Placeholder
“Nothing is Pure”
(Better Days)

A few months ago when Totally Crushed Out interviewed Coastal, we knew that they would be a band that was on the precipice of breaking big, particularly in their brand of revivalist emo. Now armed with a new name (fuck lawsuits, amirite?) and a new full-length, the rebranded Placeholder is sure to keep the momentum going.

What’s great about Placeholder is that they have their sound down pretty well. Their songs are structured incredibly well and the lyrics are nothing, if not simultaneously heart wrenching and honest. Check “What this Means,” “Resent,” and Sunny Day-esque “Written.” These songs are concise, straightforward, and above and beyond most bands’ debut records.

For me, however, the stand out track is “Stay Correct,” which recalls the Get Up Kids’ “Four Minute Mile” aesthetic. It’s catchy as it is raw. It’s chilling how brutal this song is.

Placeholder wears their influences very clearly, but that’s not a bad thing. They’re obviously not going to reinvent the wheel, and there’s something to be said about a band that just writes good fucking songs. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll give “Nothing is Pure” a shot.

— Ryan Pangilinan

Bayside Interview
by Ryan Pangilinan

New York outfit Bayside is easily one of the most sonically polarizing bands out on the scene today. While their earliest material featured the band playing breakneck speed pop-punk, their sound developed quickly into what you hear now, which blurs the lines between several genres. Their latest record, “Killing Time,” is, at times, caustic, frenetic, but mostly, it’s poignant and one of the few smart punk rock records out there. So, in short, it’s very much a Bayside album. While on some down time from their co-headlining run with Saves the Day, bassist Nick Ghanbarian and drummer Chris Guglielmo sat down with Totally Crushed Out to talk about their new label, the current scene, and how it’s like to be considered an older band these days.

Totally Crushed Out: Killing Time came out a little while ago, but I feel like there was more of a gap between this record and Shudder than Shudder and The Walking Wounded.

Chris Guglielmo: We definitely had the gift of time to do this album, so that would explain the longer gap in between. We signed to a new label (Wind-Up).

Nick Ghanbarian: That was the thing, we needed to find a label. We were free as of, like, the April after Shudder came out and we signed the February after that. Then almost six or eight months after that, we were recording. We took our time writing because we knew it was an important album in our life as a band. We wanted to come out with a bang, so we took our time and put our best foot forward in every part of it.

TCO: Was there a point after Shudder where after you had fulfilled your contract with Victory where they suggested that you continue with them, or were you like “Well, we took this as far as we can, let’s move on.”

NG: I think it was both. We were pretty intent on seeing what else was out there and they kind of [said], “Well, do you want to do another album? Or don’t.” It wasn’t like “Oh my God, we need to keep Bayside.” If we wanted to stay, they would’ve put out another album. There was no major concerted effort.

TCO: Do you feel like being on Wind-Up, there’s more of a push for your band, or is it still a DIY approach?

NG: We definitely signed to a label that would allow us to continue doing whatever we wanted basically. We wanted to have more of a push behind us, which Wind-Up did, but I think in the long run, we wanted to have whatever control and whatever say we want in our music…. It’s a new label, but it’s still us in charge.

TCO: So they haven’t tried to pair you up on the Creed reunion tour?

CG: (laughs) That’s what we were excited about. We approached them with what we do and they were surprised with how much shit that we do on our own, so I think they were excited, as were we, to have that kind of relationship.  There was no this is controlling that. We meshed together.

NG: Labels, these days, it’s not like it was. Whether they believe in you or not, they won’t blindly sink a bunch of money in your band. It’s almost like you have to prove your record sales and the numbers have to prove something for them to send more money. Maybe in the 80s and 90s, it wasn’t that way, but the internet turned that upside down, so you have to prove yourself to be a commodity before they spend money.

TCO: Do you think that you would’ve been a strong enough unit to start your own imprint and put out your own records?

CG: We definitely spoke about the idea, just fucking around, but distribution is tough. But as far as touring and everything, it’s possible. It’s more of a viable solution everyday. And nowadays with the way that things are run, it’s probably the best way to make the most amount of money.

NG: Record deals these days, specifically talking about 360 deals, protects the labels. They’re protecting themselves from losing money and the band still does what it needs to do. Unless you’re on one of these super small, post-hardcore labels like Run for Cover or No Sleep, it doesn’t matter what label you’re on.

CG: And now because of the internet and everything, there’s so many bands and so many labels. I remember when I listened to [Saves the Day], they were on Equal Vision and I would say, “Oh, they’re on Equal Vision” and I would check out Equal Vision bands. Now, there are so many labels and so many bands, it’s just fucking all over the place. You can find the same band ten times on X amount of labels.

TCO: It’s like back in the day, there used to be a lot label loyalty. I remember getting those Equal Vision samplers and go out and buy The Stryder, or whatever.

NG: It used to be a little bit more similar, too. Now the range of bands on any label goes from pop-punk to metal or anything between. If you got a Revelation sampler in the early 90s, it’s all pretty similar, so that loyalty made more sense then.

TCO: I always felt that way about your band. You guys always stuck out like a sore thumb. When I first got Sirens and Condolences to review ages ago, I was like “It’s a Victory record. Am I really gonna like this?” And then I checked out and I dug it, and it sucks that there are labels – not so much now – that when they put out a record, I wouldn’t necessarily give ear to that band.

NG: I’d be lying if I said that it didn’t affect us. There was a serious lag for, what I would say, our first two albums. People love those albums now, but they didn’t then. They didn’t give them a chance. They assumed a Victory band would sound one way and we didn’t sound that way. It’s funny when people are requesting songs from our first two albums, when there are six, seven hundred people a night requesting those songs, but when they came out, we were playing in front of 70-100 people.

