Pop Punk Predictions: The End Of An Era

The past half-decade has been quite the tumultuous one for alternative music. Pop punk, previously thought of as a throwaway genre for pre-adolescents has been given a new life in today’s alternative landscape. Unfortunately, it seems as if the genre’s time in the limelight might be drawing to a close, or at the very least shifting significantly. Between State Champs touring with 5 Seconds Of Summer and Neck Deep cracking the UK Top 10, 2015 was most definitely an amazing year for pop punk. However, the aforementioned bands have a far more carefree, upbeat sound than the artists which have dominated pop punk over the past few years. As 2016 dawns on us, I felt it necessary to open a dialogue on the future for these bands, and see if they can make a career for themselves after the tr00nami finally crests. Let’s start off with one of the higher profile bands in the scene…..

The Wonder Years

With the release of their latest album No Closer To Heaven, it seems as if The Wonder Years are finally ready to ditch the pizza, crewnecks and khakis of yesteryear and move into the fabled realm of “real music”. Just one glance at any of the songs on the album reveals Soupy has taken his penchant for songs about old white people in the 1940’s to the extreme. There’s nary a single major chord or d-beat to be found anywhere within the album. The Wonder Years now resemble the kind of run-of-the-mill alternative rock band that would play to twenty-something beardos and get a positive write-up in Brooklyn Vegan than your average pop punk outfit. It almost makes you forget these were the same guys who wrote a song about the Kool-Aid man beating up Cap’n Crunch at one point.

The Story So Far

It’s honestly hard to tell what The Story So Far will do in these dire times. They seem to have pushed their stangry, sadboi-baiting sound to the nth degree so there’s really nowhere else for them to go at this point. They could simply go back to their Under Soil & Dirt sound and ride the tr00 wave til it’s very death. If they followed their former pupils Neck Deep and joined the neo-mallpunk wave, that would presumably be the musical equivalent of throwing in the towel (not to mention it would basically alienate over 80% of their fan base). I believe TSSF should follow Trophy Eyes example and essentially become a hardcore band disguised as a pop punk outfit, that way they can retain their credibility amongst the 16-year old Tumblr users while also evolving their sound in the process. Basically the musical equivalent of having your cake and eating it too.

Man Overboard

Sadly, it seems as if Man Overboard’s time in the sunlight has come to a swift closure. Their last album was a confusing, boring mess that sounded way too much like Weezer-circa 1994 than any pop punk band nowadays. Man Overboard’s attempt to shake off the stigma of being a pop punk band in 2015 evidently backfired significantly, with Heavy Love charting far lower than their last album on Billboard. Once their contract with Rise Records expires, I could probably see them riding their career out for the next few years on some smaller label before the pressure of adulthood finally overwhelms their desire to play for crowds of 300 pizza-addicted teenagers night after night. For the band often credited with kickstarting the modern tr00 movement, it’s quite a shame to see Man Overboard’s career turn out this way. Expect to see various Defend Pop Punk shirts lining the discount racks of various thrift stores for the remainder of the decade.

Transit

Not only is the tr00 pop punk era drawing to a close, but it seems the fabled “emo revival” music-journalists have been creaming themselves over might be on its last legs as well. For Boston band Transit, this presents a problem. Despite various NFL-related airplay, the response to their last album was lukewarm at best. Given their propensity for walking the lines between both genres, the band have found themselves at a crossroads in their career. They could simply follow The Wonder Years example and go full Pitchfork-baiting indie rock. However, given the indie community’s general dislike for former pop punk/emo bands passing themselves off as credible artists, time will tell whether Transit can weather the fallout of the cresting wave of tr00ness.

Title Fight

Has their ever been a band with a worse case of multiple personality disorder than Title Fight? One minute they’re chumming it up with Backtrack and Rotting Out on America’s Hardcore, next minute they’re ripping Hum and trying to pass themselves off as a “shoegaze” outfit. Despite Hyperview sounding like something 4AD Records would’ve shat out in the early 90’s, things seem to be looking up for Title Fight. Along with former EZ-deniers Citizen and Will Yip butt buddies Turnover, Title Fight seem to be leading the charge for “former soft grunge bands trying to build a life after pop punk”. Give them credit, at least they know D-beats and songs about ex-girlfriends don’t exactly have a long shelf-life. Better to move with the times and risk getting left in the dust, week-old pizza slice in hand with a tattered flannel shirt adorning your back. Expect to see them at the Grammys accepting an award from Dave Grohl in the near-future.

