"Superman" by Goldfinger is one of the first songs I remember hearing on a video game. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater gave me the tunes that made my toes tapping, my head bobbing, and my mouth smiling. In fact, I still can't hear the song without hearing beeps in my head around the 1:50 mark. I just want to land that Kickflip McTwist!
In any case, even a quarter-century later, this song still rocks. And the Goldfinger crew (featuring a lot of familiar faces) is enthusiastic as ever, rocking out in very nice home studios. Take a listen and keep on dancing through all of this.
New Found Glory are among the pioneers of pop punk. And with this year's release of From the Screen to Your Stereo 3, the group is coming up on nearly a quarter-century of jams.
It appears that the group has recorded seven music videos for each of the seven songs on their EP. They've already released four of them, and this week welcomed in number five with their electric cover of "Cups" from Pitch Perfect. It's either this or "This Is Me" (from The Greatest Showman) – the point is, this is a terrific lil' cover.
Bonus points to the ENORMOUS cup pyramid lead singer Jordan Pundik builds, as well as the taco cameo midway through the song. Now let's all clap our hands and the ground and stack some cups.
I've done a pretty poor job of seeing shows this year that haven't involved either my own band or my friends' bands. It's basically been taking my roomie to see Blink-182 – his first concert ever and he just turned 30, come on, man! – and rocking out to some AFI on Valentine's Day, though getting to experience "Reivers' Music" live the first time they ever played it was pretty delightful.
However, seeing New Found Glory on back-to-back days in Dallas and Austin has rejuvenated my concert-going experience, and it's because these guys put on one hell of a show. This summer, they're celebrating two decades of being a band with a "20 Years of Pop Punk" tour. While many album tours involve a band playing one album front to back, this one mixes it up – literally. Not only did New Found Glory play TWO full albums each night, they did so randomly. You never knew if the next song was going to be your favorite track off the album, and I loved it. I'm always on my shuffle setting anytime I'm listening to music anyway. I like to be kept on my toes.
The Dallas show at The Door was a pretty impromptu jaunt up I-35 to see the quartet perform Sticks and Stones and Catalyst in their entirety. While most of the crew I traveled with ranks Catalyst as their favorite album, I'm a slightly older pop punker, so Sticks and Stones is the one I grew up on. It'll always hold a special place in my heart, but even so, I'm not sure I was ready for the insane energy that overtook the entire room as soon as "Understatement" kicked off the night. That song's always been one of my favorite New Found Glory tracks, and if you don't like it I'm pretty sure you just aren't a big fan of smiling.
What's cool about a full album show is that you get a handful of tracks that you really don't ever hear live. It was cool to see a deeper cut like "No News Is Good News" in between "Sonny" and "Head on Collision," which are both played a bit more frequently (side note: holy moly "Sonny" was getting that crowd emotional). The band also dropped in "Happy Being Miserable," the first single off their newest record, Makes Me Sick, which came out last month, and it sounded just as well-rehearsed and spot-on as their classics. I was also proud of myself for remembering that "Ending in Tragedy" hadn't been played as the band took a little encore break – guitarist Chad Gilbert said that it wasn't supposed to be an encore, it was just to give drummer Cyrus Bolooki some rest after playing 24 songs (they played 27 in total). The guy next to me was telling his friend that they just needed to come back and play "Intro" from Catalyst and then close with "My Friends Over You." I said, "pretty sure they haven't played 'Ending in Tragedy,' either." He told me, "No, they played it at the beginning," and I nodded and said, "okay." Then when it came on he hung his tail between his legs and came over and told me I was right. It's one of those little moments that literally nobody cares about except me, but made me feel like I had won one of the B-level Price is Right games, like "Coming or Going" or "Master Key." It's not a new car or "Plinko," but it's something.
We also hung around in Dallas for the after party, which was kind of weird at first. Two dudes played a bunch of emo songs and jumped around and played air guitar and air drums while occasionally yelling things like "what's up, Dallas?" The songs were terrific early-2000s nostalgia, but still a little strange. At some point, they brought New Found Glory back out, and the guys took over on the 1s and 2s. Cyrus, in particular, played several great tracks, so maybe he's got a nice side career as a DJ in the mix.
The second show in Austin – at the always enjoyable Mohawk – might have somehow been even more energetic. For whatever reason, I found myself in the pit, which just had people going nuts in it. This one guy kept wanting to high five me, a girl told me "I'm going to get up on stage and give Chad a hug" – and then she did it! – and the whole crowd was singing along to every word. This set was Sticks and Stones and their self-titled album, which are probably my two favorites New Found Glory has put out. Special shout out to "All About Her," which is just quite the delightful jam.
I'll also note at both of these shows just how inclusive the band was to letting their fans have fun. People were stage-diving left and right, a girl leapt up on the stage to take a selfie with lead singer Jordan Pundik, bassist Ian Grushka wore a sombrero someone threw up on the stage, and my friend Liz even gave Jordan a hug and sang a line from "Head On Collision." Spectacular, and the fans loved it. As it should be.
