then released a full-length record with Kristen May on vocals in 2014, titled Between the Stars. The album continued to deviate from the band’s dark original sound, dealing with lighter subject matter. Critics and fans agreed that the new Flyleaf sounded nothing like the original band though Between the Stars received “generally favorable reviews” according to Metacritic. For me, the only redeemable song is “Magnetic,” the album’s second track. It’s a love song with a killer bass intro, a kind of evolution of Kirk Patrick Seals‘ “I’m So Sick” intro. Still, it’s not Flyleaf. Although Kristen May was selected by the band, the singer felt insecurity being in the group. She stated in an interview with Cryptic Rock that she felt that fans judged her on how she showed her Christianity. And compared to her predecessor, the charismatic Lacey Sturm, who practically brought a church service to the intoxicated crowds, fans probably noted a stark difference between the lead singers. There could only be one Lacey Sturm and she was the voice of Flyleaf. May left Flyleaf following Between the Stars, like Sturm exiting to take care of her newborn son. Of Flyleaf, she said that she never really felt like a part of the band. Sturm had left Flyleaf on good terms. As her children grew up, she began to focus more on her music and writing. She has continued to collaborate with bands such as Breaking Benjamin and Skillet as well as releasing a full-length record in 2016 called Life Screams and singles since then. Just like pure magnetism, last week Sturm announced that she and Flyleaf would be performing a show together next year. What this means for the future of the band, we have yet to find out.

    Read the lyrics on Genius.

  • “Luck” by The Starting Line, Sunday, November 13, 2022

    In 2008, The Starting Line went on hiatus. Disillusioned from the recording industry after their sophomore record and major label debut, Based on a True Story, was neglected from promotion due to the band’s label, MCA being acquired by Universal Music Group and forming the sub-label Gergen Records. This prompted the band to sign with Virgin Records and release their third record, Direction. Unlike Based on a True Story, Direction was better promoted. Still, even with the new promotion the band had enough.


    GETTING CLOSE TO WHATEVER MATTERS. The Starting Line’s hiatus included a few tour dates together and live recordings. The band is yet to release a full-length follow-up record to Direction, but in 2016 they released a three-song EP titled Anyways. Lead singer Kenny Vasoli said at the Slam Dunk Records festival in 2011: “People keep asking us when we’re getting back together, and the answer I have is yesterday. And what happens when bands get together? They write music. So, we have a new song for you.” “Luck” is the last of the three songs on the EP but was the first of the new songs that the band wrote. The song indirectly addresses the issue that drove the band to take a break, their lack of promotion from their label. We may eventually get new music from The Starting Line as they continue to play reunion shows. The band recently played the When We Were Young in Las Vegas, the massive 3-weekend music festival. The band’s live shows and continued support from their fans is a testament to The Starting Line’s lasting impact on the emo, pop-punk scene. But what we’ve seen in recent years, a legacy band reuniting certainly isn’t the same as producing new music. What would new Starting Line music post-pandemic sound like? 

    THEY USED TO TAKE YOU FOR GRANTED. Speaking of luck, I confirmed last year that The Starting Line’s “Island” (Float Away) is actually a bit of a bad luck charm for me. The line “It seems that things are always getting better” always gave me hope whenever I listened to the song. Direction is one of my go-to records for a summer or a summery spring day. But at the end of that summery spring day, a cold front blows in. It was a mantra that ended in an EF-4 tornado in college after beautiful, spring weather. Last year after writing about that track, my dad had a stroke. He’s doing better now. In life, it seems like bad luck to declare that life is getting better because the next thing is around the corner. After all, life isn’t a staircase to some glorious finish but rather peaks and valleys. Rarely do we enjoy the next level of success that transcends us to another dimension of being human. Better to think that when things are going well, they won’t always be this good. Things to think about on the thirteenth day of the month. Good luck!

    Read the lyrics on Genius.

