#8: Bomb the Music Industry!

Cause if I wasn't a fat kid in high school I would have never listened to punk rock

Next up is Bomb the Music Industry! All their music is free here: http://www.quoteunquoterecords.com/albums.htm

Wiki Says: Bomb the Music Industry! (commonly abbreviated as BTMI!) is a musical collective originally from Baldwin, Nassau County, New York. They write, produce, record, and distribute all of their music under the leadership of songwriter and producer Jeff Rosenstock.

They are known for their DIY punk ethic, embodied in such actions such as distributing six albums worth of their own material for free on their website, and offering free stencils and paint for fans to create their own T-shirts. They also offer their fans a chance to perform on stage if they learn a song and bring their instrument to the show. Beginning in April 2009, the band only plays all-ages shows with ticket prices of $10 or less.

Rosenstock and several other contributors were previously members of The Arrogant Sons of Bitches. As that band was breaking up, Rosenstock recorded the first BtMI! song, "Sweet Home Cananada," using his PowerBook's built-in microphone. "I wrote that song and put it out to see if anybody wanted it. That was how it started, people showed interest and I like recording stuff."

Discovery: Album Minus Band (2005)

To Leave or Die in Long Island (2005)

Goodbye Cool World! (2006)

Get Warmer (2007) -Favorite album all time #15

Scrambles (2009) - Favorite album all time #13

Adults!!!: Smart!!! Shithammered!!! And Excited by Nothing!!! (2010)

Other Releases: O Pioneers!!! split (2007)

Ska is Dead (2007)

Others! Others! Volume 1 (2009)

Favorite Songs: 20. It Shits!!!

19. The Last Party (Foul)

18. The First Time I Met Sanawon

17. Struggler

16. Sort of Like Being Pumped

15. Congratulations, John, On Joining Every Time I Die

14. Side Projects are Never Successful

13. Stand There Until You're Sober

12. Jobs Schmobs

11. 493 Ruth

10. Wednesday Night Drinkball

9. No Rest For the Whiny

8. Syke! Life Is Awesome!

7. Fresh Attitude, Young Body

6. Big Plans of Sleeping In

5. All Ages Show

4. (Shut) Up the Punx!!! - Favorite song all time #76

3. 25! -Favorite song all time #74

2. I'm Terrified!!! -#69

1. Stuff That I Like -#59

Years Active: 2004-Present

Seen Live: 3 times

April 2006(?)-North Caldwell, NJ

November 2007-Towson, Maryland

July 2008-Asbury Park, NJ

To be honest, I don't like nearly half of BTMI!'s songs. Of the half I do like, half I love and the other half I like a decent amount. BTMI! is so high because of their effort. They give away ALL their music for free. No matter what, they'll play and have fun. Regardless of if there are 5 or 50 or 500 people in the crowd. Get Warmer and Scrambles (and Adults!, too) are just great all the way through, with Scrambles telling almost a biographical story in it. Live BTMI! puts on an amazing show, even after hitting a girl in the head with a guitar on the second song in Maryland.... Go download their music and enjoy it.

Up Next: A band with songs (1-3) that people I go to school with "like".

Tribute to Bomb the Music Industry! and the End of the Fall Semester

How do I pay tribute to both those things at once? Well don't, but I do pay tribute to each with a good segway. Let's start with the fall semester.

This semester had many highs and lows. The lows mainly include my schedule (no free time in the afternoons), my finals, and Financial Management.

Highs on the other hand, there were many more of. Gotta love bulleted lists!:

• Going to Pub Dog, that place is really nice
• Being done with accounting and Spanish finally
• The Gaslight Anthem in DC
• Westbound Train in DC
• 21st birthday videos from Chaci, Romo, Dylan and Rich via facebook
• Keystone (not ice, not light, just normal Keystone)
• SLAPPING THE SHIT OUT OF CHACI FROM WINNING OUR SLAP BET. (Video to come soon)

Now for that segway. While I often love the social life at Loyola, I often hate it too. Specifically certain "bars". They suck. They're not fun, and yet people for some reason think the are. Well, Bomb the Music Industry! has a song "Stuff That I Like", and much of that song reminds me of those bars, and what sucks about them. So, why not show off the awesome lyrics of that song, and highlight the parts that I can relate to.

You can download the song, and amazing album, "Scrambles", and all of the BTMI! albums for free right here

The city subway stations never glisten.
The gates rise up like they belong in prison.
And my balance is low. I better pick a good place, I got one ride to go.
Your fucking cocaine party fucking freaks me out.
When did Scott Weiland show up? How long’s he stickin’ around?
I guess this new fare hike means that I’ll ride my bike,
play video games and do other stuff that I like.

