Life Line

Ah, the time has come for the final passion blog post of the year. I had a blast researching my favorite artists and exploring sides of them that I’ve never seen before. I’m glad that I made my mark in showing some bands and artists that deserve way more recognition and appreciation for their music. For the upcoming year I urge all of you readers to challenge your tastes and dive into some music that you know you’ll hate. Because maybe through that experience you’ll actually find something that you really love. We need to open our eyes to all of the opportunities that we’re missing, especially when it comes to music. Keep an open mind and listen to appreciate. And so, to finish off this year I’ll be presenting to you the band Mom Jeans. 9

Mom Jeans is an American rock band that was formed in Berkeley, California in 2014. The band actually formed in the University of California, Berkeley with guitarist Austin Carango and lead singer Eric Butler. Later on two more members joined the group: Bart Thompson (guitar) and Sam Kless (bass). To this date, the band has made 6 EPs and 2 full studio albums with the latest being Puppy Love (2018). Recently the band announced that they are working on a new album which will be titled Sweet Tooth. Their music falls within the genres of pop punk, emo, and indie rock. Butler has commented on this classification and the obligation of being labeled as a certain sound, “Everybody’s really tired of that, especially non-male musicians or musicians of color are tired of being pigeon-holed into whatever genre people are telling them they are just because they sound a certain way or look a certain way.” The band’s sound elicits the same feelings as when listening to The Front Bottoms and Modern Baseball as they share a raw and sappy demeanor in their songs.

Personally, the band’s best creation so far has been their album Best Buds which was released in 2016. It features plenty of amazing songs that make me wish that I could have the chance to listen to them for the first time again. Also, their tracks names are quite entertaining with a few being poor boxer shorts, *sobs quietly*, scott pilgrim V. my GPA, and girl scout cookies. My favorite song off of the album is edward 40hands with its classic catchiness and the perfect amount of sadness. The song kind of sounds like a mash up between a lighthearted song made with friends with one person just singing about their repressed emotions on the track. It’s the perfect mix of jumping guitar riffs, driving drumset, with lyrics depicting a doomed teenage love story.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this tumultuous journey of exploring music with me and I really urge you to find something unusual and fun out there in the music world. Challenge your beliefs and widen your perspective. Music is a great place to start. Thank you! Goodbye!

 

I think that having an emo phase should be a necessary rite of passage into young adulthood. Change my mind. Seriously though, I confess that my so-called “edgy” teen years really opened my eyes to a whole new word of music, culture, crazy fans, etc. I found others that shared the same passion for music as I do as we found solace in the same lyrics. This emotional and quite over the top music established a solid basis for me to grow and explore other music that I initially wouldn’t have been interested in. And so, I’m taking it back to the old days with the band My Chemical Romance…

Honestly, if you google the word “emo music” the first search and images that pop up are of the band My Chemical Romance. Their songs are charged with energy, sadness, angst, relief, and are pretty much a good remedy for whatever you’re feeling. Even though they come with this association of singing about depressing themes or teenage rebellion, their collection of songs is quite impressive and definitely ingrained in time. Although I seemingly poke fun at their music following this stigma of being emo, they have significantly spearheaded the revolution of bringing this genre of music into the mainstream music world. They made a name for themselves in the musical community, and have steadily maintained this throughout the years despite having been broken up for years.

Onto the background, My Chemical Romance is an American rock band from Newark, New Jersey that was formed by frontman Gerard Way and drummer Matt Pelissier shortly after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. This tragic event was actually the reason why Gerard Way was moved enough to start a band and the song “Skylines and Turnstiles” also documented his emotions about this event. The name of the band was suggested by bass guitarist Mikey Way (younger brother of Gerard) who was working in a Barnes & Noble when he was struck by the title of a book by Irvine Welsh named Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance. Later the band added two more members: Frank Iero and Ray Toro and started building its fan base through MySpace before signing with a major label. To this day My Chemical Romance has released four albums with the most recent one being Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (2010). The band has also experienced some ups and downs as they formally broke up March 22, 2013. However, the band reunited outside of the public eye in 2017 and recently announced a North American tour in 2020. 

By far the most iconic piece of music that this band has created is the album The Black Parade, which follows the story of a dying cancer patient in a rock opera form as he decides to join the “Black Parade.” The album tells the story of his apparent death, experiences in the afterlife, and subsequent reflections on his life. Additionally, the idea for this concept is based on singer Gerard Way’s notion of death appearing to a person in the form of one’s fondest memory, in this case seeing a marching band as a child. There are multiple aspects of this album that could be examined further such as deeper insights into the lyrics, the intricacies of their live performances, and so much more.