  • "Dance or Die" (The Secret Handshake Han Valen Remix) by Family Force 5, Saturday, November 12, 2022 (Repost)

    In 2006, Family Force 5 debuted with their brand of ‘crunk,’ rap-rock punk that was comical, dancey, awkward, and overall unique. You’d be hard-pressed to find much Christian Rock on Business Up Front/Party in the Back. Most of the songs are about dancing in the club and falling in love. While pretty innocent, it was one of the first times a Christian Rock band invited its listeners to the club. Known for their outrageous live shows and touring with the likes of Cobra Starship, 30h!3, Cash Cash, Breathe Carolina, and The Secret Handshake, the band took a stylistic left turn when they released their sophomore record on Tooth & Nail Records in 2008. Dance or Die has much less crunk, more singing, and fewer joke songs. The band started taking themselves seriously on this record, but looking back, I wonder who it was for?

    THEY TRY TO TAKE OUR LIVES, BUT WE WILL SURVIVE. Family Force 5 is a rock band, but in their live shows they functioned as a boyband. In 2006-2010, boy band music was pretty scarce from the American music scene. There was the Jonas Brothers, but they were more like Hanson than Backstreet Boys. Meanwhile in the UK, there was Westlife, and South Korea never stopped generating boy (and girl) bands. The sounds of Westlife and South Korean bands evolved beyond the late ’90s teen pop sound. The boyband evolution in the UK and South Korea, though, probably didn’t have much influence on the  five “Kountry Gentlemen” from Atlanta, GA. The band members of FF5 had stage names and personas, nerdy music videos, and hip hop influences. However, the hip-hop would be temporarily dropped for their ’80s dance pop follow up, Dance or Die. Functioning as a boy band on their second record, Dance or Die was a somewhat more serious album. Songs like “Dance or Die,” “Rip it Up” and “How in the World” offered little comedy [with the exception of “Rip it Up” (The Pragmatic Remix) from Dance or Die with a Vengeance and songs like “Get Your Back Off the Wall,” “Party Foul,” “D-I-E 4 Y-O-U” and “Fever” only containing exaggerated lyrics. 

    TRANSMISSION RADIO, RESPOND IF YOU’RE ALIVE. Ultimately, Dance or Die, a straight-up dance record, would not be the direction the band would keep. The band’s III album returned to the silliness of their debut, but lost a lot of fans with the lyrics. Then lead singer Solomon “Soul Glow Activatur” Olds left the band and the band just before the band’s leaving Tooth & Nail. The band’s fourth album, 2014’s Time Stands Still,  flirted more with EDM. Eventually, all but two of the original members were left, causing the now duo to change their name officially to FF5, their long-used acronym. So who is Dance or Die for? It’s certainly not sexy music. The mullet wearing Family boys aren’t winding up on any middle school girl’s bedroom wall. The voices of Olds and company are more serious, but still sound pretty jokey. And yet, the amount of collaborators who came together for Dance or Die with a Vengeance is impressive. There are remixes by 30h!3, Cobra Starship, David Crowder, Jasen Rauch (Red/Breaking Benjamin), and guest appearances by Matt Thiessen and The Secret Handshake. Who is this album for? Your girlfriend will probably hate it. It’s guilty pleasure bro rock, and it’s getting more and more obscure with age. Still, it’s kind of fun to listen to awkward dance music sometimes. Just as long as it doesn’t remind you of a sixth grade dance.

    Official Music Video:
    Remix:
    Read “Dance or Die (The Secret Handshake Han Valen Remix)” by Family Force 5 on Genius

  • “Wrecking Ball” (Miley Cyrus cover) by August Burns Red, Friday, November 11, 2022

    In 2010, we learned that Miley Cyrus Can’t Be Tamed. The former Disney Channel star had released soundtracks for the Hannah Montana series before releasing several saccharine pop records. As she came of age, though, the singer wanted to make it clear that she was a sexual being. Enter 2013’s Bangerz and its second single “Wrecking Ball.” The song is a slow breakup ballad and doesn’t feature explicit language like many of the other tracks on the record. Still, it was the video for the song that virally brought Cyrus into the post-purity culture, sex-positive zeitgeist. The video features the singer clad in only a pair of white panties and a t-shirt, then fully nude—the singer and the director tastefully hiding the singer’s genitals—riding on a wrecking ball and licking a sledgehammer. From that moment everyone had an opinion about Miley Cyrus and whether expressing sexuality in such a manner was art or pure immortality.