And in the morning cleaning up, we found these plastic bags
with a little bit of party left and started to laugh,
“Man, I’m glad I passed out from the booze and the weed
‘cause the house stayed up ‘til 6 AM doing speed.”
But now it’s 1 AM and I’m quite a few in
and I can barely make out where the bathroom line begins
and it’s been moving five inches every fucking five minutes.

I wanna ask the over privileged kids if they would fucking mind?
I gotta take a piss in the cocaine room.
What is this? The line for lines? It’s a long line for lines.
I’m getting claustrophobia from the twenty-something set with bleary eyes.
What is this? The line for lines? It’s a long line for lines.
I, I, I don’t wanna be part of this Friday night or Saturday night.
I, I, I don’t wanna be part of this line for lines, long line for lines.
I, I, I don’t wanna be part of this night.

When I’m out these days I do is complain about the booming bass
and the shitty DJ because if I wanted to go to a dance club,
I’d own a bottle of Brut, a closet full of Christian Dior, and I’d be in a different room.
Cause we can dance to Otis Redding, P.O.S, and M.I.A
and if you’re on Serato Scratch don’t call yourself a DJ.
Beat detecting’s got no attitude, your tempo maps can’t feel and room,
but lemmings all have dancing shoes and I’m just freaking out.

You’re assaulting me with thrusts like I’m an asshole.
You’re sweating to the sounds of Billboard’s Hot 100 like a total yeah bro dick.
Man, I thought that we all lived here ‘cause we’re different
I guess I was wrong this time, and time after time
I, I, I don’t wanna be part of this
Friday night or Saturday night.
I, I, I don’t wanna be part of these cokey times
and eight dollar wines.
I, I, I don’t wanna be part of this night.

The city subway station never glistens. The gates rise up like “What’s up?
You’re in prison, confined by alcoholism and lack of better decisions
for having fun on the weekends.” But this shitty atmosphere keeps bumming me out.
Don’t want my Club MTV. I hate Downtown Julie Brown.
I guess these new prices hikes will make me grab my light
and climb the fire escape to the roof for a book that I like

Westbound Train and 9/11: "If life's so good, why does it hurt so bad?"

It should be noted right away that this post will change moods very quickly. I'm first going to recap my night last night in DC seeing Westbound Train, to then recapping my experiences and memories of September 11, 2001.

First up: last night. For the 8th time, I saw Westbound Train. And for the 8th time, they were amazing to say the least. The show was at DC9, in DC. For any Loyola people reading this, I'll try to describe the setting. The bar was like Zen West, if it had an upstairs with a bar and stage that weren't anything special. Around it, were bars like a Swallows, or Jerrys, even a Ryan's Daughter. Aside from the bars, it was like York Road. The place though was really cool. Nice small setting, not too many people but there was still a great crowd of WBT fans.

First up was Kill Lincoln, from DC. I liked them. College kids playing so pretty good original songs (and a good cover of "Knowledge" by Operation Ivy). It was the Sax players last show, and the crowd was largely fans of theirs. Not bad at all.

Next were The Ambitions, who I had seen part of a set before once at the Ottobar. Good 2-tone esq band. Guitar, Bass, Drums, (Excellent) Keyboards, and a chick singer who had a lot of soul in her voice.

Then....Westbound Train. The band had recently had their trailer robbed in New York, so they had to borrow Kill Lincoln's equipment for most of their stuff. Despite this, they were great. For my photo project, Luke, the sax player, let me take pictures of him the whole set...even a couple from on the very crowded stage. They had great energy, talked directly to the crowed, just played an amazing set as always. Even if you don't like ska or reggae too much, check them out live.

Songs they played:

• I Don't Belong Here
• Check Your Time
• Come and Get It
• Salvation
• What You Need
• For the Record
• Please Forgive Me
• Good Enough
• Sorry Momma
• Gone
• Covered "I Fought the Law" by The Clash
• Covered "Cupid" by Sam Cooke
• Covered "Stand By Me" by Ben E. King
• Covered "Monkey Man" by Toots and the Maytals

I can't think of a witty or appropriate transition between the two topics (as I already used the quote from "Salvation" at the title) so I'm just going to jump right into it.

I remember Tuesday, September 11, 2001 very clearly. Very minor details. I remember being driven to school by my dad and them saying on "Elvis Duran and the Z Morning Zoo" that it was national 9-1-1 day. I remember being in Miss Mastrasamone's (don't care if that is spelled wrong) 7th grade on-level English class when our principle, Mr. Burke, came on the speaker to announce what had happened. I remember him incorrectly saying that the mall of America was on fire. I remember that when he said if anyone has family who works in NYC that they should go to the auditorium and I remember Eric Felcher getting up and leaving.