Today we’re going to be talking about a current rising artist in the funky rap game. Canadian rapper bbno$ (pronounced baby no money) has recently caught my eye with his own take on rap music that features unconventional beats, humorous lyrics, and unexpected collaborations. Usually these new and trending artists have a couple of decent hits, make a bunch of money, and then disappear for a bit, making mediocre music for the rest of their career. But contrary to this bleak outlook, bbno$ seems to be going on pretty strong as he builds a diverse fan base by using meme culture and the internet to connect with his fans.

So, who really is behind bbno$ you may ask? Well, not much is really known about this artist as he only started his music career in 2015. What we do know about this cryptic artist is that his real name is Alexander Gumuchian and that he was born on June 30, 1995 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Bbno$’s primary musical influences are hip-hop artists Tupac Shakur, Chief Keef, Gucci Mane, as well as artists Pouya and Yung Lean. Prior to music, bbno$ actually had ambitions of becoming a professional swimmer, but due to an unexpected back injury he had to change career paths. One fun fact about this artist is that he actually attended the University of British Columbia and graduated in 2019 with a degree in human kinesiology.

Bbno$’s music usually falls under the genres of rap, hip hop, and R&B. Additionally, frequent collaborations include Y2k and Yung Gravy. He first exploded into mainstream music in 2019 for his single “Lalala” which was produced by Y2k. This instant hit has overwhelmingly received over 500 million plays on Spotify and had gained over 27 million plays on SoundCloud in under four months. In promoting the song, Bbno$ and Y2K told Rolling Stone that they adopted unconventional marketing methods such as creating a fake story about how they met, using Tinder and even harnessing call centers. Adding on to the list of impressive achievements, this song also made the Billboard Hot 100, entered several charts around the world, and it was certified Gold in the United States. 

I’ve taken quite a liking to bbno$’s music because I genuinely think that his passion for making music and his humor shine through his songs. I can tell that he likes to make songs that are pleasurable and fun to listen to, rather than just to make money off of them. Moreover, bbno$ is not signed to a label or company so he isn’t afraid to experiment with his style or make an extremely goofy persona for himself. One of my favorite songs of his is called “Welcome to Chilis” which is a collaboration with Yung Gravy and features a catchy Latin beat accompanied by the on brand humorous lyrics. The music video also adds another layer to this song as it creates an 80s-esque crime story as the two main characters try to chase a notorious criminal. Other great songs include “shining on my ex”, “iunno”, and “mememe.”

Check out bbno$ for a good laugh or for a good bop!

Sometimes it takes a little bit of time to actually fall in love with a band and their style of music. The initial listen just didn’t catch your eye enough, but soon you begin to listen to more of their music, still not completely falling for it yet. This process takes some time but in the end it is all worth it as that song keeps playing back inside of your head and you truly begin to become obsessed. For me, finding that new musical obsession and discovering so many new songs is such a satisfying feeling, and this is how I felt when I started listening to The Wonder Years.

The Wonder Years is an American rock band from Lansdale, Pennsylvania (Woo!! Repping PA!) that formed in July of 2005. The band actually formed out of another band called The Premier which consisted of Dan “Soupy” Campbell, Matt Brasch, Nick Steinborn, Matt Hittinger, Dave Hughes and CJ Morgan. Most of these members switched over to The Wonder Years except for three of them. During their first practice for the new band they wrote their first song called “Buzz Aldrin: The Poster Boy for Second Place.” Currently, the band is signed to Hopeless Records and has released two EPs and six full length albums with the most recent one being Sister Cities (2018). The genres that their music falls under are pop punk and alternative rock.

Personally, I truly am enamored with The Wonder Years’s album The Greatest Generation, as it reflects on the people that grew up during the Great Depression and fought in World War Two. This generation has been claimed to be a true example of tough Americans that fought to keep themselves and the spirit of their country alive. The album takes these old values and tries to connect it to the present, as it tries to encourage a new generation of people to take a stand and have enough strength to become the next Greatest Generation. We all have the capacity to be great, it is just waiting for us to enact it. Other themes found within the album include the inevitability of growing up, changing relationships, and building upon life’s most difficult questions. As one music review puts it “The Wonder Years created an album that maintained the catchiness and melodic qualities of pop punk with a far more grown up lyrical landscape and an impassioned delivery that is impossible to not feel in your core”(Terry Bezer).