    DON’T YOU EVER SAY I JUST WALKED AWAY. And while Miley Cyrus’ original version is fascinating, today I’m giving, for many of my listeners, a candelabra to the head. We have another entry from Fearless Records’ Punk Goes Pop, Vol. 6, like yesterday’s song “Royals” by Youth in Revolt. Unlike Youth in Revolt, I knew August Burns Red before this Punk Goes… series entry. I sometimes listened to August Burn Red in college when I needed heavy, aggressive music, especially when driving. The Christian metalcore band formed in 2003, signing with Solid State Records and releasing their debut record Thrill Seeker. The band’s musical style is noted for its fast tempos, classic rock guitar riffs, brutal drums, and unclean vocals—lead vocalist Jake Luhrs doesn’t sing, though the band is able to pull melody from the vibrant guitars—a technique I describe with harder music as rewarding listeners with melody, essentially giving them a payoff. Luhrs joined the band in 2006 after the band’s original vocalist Jon Hershey quit the band. August Burns Red has released nine records, including an instrumental Christmas album, Sleddin’ Hill.  In addition to “Wrecking Ball,” August Burns Red also covered Britney Spears’ “…Baby One More Time” for Pop Goes Punk Volume, 2.  The fast guitars and the fun attitude of the band make August Burns Red a worthy entry to the list, even if it’s not very fun to listen to. 

    I PUT YOU HIGH UP IN THE SKY. “Wrecking Ball” set a record at the time with 19.3 million views in 24 hours and became a cultural conversation. First the video was controversial for depicting Cyrus nude, to which Cyrus defended the artistic choice, telling MTV News: “ I think the video is much more, if people get past the point that I’m naked and you actually look at me you can tell that I actually look more broken than even the song sounds.” The video was inspired by Sinéad O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” depicting heartbreak sincerely. Of course, given the song’s viral popularity and the purity of Cyrus’ heartbreak, the song lent itself to parody. One of the best parodies was filmed on Chatroulette by YouTuber Steve Kardynal. The YouTuber mimics the video on the platform as random users sing along. Kardynal starts the video dressed in the same white t-shirt and panties as Cyrus and ends up swinging naked on an exercise ball hanging from his ceiling. But as far as parodies go, a heavy metal cover of a heartbreaking slow ballad certainly makes light of a serious subject. Yes, wrecking balls would make sense for a heavy metal track. What’s also interesting about this cover is that August Burns Red diffuses some of the Christian “slut shaming,” at least with more progressive hard music listeners, surrounding Cyrus. Many Christian Rock bands embrace culture when it seems moral, but August Burns Red jumped into the pit panties first—though I don’t know that they have performed the song as Cyrus did.

    Miley Cyrus original:

    August Burns Red cover:

  • “Royals” (Lorde cover) by Youth in Revolt, Thursday, November 10, 2022

    When a teenager grows up in New Zealand experiencing American culture through Hip Hop music videos, that teenager might have a distorted view of how Americans live. Lorde‘s breakthrough single “Royals” got some backlash for “overgeneralizing American culture” and misunderstanding Hip Hop. Others have said that Lorde’s take on pop with the  emerging sad girl pop sub-genre helped to usher in a slowness
    revolution that we can still hear today in the likes of Billie Eilish.

    WE’RE DRIVING CADILLACS IN OUR DREAMS. While Lorde’s original version of  “Royals” beats most covers, the version I’m choosing for my playlist comes from the Punk Goes Pop series, performed by the band Youth in Revolt. The New Jersey based pop punk band adds an extra layer of grit to Lorde’s song with heavy guitars and bass. Although the screaming at the end is gratuitous, I think that Youth in Revolt’s version suffices to cover both the earworm and the need to transition from Rise Against‘s “Long Forgotten Sons.” For me, in 2013, I wasn’t listening to much pop music other than discovering K-pop. I first encountered “Royals” when Paper Route covered the song. I didn’t actually know who they were covering, but eventually I checked out Lorde. I thought she sounded like another version of Lana Del Rey, but I didn’t get into her music. I hadn’t listened to her Pure Heroine until recently and only listened to Melodrama because my sister had a copy of the record in her car when I went home to the states. Today, Lorde is an artist I like to listen to occasionally. Solar Power was an underrated record from last year. I mostly skip Melodrama because I find the lack of instrumentals makes her voice a little jarring. 