I remember the stupid people I went to middle school with thinking that our small school was going to be attacked and that the Russian's were responsible. I remember Mrs. Roberts snapping at someone who asked if we were going to change for gym. I remember leaving during Ms. Vilvechia's (again, don't care) class when everyone else form my street were called out early. I remember playing football behind the Herman's house and Louis' dad saying to us "say your prayers", not yet knowing the extent of had happened.

In the following days, I remember MTV playing the same things over and over again, specifically a Beastie Boys interview. I remember minor details coming out every day, but still mostly confusion. To an extent this is all I remember.

In the years that followed, I remember some other things, much of this that provided the inspiration for the Bomb the Music Industry! song "9/11 Fever!". Things I can't get mad at include the video footage taken by the French guys filming the firehouse who happened to get both planes on camera and "United 93".

I just deleted the rest of my post where I rant about the Nick Cage movie about the events. It wasn't necessary nor too appropriate. Just know that that is poor depiction of the days events, while "United 93" is a fantastic one. If you want an action movie, go see the Nick Cage one. If you want something real, go see "United 93".

With that delete I lost my very crappy tribute to the people involved on 9/11. Just know as someone who could see the Skyline from my town, there is no way to measure what they did that day and just knowing that they did it and appreciating it silently in your own manner is all you need to do. Plain and simple, words and actions cant demonstrate the thanks you owe them.

Top 21 Albums, 16-12

So to continue the countdown, here are albums 16-12.
(21-17 )




16: "Revolutions Per Minute" by Rise Against (2003). The second album by Rise Against, and one of the first punk albums I ever bought is just great. From start to finish this album pumps you up, just as the band intended to do. This was one of the first albums that after just one listen, I thought nothing but "wow". It blew me away. They do a great job of covering topics from relationships to politics. Tim is flawless at balancing his singing with his screaming, unlike all the other scene-hardcore bands out there. Rise Against gets angry when its appropriate, putting them so far ahead of most bands in terms of ability. "RPM" was a great way for me to get introduced to the band, and I highly recommend this album. It should be noted that I first bought because of "Like the Angel" was featured in "Tony Hawk's Underground", but even from that one song I knew I wanted to get more. Plus, it ends with a great cover of Journey's "Anyway You Want It"
Favorite Song: "Broken English"






15: "Get Warmer" by Bomb the Music Industry! (2007) When I first downloaded (for free from here) I wasn't to fond of the whole thing. I liked a couple songs, but I also got their (his?) previous three albums at the same time, so I had a lot of BTMI! to juggle. After some time, I listened to the whole thing beginning to end and then realized exactly what an amazing CD this is (did I mention its FREE?). I will say its not for everyone, but for an artist who gives out their music for free you can't expect perfect quality. "Get Warmer" is great despite this. You really have to appreciate Jeff Rosenstock and his career to really appreciate his music. But never the less, "Get Warmer" is a lot of fun, and in my mind very easy to enjoy with every listen.
Favorite Song: "No Rest For the Whiny"







14: "Losing Streak" by Less Than Jake (1996). The major label debut for Less Than Jake is far from selling out (Despite what Johnny Quest might think). It might be poppier than "Pez-core" was, but they still do a great job of mixing punk, pop, ska, and their share of metal as well. I don't have much to say about "Losing Streak" besides that it is in every way a great album.
Favorite Song: "Johnny Quest Thinks We're Sellouts"








13: "Scrambles" by Bomb the Music Industry! (2009) Again, I was not overly impressed by BTMI at first, but then i took to time to really listen. I used to think all the piano-heavy tracks were boring, but boy was I wrong. Those songs are some of the band's best, and really do a great job to capture Rosenstock's struggles as a musician in a non-flashy way. Every time i listen to one song, I feel obligated to listen to all the ones that follow since the album flows so well. Again, this album is FREE here, so feel free to listen for yourself guilt-free.
Favorite Song: 25!






12: "Turn the Radio Off" by Reel Big Fish (1996). The second, and most notable release from Reel Big Fish is far from overrated in my mind. It has their most popular songs ("Sell Out", "Beer", "Everything Sucks", "SR", "She has a Girlfriend Now"), and those songs are the most popular for a reason. I always love how so many people claim to not like ska, but say "I love this song!" when "Beer" will come on. Reel Big Fish has survived the late-90's ska craze better than most other bands, and still are great to see live. Why are they still so good live? I don't think its a coincidence they still play most of the tracks off this 13 year old album.
Favorite song: "Beer"