TAG: GRAND RAPIDS

FERMIN ROMERO DE TORRES

The liner notes for this album include “We made this album just as we made Consider, with no overdubs, loop pedals or effects pedals so we could preform it live exactly as it is on this record.” My dudes, effects pedals, even loopers, are portable. You can easily use those in a live setting, many bands do.


THIS SONG IS NOT ABOUT YOU

This Song is Not About You by Just For Kicks
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Pop punk with a slight emo touch that I love as much now as I did 15 years ago. They were a favorite local band for years.

Backstory: Three high school kids in 1995/1996 start a Queers/Mr. T Experience/ a million other bands rip-off band. They write 41 songs in about four years, release one ten-song cassette, play shows constantly, and become their own band. Decide that pop-punk isn’t cool anymore, change their name to Hunter Rose, and get more emo/mathy. Then they break up.

2008, two guys decided to get the band back together. They recruit three other guys and start writing new songs. They play some shows, and in 2009, they record a new album, then promptly stop being a band. In 2012, a favorite local venue closes so they have a reunion show and released a cassette of the material they had recorded three years earlier. They’ll probably break up/just stop playing again, but who knows.

This song is from their just-released album called “This is About Us.” Buy it here for super cheap.

And here is everything the original line up did between 1996-1999, for free.


TIPPER

Tipper by Shores
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All posts in October will be from bands playing Fest 10 in Gainesville, Florida. Everything will be posted in the order that they are playing. 

Friday, 10:30 at the Atlantic.

My introduction to Shores last year: driving from Michigan to Gainesville with the band and then seeing them play 3 times in four days.

There is a pretty good chance that, despite liking these guys quite a bit, I’d skip them or at least miss part of their set so I could see Campaign, a band I’ve never seen. 


MENDOZA

Mendoza by Mustard Plug
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There is a line in the song Stay Positive by the Hold Steady that goes “There’s gonna come a time when the true scene leaders forget where they differ and get big picture ‘cause the kids at the shows, they’ll have kids of their own and the sing-along songs will be our scriptures.”

I’m old enough that this is happening now.

In light of that, I’m going to spend the rest of the year highlighting our scriptures.

Ugh, Mustard Plug. 

I’ve never really liked this band, even during the ska years or living in Grand Rapids, it couldn’t make a dent in that distaste. But this damn song,  goddamn this song. So catching and upbeat. It's perfect. Listen to it and not get it stuck in your head. 


THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BITTER FRUIT

The Most Beautiful Bitter Fruit by La Dispute
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La Dispute - The Most Beautiful Bitter Fruit

I’ve been hating on this band since they started. I got why “the kids” loved them, but it did nothing for me at all. Their new album, Wildlife, made me eat my words.

Good job.

You can stream the entire album on the band’s Facebook page.


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2 by AndyDickTracyMorganFreeman
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I thought they had an awesome name in 2005, and I still do now. And now both Brian and Billy have been on this site twice. The other time being Shores.

Bandcamp.