Real Friends

I feel as if Real Friends will be the band most affected in the aftermath of the tr00nami. Most of these other bands had roots in less meaningful, less stangry forms of music (easycore for The Wonder Years, hardcore for Title Fight, etc.) However Real Friends are entirely a product of the 2010’s pop punk landscape, and I feel as if they will suffer the heaviest once the market falls through on the tr00 pop punk enterprise. Leaving aside the fact that their debut album was mediocre at best and didn’t hold a candle to their EP’s, there’s only so far you can go with sleepy eyes, bony knees and d-beats. Their Chicagoan contemporaries Knuckle Puck seem to do Real Friends better than Real Friends themselves can, while Aussie upstarts Trophy Eyes basically took Real Friends template of “pissed-off pop punk about ex-girlfriends” and pushed it to its limit. I honestly can’t see Real Friends with anywhere else to go. Once their fanbase grows up, it will definitely be hard for them to try and connect with the next generation of pop punk youth (which seems to be skewing in a far more lighthearted direction if Neck Deep’s latest album is anything to go by.) In their case, I believe Fall Out Boy said it best: “Chicago Is So Two Years Ago”…

Turnover – Peripheral Vision (2015)

Turnover – Peripheral Vision

Reinvention is the spice of life it seems, if by “reinvention” you mean “abandoning everything that made you unique.” For the Virginia Beach outfit Turnover that seems to be the case on their latest album, Peripheral Vision. Turnover’s previous recordings such as their 2011 self-titled EP and 2013’s Magnolia bore a strong pop punk influence and the band had much in common with their peers Citizen and Title Fight. For Peripheral Vision however, the band sought it best to ditch the spiky punk for a more subdued and inoffensive breed of light guitar pop.  Opening track “Cutting My Fingers Off” is a catchy little tune, with a swift surf rock beat and some melancholic sounding guitar that sets the mood nicely. “New Scream” strums along at a hurried pace, while fluffy guitar chords abound with glee. Lead singer Austin Getz’s voice is layered in so much syrupy reverb that you’d be forgiven for thinking your headphones are faulty. “Take My Head” seems like a breath of fresh air after the lazy strumming of the past few tracks, opening with some mild distortion, before sadly descending into the insipid twee balladry of the previous tracks.

The majority of the tracks on Peripheral Vision belong to the disposable, breathy school of indie pop which seems to have become a cliche in the past few years. Once you’ve heard one track, you’ve probably heard it done better by a multitude of fellow-minded artists. “Dizzy On The Comedown” sounds like a rejected DIIV B-side, while. Half the time Turnover can’t even decide what audience they’re trying to target. “Humming” has the kind of descending twinkly riff reminiscent of most of Topshelf Records current roster, whereas the drumming and vocals sound like such a pathetic attempt at aping Real Estate, you begin to wonder whether they simply conducted market research amongst a group of Tumblr users in order to determine which trendy bands to ride the coattails of.

Much like Title Fight’s Hyperview from earlier in the year, Peripheral Vision sounds like an attempt for Turnover to branch their audience out of the pop punk niche, and into a more indie-friendly territory. However, unlike Hyperview, Peripheral Vision sounds much less genuine in its approach and much more like a case of ‘follow-the-leader’. “Dizzy On The Comedown” sounds like Turnover listened to five minutes of a Beach Fossils album and thought it’d be in their best interests to simply cash in on that groups approach. Peripheral Vision is certainly a pleasant enough listen, but there’s simply not enough substance here to sustain repeated listens. It’s a great little Summer record and would make the perfect soundtrack for warm nights and lazy days alike. However if depth is what you’re looking for, you won’t find much of it here I’m afraid.