Before these shows, I got to interview Chad for Paste Magazine. We chatted about the new record, music video fiascos, and playing at pool parties. Check out the interview here. And pick up a copy of Makes Me Sick. It's a great reminder that pop punk is still alive and well.
Blink-182 has been dropping new songs from the deluxe edition of California, the album they released last year (and the first featuring Matt Skiba). There's going to be a full set of new tunes on the deluxe album, which bassist and vocalist Mark Hoppus described as "a lot of high-energy songs, punk rock, some more ballad-y songs, a little more electronic experimentation."
So far, Blink has released four songs from the deluxe version of the album. The latest, "Wildfire," is a mix of the band's newest and best-selling albums. From the official lyric video itself:
Think of your favorite song from Enema of the State. Now think of your favorite song from California. Now imagine them falling in love and starting a family of their own. That's what this song is.
There are definitely elements of both albums here, so that description might not be too far off. Either way, we've got a week until the deluxe edition of California drops on May 19. Enjoy!
Blink-182 has released a new music video for their track "She's Out of Her Mind" as part of Spotify's new Flash Frame series that spotlights various artists' careers.
Adept fans of the band may recognize this video as a near shot-for-shot remake of the song that really catapulted them to fame, "What's My Age Again?" Though instead of the Blink guys running around, we're treated to three Vine celebrities that I've never heard of but I'm sure are big in the Vine scene: Lele Pons, Hannah Stocking, and Vale Genta. Adam DeVine also makes an appearance as the sexy nurse.
I LOVE "What's My Age Again?" and think it's a fantastic video. Much like their newest album California as a whole, this one seems pretty forced. The abundance of iPhones and iPads just looks like product placement, and even the extras don't appear to be very engaged. But hey, it's still a good dose of nostalgia. Enjoy.
Earlier this month, Blink-182 released California, their first album in five years. Mumford & Sons, for one, are really digging the last track on the CD, a simple joke track entitled "Brohemian Rhapsody." The quartet ditch their banjos and don some pop-punk apparel instead, as they mime the song to delightful effect.
Of course, that doesn't sit well with Mark, Matt and Travis, who come in to voice their discontent. Oh well, can't please 'em all.
This truly is the summer of pop punk resurgence. Between Blink-182, Green Day, Simple Plan and Good Charlotte, a number of albums have been released or are soon to be released that 15-year-old me really would have enjoyed, and current me probably will still like.
Oh, and let's add Sum 41 to that list. The Canadian pop punkers just dropped the first single from their album 13 Voices, an aggressively...well, aggressive song called "Fake My Own Death." The music video is a meme lovers dream, featuring all kinds of annoying things flying across the screen while the band plays amidst the battlefield. This is the first album that features three guitar players, so it should lend itself to some creative sound. We'll see – for now, this is plenty to nod your head to.
Sometimes a song just makes you want to jump around and go crazy. Hopefully that's the case with "State Lines" from Burning Years, a band I happen to play in. We had a blast shooting the music video with Party Hat Productions, and I'd highly recommend them if you have any photography or video needs. Hope you enjoy the song, and if not, we appreciate the click. Keep on rockin'!
Smosh TV is back with another Honest Game Trailer, this time to the tune of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. And I certainly agree: the music is the best part of that game. Now let's go do some kickflips. Enjoy!
Less than a year and a half after their last album, Save Rock and Roll, Fall Out Boy is back with more music. This jam, called "Centuries," is definitely along the hip-hop vein of "My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark." I fully expect to hear it in music arenas all over the land, and promptly get sick of it. Way to go, kids.
I heard Good Charlotte on the radio today, and it reminded me of this video, which features one of my favorite shows of all time: Double Dare. They even got Marc Summers to cameo! Good stuff all around.
This jam by Australian trio The Living End has a distinctly late 90s/00s feel to it, probably because it came out around that time. Makes sense. In any case, the chorus is mad catchy, and this is one of my favorite guitar solos to play along with. And just kind of in general. Check it out!
I know I've written about New Found Glory before in this space, but I recently just heard this song, and it's mad catchy. From their Kill It Live CD, the fivesome once again proves that pop punk is, in fact, not dead. Plus the video's pretty funny.
The Texas foursome has a silly little ode to the single life with a song off their new CD Lunch. Drunk. Love. But the real reason this video's make it on here is because of the actual video. It's got a monkey and some weird carnival footage. So...enjoy?
If I can play a song on guitar, chances are it'll end up on this blog. Here's Exhibit A. Or ZZE or however many times I've put a tune I can jam to on here. Enjoy!
This song, like so many others, appeared in one of the American Pie movies. It's also easily Lit's most well-known song, and is awesome. Bonus fun fact: As far as I know, it's the only song which I can play entirely behind my head on Rock Band. And I can play it on real guitar, as well. All this is to say it's very, very simple to rock out to this song. That's a winning recipe in my book.