The Wonder Years do not fail to deliver raw and truthful thoughts within their lyrics. One problem in particular that was mentioned in the previous record was the current downgrade of people’s core values, a lack of strong ethics, and the possible increase of emotional sensitivity in the world today. A lot of people, especially older folks, think that the newer generations that are growing up are becoming even more sensitive than the ones before them. In the album the lead singer compares himself to his late war hero grandfather as he sings “I bet I’d be a fucking coward/ I bet I’d never have the guts for war” in his song “The Devil in My Bloodstream.” This issue of sensitivity is also linked to the singer’s struggle of masculinity and what it should look like in its truest form. These questions are all fairly difficult to answer and are all examined throughout the album.

Sometimes when you’re in a funk it is necessary to find new music. Once in a while, we all get stuck in one place of our lives, whether it be physically or mentally, where we just can’t find anything interesting or lack motivation to continue with our day to day routines. We crave something new and yearn for some kind of change to reach in and scoop us out of this rut. Well, I find that music helps to heal the soul while also entertaining the mind. So read on and just maybe the Front Bottoms can provide you with some soothing release.

First off, The Front Bottoms is an American folk punk band consisting of two members: vocalist and guitarist Brian Sella and drummer Matt Uychich. The group formed in 2006 as these two were pretty good childhood pals and just so happened to decide to start playing music together. Matt’s brother Brian Uychich joined the band for some time and helped to record the first two albums, but later left in 2011 because he decided to further pursue his education. The band is from Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey and in their formative years they spent quite some time traveling around and playing at local shows. A cool fact about this period is that The Front Bottoms were a part of an artist collective called Tiny Giant which was based in New Brunswick, NJ (which is right by the area where I lived!). This collective set up a plethora of basement shows in New Jersey and New York which aimed to promote the local DIY music scene and a sense of community and communication.

To this day The Front Bottoms have seven EPs and have recorded six studio albums with the most recent one being Going Grey (2017). The genre of music that encompasses their style is a mixture of folk punk, indie rock, pop, and alternative rock. Their success notably took off after they were signed to the record label Fueled By Ramen in 2015 and released their third album Back on Top. Following this, they continued to grow their fan base and popularity as they played at Coachella and Austin City Limits, and also had the opportunity to tour with blink-182 in Frank Turner in the U.K.

By far my favorite song by The Front Bottoms is called “West Virginia” and no it is not that country song that goes on about country roads and mountain mama’s. Rather, this song talks about an almost unbearable heartbreak that seems to cause a lot of pain. But, the singer soon finds some comfort from his friends, yet he still can’t shake the sadness from his bones because of his broken heart. Another great song by this band is called “Tighten Up” which is polar opposite from the song mentioned before. This song is quirky, yet unusually bright in a way that will make your day seem a bit better as Sella sings in the chorus “You hurt me/ But it ain’t all that bad.” The general takeaway of the song is that a lot of bad things can happen in our lives, but the best thing to do at times is to just shrug it off, acknowledge what happened, and keep on going.

P.S. I also recommend listening to “Wolfman” and “Funny You Should Ask” if you’re interested in discovering their music more.. 🙂

My current music taste encompasses many, many genres. However, I mainly prefer to listen to alternative rock on a day to day basis. My infatuation with this type of music starts with my discovery of the band Modern Baseball about five years ago. Modern Baseball’s emo and pop punk sound eased me out of my limited musical insight and encouraged me to find new bands and artists to listen to.

Modern Baseball is an American rock band that is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The band formed in 2011 when high school friends Brendan Lukens and Jake Ewald started making music as an acoustic duo. Later on, Sean Huber (drums) and Ian Farmer (bass) also joined the band. Initially, the band played house shows and around Drexel University and made their way up the basement scene. To this day, the band has released three albums with the most recent one being Holy Ghost (2016). Moreover, their second album, which was released in 2014, reached #97 on Billboard 200. The genres of music that their songs fall into are folk punk, emo, pop punk, rock, and indie rock. One especially interesting thing to note about this band is that their name was inspired by an old book owned by Ewald’s dad which was titled Modern Baseball Techniques that was found the evening the original duo decided to form a band.