6/10

Title Fight – Hyperview (2015)

Title Fight – Hyperview

Maturation is a disease that afflicts plenty of bands, and quite often causes them to go down the road of mediocre albums and incur change of audience real fast. Nowhere is this more evident than on Title Fight’s latest album, Hyperview. Back in 2011, Title Fight made their name with their debut album Shed, released on the hardcore label SideOneDummy. Shed was a speedy little pop punk album that bore quite a strong hardcore influence, akin to bands such as Lifetime or Have Heart and it captured the hearts of critics around the United States. Shed wasn’t a huge commercial success by any means, but it did allow Title Fight to develop quite a reputation in the American punk scene. Their follow-up album Floral Green ditched a lot of the hardcore trappings and contained strong alternative rock and shoegaze overtones, which diluted their sound quite a bit. However, it still had the same fiery punk spirit and gritty production of their early work in order to satisfy their fans.

For Hyperview, however, Title Fight have mostly ditched whatever semblance of hardcore and pop punk remained in their music, choosing to dive face-forward into the world of shoegaze. The tracks on Hyperview echo with enough reverb and breathy vocals, it’d make Kevin Shields cry tears of joy. “Chlorine” is a nice jangly tune, that probably would have been a great hit on MTV’s 120 Minutes two decades ago. “Your Pain Is Mine Now” is arguably the centrepiece of the whole album, a beautifully melancholic cut that evokes the breezy shoegaze of acts such as Galaxie 500 or Lush. The production on Hyperview is undoubtedly slicker and less grittier than Title Fight’s previous recordings, however it seems as if the band relies too much on the production. Lead singer Jamie Rhoden appears to have given up the barking vocals of earlier releases, opting for a softer My Bloody Valentine-esque cooing vocal style, typical of shoegaze singers. Unfortunately, this schtick gets old real fast, as does the album itself. Once the first five songs finish, Hyperview quickly descends into bland, monotonous shoegaze wankery.

Compared to the raucous and blistering melodic-tinged hardcore of their earlier albums, Hyperview is definitely a much more gentle and softer affair, and it suffers due to this factor. The jangling riff that opens “Your Pain Is Mine Now” makes you wonder whether Title Fight are closet Smiths fanatics, and Rhoden’s vocals really make you question whether or not he’s been listening to too much Ride. “Trace Me Onto You” with its driving guitar and vaguely pop punk-e is arguably the closest Hyperview comes to catching the upbeat and energetic spirit of Title Fight’s earlier recordings, acting as a decent throwback in the last quarter, amid a sea of dull reverberated guitars and little to no drumming.The songs all sound pretty enough, but there’s not a whole lot of substance to them. You get the feeling that the band compromised on the songwriting, just to make the production sound better and more spectacular in the process. The majority of the songs don’t stick with you at all, the album just sort of floats off in its own cloudy haze, there’s nothing to really grab you at all. Even with shoegaze, you still need a decent melody or groove in order to hook the listener in, and James Brown’s decayed corpse would have more groove in it than the songs on Hyperview.

Whereas Floral Green was a nice compromise between the more mosh-friendly hardcore and introspective naval-gazing alt rock, Hyperview takes the latter. If you’re a fan of acts like Pity Sex or Citizen, who similarly put a more punk influenced spin on the traditional shoegaze formula, then Title Fight’s latest album should be right up your alley. However if you’re a die-hard fan of the band and miss their grittier music, there’s not much to like here I’m afraid. Evolving an established sound can make or break a band and in Title Fight’s case, I sadly think that is has hampered them quite drastically. You could make the argument that Hyperview’s sleeker and slightly more commercial-friendly sound benefits the group, as you could easily picture half the songs on here making an impact on commercial radio. However, if they have to compromise their original sound in order to grow and mature like that, what’s the point? Sorry Title Fight, you’ve lost me on this one.

5/10

How To Jock Shoegaze Properly: A list of bands you should (and shouldn’t) listen to in order to gain maximum credibility

One strange thing I’ve noticed lately would have to be hardcore and pop-punk kids getting into shoegaze of all genres. This is particularly perplexing, since as far as I can recall, Shoegaze has generally been one of those fringe genres that’s never really been popular outside of record collecting geeks and basement dwelling hipster shut-ins. So the fact that it’s now being seen as “fashionable” or “something cool kids like” is just incredibly baffling to me. With punk groups such as Title Fight, Basement and Pity Sex all incorporating the sound of ‘the scene that celebrates itself’ into their music, shoegaze is reaching a peak in popularity that hasn’t been seen since NME first laid their eyes on My Bloody Valentine. I figured in order to to help the enterprising young Tumblr users in terms of how to navigate the dark waters of shoegaze, I may as well write a clickbaity article about which bands to jock and to avoid for maximum exposure.  Special thanks goes to Bronson, uppercut613 and Sergeant D from the blog StuffYouWillHate for inspiring me to write this article.

