Since the pandemic started, going out to places have been few and far between. So it was nice to get out for a little, watch a friend of a friend (and friends of that friend!) play some tunes, and catch up a little with friends.
Oh yeah. And a bird fell on my head.
It’s funny how visuals can make you think of songs.
About a year ago, my car was having some issues that prevented me from driving for a bit as it wasn’t recommended I do until I had it fixed up. That required saving money, so I would take the bus to work.
Getting to the stop that would take me to work required crossing a freeway. As it was cold and winter, doing so always reminds me of Sum 41′s “Pieces”.
This scene only shows up for maybe 2 seconds at most in the whole video but it was enough to make me think of this song every morning I crossed that bridge at 5:30 in the morning. Cold enough to need a jacket, barely any cars around, not that greatly lit.
Is there reason for this post? Not really. Other than I heard a song and it reminded me of this. And that I actually kind of miss making that trek.
Kind of. Seriously. 3 hour bus rides to work (and another 3 back) wasn’t all that fun.
I didn’t really discover my favorite style of music until after high school; that being modern / pop punk.
How I originally discovered pop punk, I cannot remember.
What I do remember is it starting with the Drive-Thru Records collection of artists, such as Something Corporate, Fenix*TX, New Found Glory, and Allister. This lead to learning of even more bands, including The Get Up Kids, Saves the Day, and Taking Back Sunday. Of course, there were the mainstream acts as well, like Blink 182, Jimmy Eat World, Sum 41, and Yellowcard.
Thanks to services like Spotify and Google Play Music, I’m still discovering music from bands that I first learned of nearly 15 years ago. Before these services existed, I stumbled across a little web-based Shoutcast radio station called Idobi Radio. Idobi is known for playing a lot of the above listed bands before they were well-known or mainstream names. It was also about this time MuchMusic USA (The American off-shoot of the Canadian version of MTV) has switched over to Fuse, a network where I would continue to discover more bands within this genre.
In addition to the style, I’m a total sap to song that could be considered “emo”. So what if people like to write songs about the ones they love or a fight between good friends? You write about what’s in your heart.
One of my favorite songs is “International You Day” by No Use for a Name.
What I like about this song is that it still has that fast pace tempo I enjoy about this style of punk but some really sweet lyrics. I recently learned there is a wonderfully done acoustic cover performed by NUFAN’s frontman Tony Sly.
There’s plenty of other bands and songs I could list. So here’s a couple of public playlists to give you an idea. (They’re incomplete as Spotify is a broken piece of crap and I haven’t transferred everything to Google Music yet.)
Mind you, I do like other bands and genres of music. This is just my favorite style of music.