Over the years, Modern Baseball has toured with other similar-sounding acts such as Joyce Manor, The Front Bottoms, Brand New, The Wonder Years, and Knuckle Puck. Unfortunately, this band unofficially split up in 2017 after calling off a planned tour due to mental health reasons. The band has since then announced that they are on an indefinite hiatus and have no future plans of playing with eachother again (unless they feel like it).

Main themes found within Modern Baseball’s music include romantic relationships, mental illness, addiction, friendship, youth, etc. Although Modern Baseball writes and sings about many serious things, their songs contain a refreshing, hopeful, and fun atmosphere. Some songs are heavier than others, but generally their music relays awkward and hazy teenage memories– Sweaty hands. Your first relationship. Drunken college parties. Unforgettable regrets. This coming of age period sparks different experiences within everyone but the general feeling of nostalgia, emotion, and edginess permeates each Modern Baseball song.

One of my favorite songs by Modern Baseball is called “The Weekend.” This song focuses on the importance of having a supportive friend group that will always be there for you. No matter what situation you’re in, what you’re wearing, or how you’re feeling it’s an amazing relief to know that you have people to rely on for a good time. Sometimes the world passes us by so fast or anxiety heightens negative emotions, but leaning upon friends can be the greatest solution to these problems as Ewald sings “You got a smile that could light this town/ And we might need it/ Cause it gets dark around here/ Real dark around here.”

What is true creativity? Can anything truly be original if most of our ideas are based off of other ideas? In a world full of societal pressure and conformity, can we really say that original thought truly still exists somewhere? One of the greatest things about music is that it stays frozen in time and remains unaffected by the environment around it. A song can be played over and over again forever, and it doesn’t change.

I believe that the artist Little Peep has held up to these standards of originality as he created his own genre of “emo rap” and upheld his own personality throughout his fame. It is easy to give into the standards of what the music industry wants, but Peep constantly turned against what was normal and continued to do things that made him personally happy. For example, his style of brightly colored hair, face tattoos, red nail polish, and androgynous demeanor may seem bizarre for some, but this only contributes to his interesting character overall.

Lil Peep, or Gustav Elijah Åhr was born on November 1, 1996 in Allentown, Pennsylvania and grew up in Long Island, New York, and he later died on November 15, 2017 at age 21. Both of his parents were Harvard graduates who divorced when he was a teenager. His mother was an elementary school teacher and his father was a college history professor. During his childhood, Peep’s father was mostly absent and so his mother was someone that he often looked to for support (His nickname “Peep” was given to him by his mother when he was a kid). Additionally, he was not too fond of formal schooling and eventually dropped out of high school and pursued an online diploma. Growing up, Peep favored punk rock culture, smoking marijuana, and holding a negative attitude towards authority. At age 17, Peep got his first face tattoo of a broken heart in order to help motivate him to make music and be successful in it as he explained in one interview that “a tattoo on your face…is gonna stop you from getting a lot of jobs.”

Peep’s style of music is best described as lo-fi rap mixed with third-wave emo, trap, alternative rock, and pop punk. Common themes in his songs include depression, anxiety, drugs, sour relationships, girls, drug use, and his deepest negative thoughts. His music breaks barriers because of how blunt and raw it is, as Peep doesn’t hesitate to speak about his suicidal thoughts or anger against those who looked down upon him. For example, in his song “Cry Alone” he sings “I wanna burn my old high school into the ground/ I hate everybody in my hometown/ Tell the rich kids to look at me now.” Peep’s manner was absolutely controversial, vulnerable, and truly authentic, which is one of the main reasons behind his fame. 

One of my favorite songs by Peep is “Cobain” which is a simple, short, and catchy trap song that features Lil Tracy. This song has a moody and sappy exterior that is combined with elements of trap rap. Peep’s sad and self-pitying vocals flow about the song as trap beats accompany his aching lyrics. Some people say that Peep was destined to soon be the “Kurt Cobain” of this generation. Peep’s music isn’t necessarily pretty or should be taken as an example, but he presented himself how he wanted to and lived his own truth, whether it was as Gus or Lil Peep.

Sometimes we find amazing things in the most unusual places or when we least expect it. Years ago I remember watching some videos on YouTube and a video by the artist Grimes was recommended to me, so I figured why not go ahead and click on it. I feel like we have all been recommended something weird, yet quite equally intriguing by the YouTube algorithm. Grimes is by far one of the most unique artists that I have discovered as her music is more EDM but also has tones of anti-pop. Her high pitched and ethereal voice clashes with the heavy electronic beats and sounds that she uses in the background, but once you listen to some of her songs this combination sounds pleasingly imperfect.