DON’T LISTEN TO THIS:
Pity Sex

 

First off, skip pretty much three-quarters bands I mentioned in the first paragraph. They’re not all terrible (Title Fight’s new album is p sweet, imo) but they’re an unimportant stepping stone into truly getting into the genre, and Pity Sex are the worst of them all. Pity Sex basically sounds like a copy of DIIV, if they never got over high school and were content with turning teenage angst up to an artform. These guys are probably the whole reason Tumblr-kiddies have gotten into shoegaze lately, which should already be signalling warning bells. Aside from being extremely derivative and as generic as hell, Pity Sex have mainly garnered fans due to their mixture of twinkly American Football-core emo along with the usual fuzzy pop sound that comes with the shoegaze territory. Rather than sounding like the spellbinding crossover band that their fanbase makes them out to be, in reality they basically take the absolute worst elements of the “emo-revival” sound and the most bottom-of-the-barrel sounds of modern shoegaze in order to craft some of the most generic music this side of Topshelf Records Bandcamp page. I guess if you’re a 16 year old girl whose idea of “alternative” is listening to NPR and reading NME, these guys could be your favourite band ever. But to a guy who pretty much spent high school listening to My Bloody Valentine and going to shitty local shows instead of getting laid like a normal person, these guys just sound so run-of-the-mill that it’s annoying to say the least.

LISTEN TO THIS:
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

 

If you want to do emotional shoegaze right, at least put some goddamn effort into it. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart are sort of a crossover act, having strong ties to the Brooklyn indie rock scene. Some people have referred to them as “tweegaze” due to them sounding rather upbeat and poppy, compared to the more maudlin acts on this list. But as someone who pretty much grew up on Green Day and Blink-182, I see nothing wrong with bands embracing their fun side, instead of remaining poe faced 99% of the time. The band’s debut album was a bit of a middling affair, which sounded sort of like Pavement covering a bunch of old C86 songs. For their second album Belong, the band decided to take things up a notch by hiring legendary 90’s alt-rock producers Flood & Alan Moulder to handle production duties on the album. The only way I can describe Belong would be imagine Angels & Airwaves covering M83’s Saturdays = Youth album, but if they had Billy Corgan on vocals and he had a head cold. If that sounds like complete and utter shit, just listen to the above song and tell me you don’t want to hear that in motion. They put out a third full-length last year, Days Of Abandon, which mostly abandoned the shoegaze sound for full-blown indie pop, but if you want a fun, mindless shoegaze album their first two are good for a spin.

DON’T LISTEN TO THIS:
Whirr

 

In my opinion, Whirr are the absolute epitome of how not to do Shoegaze. Their songs are so dull and lifeless that you’d get more enjoyment out of  watching paint dry. Imagine a duller version of Mogwai if they’d just discovered Big Muff pedals and that’s these guys in a nutshell. Their 2012 album Pipe Dreams is simply all style, no substance. It has a very cinematic and well-textured production, and I won’t deny that these guys have more musical chops than most other shoegaze outfits, but holy fuck the songs just meander and don’t go anywhere at all. It’s just some of the dullest and most boring music I’ve ever heard in my life. These make the Red House Painters sound like fucking Andrew W.K. with their commitment to making the most snoozeworthy tunes this side of one a chloroform warehouse. The only positive thing I can say about this band is that the band members seem pretty like pretty hysterical guys, they’ve been spotted on Facebook taking potshots at guys such as Anthony Fantano of TheNeedleDrop and various Pitchfork staff members, so at least they’ve got a sense of humor about themselves. Too bad I can’t say the same about their music, I’m afraid.