    LET ME LIVE THAT FANTASY.  “Royals” feels like it’s the song for the rest of us. I can think of several people who are constantly talking about salaries and material wealth. They’re always talking about cars, clothes, and about the things they will buy and the things that are out of their price range. I’ve pretty much killed my most elaborate dreams from when I was a kid: to be a movie star/director/ rock star, have a two-story house with a swimming pool and a wife and two kids. Instead, I’ve redefined my dreams, to make just enough to support myself so that I can live in a comfortable house and enjoy a little time off. My jewels are my Apple products, and they’re also kind of my kids. My iPhone Pro 14 says he wants a little brother as his big brother the iPad Pro 3rd generation has gone blind in the rear camera and is running out of space. I think that if I can make a small impact in the lives of my students and the people around me, I will be rich in this world. Sure, I want to be able to afford the airfare to be with my family for the big moments. I want to be able to afford groceries and a night out on the weekend. I want a small piece of happiness, and I think I have it. So I’m driving Cadillacs in my dreams and parking it in front of my commodious bungalow. 

    Read Lorde’s original lyrics on Genius.

    Read the Youth in Revolt cover lyrics on Genius.

    Lorde’s original:

    Youth in Revolt cover:

    Paper Route cover:


  • “Long Forgotten Sons” by Rise Against, November 9, 2022

    Rise Against‘s 2008 record, Appeal to Reason took the hardcore punk band and made them accessible to Rock radio. The Chicago-based band had become known for their progressive politics, advocating animal rights, LGBTQ+ rights, environmentalism, and humanitarianism. Of course, Rise Against is far from the only left-leaning political bands, but Appeal to Reason place the band on rock playlists alongside rock bands with more dulsatory politics or even conservatives like Staind.  

    FAR FROM HOME ON A ROAD UNKNOWN. Appeal to Reason produced three singles that charted in the top three on rock charts. Softening the band’s sound certainly allowed the band to expand their audience and in turn allowed the band to implant punk rock ideals into the mainstream “rock bros” listening to rock radio. The album’s first single, “Re-Education (Through Labor)” deals with the decay of the American education as evidenced through the electorate and leaders during the presidency of George W. Bush. The band’s third single “Savior,” a song that got Simlish treatment in The Sims 3: Ambitions expansion pack, used its music video to make a political statement depicting a person in an elephant suit bullying a person in a polar bear suit, alluding to Republican’s stance on climate change. Other songs on the record depict America on the verge of its own demise and speak against the war in Iraq.  “Long Forgotten Sons” is the second track on Appeal to Reason, and the song deals with disillusionment due to political leaders ignoring the voices of the people. The imagery is post-apocalyptic. The song recognizes the marginalized who never fit into the system. After the system breaks and leaves the “long forgotten sons and daughters who don’t belong to anyone” disenfranchised, they rise up against that system.

    WHEN CRIES FOR HELP GO UNANSWERED. Rise Against’s prophetic view of America may have shocked listeners in 2008. The band’s live concerts with their upside down American flags and their message: rise against power, may infuriate certain so-called patriots today. But in 2022, liberal takes on social issues are more commonplace. The TV shows we watch today show us that the world is more nuanced that we thought back during the Bush years. But then again, I could just be seeing a reflection in my journey and friends and Facebook friends from college who have come to similar conclusions, first about the war in Iraq then on other issues like immigration, LGBTQ+ rights, and even the right to a safe abortion. For me, I had to challenge my politics because of my truth. I couldn’t subscribe to a party that didn’t support my right to marry and also spoke badly about people trying to become a citizen. But that’s my journey. I don’t know exactly what happened to my peers to make them more liberal. However, it does seem that voting for Democrats these days just is a vote for the status quo–nothing improved–as the Republican party wants to strip America of social programs. There’s something fundamentally flawed with a system that forgets about it’s people. 