Claire Elise Boucher, better known as Grimes, was born on March 17, 1988 in Vancouver Canada. She attended McGill University in Montreal and double majored in neuroscience and Russian, but later dropped out before finishing her degree. Boucher is self-taught in her music endeavors and visual art skills, and started recording music under the moniker “Grimes” in 2007. To this day Boucher has released 4 albums, and is expected to release another one titled Miss Anthropocene in February 2020. Her rise to fame is due to the success of her third album Visions as its two top singles “Genesis” and “Oblivion” blew up around the internet and in the music world. Additionally, her following album Art Angels (2015), which featured several different characters that were supposed to represent the persona of Grimes, was named the #1 album of the year by many musical publications. Recently in her personal life, she started dating Elon Musk in 2018 after making some pun on Twitter, and is now expecting a child.

One of the most intriguing things about Grimes is her passion and dedication to create music that hasn’t been popularized before. One could say that she might even be the pioneer of her own genre of dream pop, R&B, electronic music, and hip hop. Her process in making music might be quite extreme and stressful as in one interview she mentions that in the making of Visions she locked herself in her apartment for three consecutive weeks to fully record her entire album. This tortuous recording session included a nine day period without food, sleep, company, and daylight (as she blacked out her windows), and also involved a lot of drugs. She mentioned that this writing process was destructive yet significantly contributed to the album’s success.

Grimes not only combines elements from all of these genres of music but also explores the meaning and visual aspect behind what the combination of sounds represents. In one interview she explains her process of making music as taking inspiration from a whole store of music that has been available and built upon for years and years. She can take a certain guitar riff or melody from one song and use it within her own music to create something entirely different that also shares some of the history or implications of that particular sound. Grimes finds the genre of electronic music very appealing as it does not involve technically playing physical instruments, which allows her to be more fluid in her sound and style rather than sticking to one certain thing.

If you’d like to check out this artist, I’d recommend first listening to “Oblivion,” “Kill V. Maim,” and “Flesh without Blood.” Enjoy!

Winter blues got you down? Feel like your days are dragging on? Time to pop in those earbuds and play some Doja Cat.

Recently I’ve really been discovering Doja Cat’s music and bumping to her extremely catchy songs on my trek to class. Her playful and bouncy style mixes bubblegum pop with trap, which distinguish her from the rest of the rising artists in the rap game. You may recognize Doja Cat from the viral song and music video “MOOO!” but you better not limit her abilities to that single piece. Each of her songs have a different type of sound ranging from light trap to slightly grungy and pop punk, as her voice is extremely versatile. Doja crushes any and all expectations placed on her as an artist and instead chooses to make music that feels good to her.

Doja Cat, was born in Los Angeles, California as Amalaratna Zandile Dlamini. Dlamini comes from a fairly artistic family as her father was a composer, her mother was a painter, and her grandmother was an artist. Her first exposure to rap music came from her brother as he used to rap to her when she was a child. Moreover, Dlamini played the piano and danced throughout her childhood. Her music falls within the genres of rap, R&B, hip hop, and neo soul. She credits Nicki Minaj, Pharrell, Erykah Badu, and a few others for influencing her style of music, while also drawing off of Indian and Japanese culture for inspiration as well. To date she has made two albums, with her most recent one called “Hot Pink” which was released in 2019.

One song that truly draws me into Doja Cat’s music is “Juicy” (which peaked at #45 on the US Billboard Hot 100). The first few seconds of the song where the anticipation is built before the beat is introduced are catchy enough to roll around my head for hours. The song has the perfect tempo with enough bass and pace to keep you moving and wanting more. Moving out of musical technicalities, Doja Cat’s lyrics are simple and are extremely fun to sing along to with your friends (particularly a late Friday night or so). Doja Cat’s meaning behind her lyrics is not awfully complicated, as it is a lighthearted song that is simply about butts. Her body positive language embraces any body shape, type, figure, etc. and she goes about this without bashing “skinny” girls, as many other songs with the same theme have done. It’s essential to have artists like this that aim to make everyone feel good and sexy, regardless of their race, gender, body type, and so on. Doja’s unapologetic sexual expression and appreciation of bodies crafted together with an amazing beat make a memorable song.

I urge to take a chance on Doja Cat’s music, even if you think you might not like it you’ll never know until you find out.