LISTEN TO THIS:
A Sunny Day In Glasgow

 

If you want some shoegaze that’s both chaotic and hazy in equal measure without descending into total boredom, you can’t beat A Sunny Day In Glasgow. This foursome knows damn well how to make shoegaze that makes you want to pump your fist in the air one minute, then sink off into a dreamlike trance the next. Their latest album, Sea When Absent dropped last year and its heavy on the reverb, delay, effects pedals and everything else that makes the genre so beautiful. They sound a lot more cleaner and accessible than most other shoegaze bands, but they don’t skimp out on the soundscapes and wistful nature of the genre. They almost sound like a shoegaze version of Tame Impala at times, their music can lean a bit on the dreamy psychedelic side of the genre. tracks like “Byebye, Big Ocean” and “Crushin'” sound like they’d fit well in a modern teen drama, ala Awkward or The O.C. The thing that I love about about ASDIG is that they’re good at crafting longer, more intriguing songs, but at the same time they haven’t got their heads stuck so far up their ass that they sound like they’re trying to re-create The Wall.

DON’T LISTEN TO THIS:
My Bloody Valentine

 

Okay, let me clarify this. I am in no way saying that My Bloody Valentine are a terrible band. They’re probably responsible for the existence of 90% of the bands I’ve just spent the past few paragraphs writing about. Shit, “When You Sleep” is totally a contender for best shoegaze song ever, along with just about half the other songs off of Loveless. My point is though, My Bloody Valentine are quite simply the lowest hanging fruit when it comes to shoegaze. My Bloody Valentine are a fantastic gateway band into the wonderful world of shoegaze, but by no means are they the be-all-and-end-all of shoegaze. You aren’t going to impress anybody by saying that you think Loveless is the greatest album ever and that no other band can compare to Kevin Shield’s production skills. You’re just going to look like you’re late to the party. If you still feel the urge to jock MBV incessantly, do yourself a favour and check out their earlier recordings prior to Loveless. The You Made Me Realise EP in particular is something of a fan favourite, and a great place to begin with.

 

LISTEN TO THIS:
Lush

 

It honest to god perplexes me as to why Lush don’t get more recognition nowadays. Whenever people make a mention of the brief popularity shoegaze had in the early 90’s, they’ll make a point of singling out MBV, Ride and Slowdive, but poor old Lush always get the short end of the stick. I have no idea why, since their first two albums are some solid early 90’s shoegaze with a strong dream pop influence. Having Robin Guthrie of the Scottish dream pop outfit, the Cocteau Twins behind the mixing desk was a huge advantage for the group. It contributed to them having a more ethereal feel to their sound, rather than the dull, noisy drone that most of the other bands in the scene had. The group were even on 4AD records ffs, and that label was pretty much to Shoegaze what Victory was to 90’s hardcore. Personally, I believe it was their adherence to the 80’s post-punk sound that sort of sealed their fate. Later on they’d try and go down the Britpop path in an attempt at gaining some commercial success, (ala Ride, The Verve) but this did little to ensure the bands success and by 1998 the group had broken up. If you want some dark and moody Shoegaze, or are just sick of MBV clones, pick up Spooky and Split and have a blast with them. Avoid Lovelife at all costs btw, that album fucking blows chunks.

DON’T LISTEN TO THIS:
Deafheaven

 

“Blackgaze” is a particularly gross, and ultimately terrible subgenre of shoegaze which melds the ungodly vocals and attitude of black metal with the washed-out fuzz of shoegaze. Much like how Pity Sex takes everything bad about 90’s basement emo and layers some effects pedals over it, Deafheaven basically take the tremolo-picking, satan-worshipping insanity of Norwegian black metal and applies it to the shoegaze template with less than stellar results. I singled them out in particular since, as opposed to other acts such as Woods Of Desolation or Liturgy, since Deafheaven seem to command a large amount of respect from the unwashed, bearded masses of hipsterdom, withoutlets such as Vice and Pitchfork Media placing their 2013 album Sunbather on year-end lists with hilarious vigour. Their music is some of the most cringiest stuff you’ve ever heard, their songs seem to drag on without any end in sight, and the band’s gimmick gets super old after the first 15 minutes. One of the songs even has a “sample” of one of the band members supposedly going to buy weed off a drug dealer, while the guitarist plays some moody chords in the background, you can’t make this shit up. Unless you’re trying to impress a bespectacled girl with a Burzum shirt at your local VFW hall, give these guys a pass and never look back.