  • “Looking for America” by Lana Del Rey, Tuesday, November 8, 2022

    With the U.S. midterm elections at hand, I thought about this ’60s-style protest song from Lana Del Rey, released just weeks prior to her sixth studio album, Norman Fucking Rockwell!  Like most tracks on NFR, “Looking For America“ was produced by Jack Antonoff. However, “Looking for America” was not an album track on NFR. Del Rey and Antonoff recorded “Looking for America” was recorded on August 5, 2019 in response to two shootings that happened two days before, one in Dayton, Ohio, and the other in El Paso, Texas. 


    IT’S JUST A DREAM I HAD IN MIND.  In many ways “Looking for America” thematically belongs on Norman Fucking Rockwell! In both the larger work and the last-minute single, Del Rey mourns the loss of the “good old days.” Del Rey, who built her career as a nostalgia act, creating art centered on the past, shifts her sound to ’60s protest songs in the wake of Donald Trump’s presidency, a candidate who campaigned on the “good old days promises” but whose presidency puts Del Rey into an existential crisis. The focus of Del Rey’s writing is no longer craggy-faced, problematic men, those men are still present, but Del Rey is singing beyond them, to the concept of America itself. But “Looking for America” takes the theme that Del Rey dances around in NFR and makes it explicit that Del Rey is longing for a version of America when it was safe to grow up, when gun violence wasn’t on the nightly news. Yet, this nostalgia for America’s past is tricky.  The “Make America Great Again” slogan is older than Trump. Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, and Barry Goldwater all used this call to a time when America was at its strongest. But the simplicity of the time that politicians and citizens alike harken back to failed to address human rights for everyone and minimized complex social issues. Unlike MAGA, the message of “Looking for America” is forward-looking for a Del Rey song: guns need to be regulated. 

    NO BOMBS IN THE SKY. And so we come to America’s 2022 midterm election. It’s best not to take voting advice from Lana Del Rey, Elon Musk, or Kathy Griffin. But this election seems important. For years I didn’t vote. I didn’t live in the jurisdiction I was registered for over ten years, first going to college in Tennessee then living abroad. I trusted that system would take care of itself; who was I in the system? In 2020, 80 million Americans thought just like me and also didn’t vote. We thought that we didn’t like the candidates or that they didn’t represent our true views. The problem is when you trust other people to uphold the system and fail to realize that you are part of the system keeping it going. And if government by the people for the people isn’t what you’re interested in, bad actors certainly will step in. So, if you want to live in a theocracy owned by an evil chocolate corporation, don’t vote. Also, remember what’s at stake, economic relief now vs. voting rights in the future. We don’t get the luxury when we’re looking at a ballot to say, “Let’s vote in a dictator now, and if we don’t like that system, let’s vote for someone else next time.” It’s too late. So, that’s my two cents. Go out and vote!


  • “Stay Out of Trouble” by Kings of Convenience, Monday, November 7, 2022

    You can put Simon and Garfunkel in a playlist alongside most alternative and acoustic music and it fits perfectly. Yes, music production has come a long way since those early recordings, but somehow the duo’s harmonies, acoustic guitars, and musical counterpoints hold up in ways that many Beatles and Led Zeppelin recordings separate themselves from modern rock. Simon and Garfunkel parted ways years ago, but they have inspired countless indie folk groups in ways that separately Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel would have never impacted the world.