LISTEN TO THIS:
Asobi Seksu

 

Do you want some of the most uplifting goddamn shoegaze you will ever hear in your life? Are you the kind of basement dwelling geek who thinks that J-pop is actually a pretty sweet genre of music? Do you like qt azn grills singing in both English and Japanese while some guy plays the fuzziest and most insane shoegaze in the background? Then Asobi Seksu might just be your new favourite band. These guys were around for over a decade, and released some solid albums that often skirted the border between psychedelic rock and regular shoegaze. Asobi Seksu are bright and poppy without descending into insipid tweeness, but’re also heavy enough so that your friends won’t laugh at you when you admit to liking them in public. Lead singer, Yuki Chikudate has a very coy and sweet voice, that perfectly complements the bands cheerful and encouragingly melodic sound. The above song sounds like one of those track’s you’d see in an old anime opening that contains a bunch of “inspirational” shots of the sky and people running, interspersed with training montages. Not to mention Asobi Seksu broke up back in 2013, which means that within a couple of months it should be prime time for the band to become jocked by enterprising and  Tumblr-users. Don’t be the last person on your feed to espouse the joyousness of Asobi Seksu, start jocking them today and earn the awe and inspiration of former-hardcore dorks everywhere.

Violent Soho – Hungry Ghost (2014)

Violent Soho – Hungry Ghost

As we reach the midpoint of the current decade, it would seem that the collective music scene is in the midst of a full-blown 90’s revival. Whether it comes via Disclosure and Gorgon City’s love of mid-90’s deep house rhythms, London Grammar and FKA Twigs reconstruction of trip-hop tropes for the millennial generation or even via grunge-influenced hardcore groups such as Title Fight or Citizen, you can’t deny that the decade is experiencing a huge wave of nostalgia for the era. Violent Soho belong to the latter category, with their Big Muff-tinged guitars and chugging rhythms owing their existence influence to the Seattle sound. The Brisbane group have been causing a storm in the Australian music scene, recently supporting Arctic Monkeys on their Australian tour, and their third album Hungry Ghost has recently seen an international release. Therefore, I saw it fit to see what all the fuss was about and whether Violent Soho have the ability to forge their own path in today’s music scene, or whether they are simply the sum of their influences and nothing more.

Right off the bat, you can tell these guys have easily spent their youth studiously listening to 90’s alt rock, and picking up on all the subtle nuances of the bands they adore. Lead singer Luke Boerdam’s apathetic whine resembles a nasally Chris Cornell, although the twinkly guitars of James Tidswell sound more Smashing Pumpkins than Soundgarden. The production work on the album is frustratingly raw and lo-fi, and doesn’t do a great job of translating Violent Soho’s live energetic live performances on to record. “Covered In Chrome”, with it’s distinctive “HELL FUCK YEAH!” chorus sounds disturbingly like Alice In Chains covering U2’s Vertigo, and gets irritating after about the first 2 minutes. “OK Cathedral”, with it’s Radiohead-baiting title sounds like a pale imitation of what the Oxfordshire band were doing back in 1995, and the track’s twinkly guitar lead resembles a rough, South-East-Queensland bred variation of the emo sound that’s in fashion nowadays (although Violent Soho would no doubt kick my teeth in for even suggesting such a thing).

Violent Soho are at their best when playing fast, loud and uptempo rockers, which makes it so frustrating that Hungry Ghost is littered with rather mediocre tracks that plod along at a snails pace. When Vthe band plays to their strengths they sound fantastic, such as on the chugging “Gold Coast” or the pop-punk infuenced “Eightfold”. The album loses steam midway through the middling “Saramona Said”, before slightly picking with the standout track “Eightfold” before fizzling out when the title track ends. “Eightfold” is an interesting case, in that with some beefier production and less apathetic lyrics, it could easily make for a great Green Day or New Found Glory song. It’s easily the best track on the album, and makes you wonder whether the Mansfield boys should re-think their strategy when it comes to their sound. The band clearly have a genuine appreciation for the 90’s sound, but rather than simply emulating their icons, It’d be better if they tried a few new things and possibly furthered their sound into the 21st century. Sadly, as it stands, Violent Soho are sound much more like Silverchair than Soundgarden in points of comparison.

5/10