    TRY NOT TO MISS ME TOO MUCH. Kings of Convenience is a Norwegian folk duo that sound like a modern day Simon and Garfunkel. The Norwegian duo consists of Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe. Born in the same year (1975) and classmates growing up, Kings of Convenience formed after the duo’s band Skog had parted with two other members. After playing festivals in Europe, the group released their debut album in Quiet Is the New Loud on the American label Kindercore. Although Øye and Bøe’s native language is Norwegian, the duo sings all of their songs in English. The artwork on the album features Eirik embracing his girlfriend at the time, a woman who looks like Liv Tyler, with Erlend awkwardly onlooking the situation. The duo released their follow up in 2006, Riot on an Empty Street. On the album artwork for Riot, the girlfriend again appears; however, all three are separated. The girlfriend is looking provocatively at Erlend who is looking back at her while he sits in front of a chessboard. Eirik, sitting across from Erlend, looks into the camera. The album artwork leaves listeners with questions about the group’s dynamic—are they a duo or a trio? What’s going on with the Yoko Ono situation? Riot on an Empty Street addresses breakups and moving on. In “Stay Out of Trouble” the lyrics liken a breakup to a cold walk home.

    I WISH I HAD YOUR SCARF STILL. Kings of Convenience followed up their 2006 record with 2009’s Declaration of Dependence. Eirik’s ex-girlfriend does not appear on the cover art for the band’s third LP, but instead we see the duo on an island vacation, Eirik shirtless playing an acoustic guitar and Erlend siting with a chessboard beside him. Then the duo went on a lengthy hiatus until 2019, when they started writing and recording last year’s Peace or Love. The album cover features the duo sitting on a sofa, again playing a game of chess. During the duo’s hiatus, Eirik worked on other music, fronting the band The Whitest Boy Alive. There is a visual artistic theme running throughout the albums that probably parallels with the groups sound. I just noticed the artwork connection today. I have only listened to Riot on an Empty Street a few times and none of their other albums, and I’m delighted to have discovered a focus for my future listening with this group. It’s certainly not the best music criticism, but I think that I will have a deeper understanding of the group when I write about them next time.

    Read the lyrics on Genius.



  • “Wendy Darling” by Tyson Motsenbocker, Sunday, November 6, 2022

     

    As the Christian Rock releases from Tooth & Nail have been ebbing in the current music market, the new Tyson Montsonbocker record is no exception. Motsenbocker explained on the Black Sheep Podcast that his third record, Milk Teeth, moves away from spiritual subjects but the songs are more rooted in stories about people he knows and about growing up and realizing that life isn’t exactly what his parents and teacher told him life would be. 

    LEARNED THE BACKSEAT LESSONS IN A WHITE CHURCH VAN. But steering away from Christian and spiritual themes Tyson Motsenbocker doesn’t necessarily divorce Milk Teeth from his Christian upbringing. Instead, Milk Teeth sounds something like Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker, or certain Buzzfeed writers who write wistfully about episodes from evangelical pasts. For Motsenbocker on Milk Teeth, that evangelical past isn’t particularly devout. Today’s song, “Wendy Darling,” has a backdrop of a youth group in the third verse, but even with that backdrop the speaker and Wendy had snuck off to make out or have sex in the “white church van.” The chorus alludes to high school parties that involve driving “like Magnum’s Ferarri” and “throwing up [Wendy’s] mom’s locked Bacardi,” which is actually a brand of rum, not vodka. But this isn’t a PluggedIn review. I think it’s fascinating that these kinds of stories can be told now on a Christian record label, showing a frankness not shown until recently. Tooth & Nail has always been the most progressive of Christian labels, but even until recently records were censored in the writing in the writing process.

    THERE’S NOT MUCH TO DO IN A WHEAT FIELD TOWN WITH YOUR PARENTS AROUND. Tyson Motsenbocker named “Wendy Darling” after Wendy in Peter Pan, stating that Wendy is the character who grows up as opposed to Peter Pan who remains in boyhood. The speaker in the song has lost touch with Wendy until he “got up the nerve to call” her. After she went off to college, who she was is preserved in the speaker’s memory as the girl who played Nintendo with him, the one who went swimming in the cold Idaho/ Montana rivers in the summer, who went to house parties with him. But the second track on Milk Teeth listeners with a warning: “The old men say the decades don’t pass slow.” Time is the main theme and even the villain of Milk Teeth, an album that takes its title from another name for baby teeth that we lose before the age of ten. The album ends with the existential “Time Is a One Way Mirror,” but that is certainly a discussion for another day. For today let’s remember someone whom we lost to time. How has that person changed? How have you changed?


    Read the lyrics on Genius.