TCO: Yeah, I remember seeing Bayside in Tacoma with Danger: Radio and Silverstein and there were, like, 30 people there.

NG: That’s probably back in the Sirens and Condolences days. Now a kid comes to a show and says, “Why don’t you play ‘Just Enough to Love You’?” Because no one liked that song for five years and barely anyone does now. (laughs)

TCO: Do you feel Walking Wounded was the album where more people started to discover your band?

CG: Yeah.

NG: Up until now, that was the one that we put out and immediately saw decent success. I think this one, Killing Time, is very similar, too. Sirens and self-titled, those probably took years for people to grasp on and people got Walking Wounded and went back and got those other albums.

CG: That album (Walking Wounded) was also a weird time because it was the first album that I did with the band and I think the sound of the album, musically, was different for Bayside. Not like left-turn different, but different from Sirens and self-titled and people were like “Huh?” I guess it caught on faster.

TCO: I feel like Bayside is one of those touchstone bands that consistently puts out records where you talk about real shit, inner turmoil, and not just a lot of vapid shit. In 90, 91, 92, you had bands like Face to Face and the ilk that did that, and now there are more bands that are addressing being a twenty-something and just being fucked up and not knowing with what to do with your life.

NG: That’s the stuff that resonates with people. I’ve always liked music, but I feel like we grew up on pop music. We grew up on Madonna and Michael Jackson because we didn’t have older brothers, sisters, neighbors, or cousins who were like “Oh here’s Black Flag, here’s a Minor Threat tape.” So the first time that you stumble and discover Bad Religion or Green Day in the early 90s, it actually has to speak to you. If you have to discover it, it has to give you chills and feel like “Oh my God, what is this?”

I feel like these days, it’s important for bands like us, that have been around for a while, support these younger bands because those are the bands that are going to sustain things, even further past us. These things matter. It’s important for bands that want to be career bands and want to help people in their lives, it’s important to band together and help each other out and almost create that scene. It’s all self-sustaining.

TCO: You guys are at a point where you are a career band. Do think Bayside is at a place where you can tour not as relentlessly? Obviously, you guys are a little older and it seems unreasonable to go out every two months.

NG: It’s hard because we’ve always been slow and steady. Every album’s a little bigger, every tour is a little bigger, but it’s not like we’re sitting on a big chunk of change. We’ve kind of made enough money to –

CG: — Live.

NG: Yeah. We were never super successful. It’s a weird time because I feel like we have to tour less, because we can’t just tour. This is our third time in Seattle in 12 months, so it’s tough. It’s a weird time for music, it’s a weird time for us to be touring the way we do. When you start getting into that realm of being an older band, it’s almost like you’re going to lose steam if you tour the way you did, six or seven years ago. So I feel like we could benefit from coming here once a year. There might be twice as many people here if there was more demand. At the same time, we never were super successful. We never had a peak. For the past five years, we’ve been peaking. It’s always been a little bit bigger, so there has always been a need to continue to tour, to put out albums. Not doing that is a choice we have to make. It sucks to be a band and have to make decisions for financial reasons. To do less, as individuals, would hurt us a little bit.

CG: And with people our age and older, I see them thinking about [the] girlfriends that they’ve had for a solid amount of time, and family, and having a place back home and that affects how we think because we’re not really kids anymore. I mean, I consider myself pretty immature, but I think we’re all thinking about big picture-life-stuff, you know?

NG: There’s examples of bands, like Hot Water Music, that are bigger now than they were before and they don’t tour that much; they have other things going on.

TCO: It’s also one of those things where they were like “Fuck it, we’re done” and kids were like “Oh I missed my chance to see them!” I’m not suggesting you guys do that.

CG: It’s that whole “leave them wanting more” thing. If you just disappear and then when you come back, people will be psyched.

NG: There’s plenty of examples of bands…you don’t really have to break up, maybe you just go on some kind of hiatus/take-time-off-do-adult-things. Then book a week of shows, and do Bamboozle, do whatever.

CG: Or you can do just do what every band does and break up. Then nine months later –

TCO: Reunion tour!

CG: (laughs) Don’t say we’re breaking up. We’re not breaking up.

The very intact Bayside has a new album on Wind-Up called “Killing Time.” Singer Anthony Raneri and Ghanbarian host Gumshoe Radio on Idobi. Keep abreast of all things Bayside on their website.

Now That’s What We Call Nostalgia! Brand New “Deja Entendu”
by Ryan Pangilinan

The version of Brand New that seems to live in the hearts of most pop-punk fans is the motley crew of brash 18-21 year olds who had made the breakneck and anthemic “Your Favorite Weapon.” At about 40+ minutes, it’s a succinct look into the lives of suburban teenagers who do what suburban teens do: fall for girls who work at Zumiez, get drunk/stoned, fight with their friends, and sing out revenge fantasies. It’s steeped in the same ground as “Through Being Cool.”

So when Brand New followed up with 2003’s “Deja Entendu,” the reaction was very polarizing. The album’s influences – which range from Morrissey to Built to Spill – made it appealing to the Pitchfork set and for many people, this was their introduction to the band. To the people who’d stuck it out with them from their days as an immature quartet, it was a backhanded slap – it represented nothing of their suburban values and the only song about sex was a cautionary tale (“Sic Transit Gloria”).

When the album came out in 2003, I was still running Halftimemag.com (R.I.P.) out of the little punk house that I shared with the guys in my band and other friends and got two copies from the label when I was prepping for an interview with Jesse Lacey (read here).

I loved this record right away, but probably for different reasons. For me, the album is very much a snapshot of being a dude in a hardcore band, who still listened to more indie rock or hip-hop than anything else. “Deja Entendu’s” diverse palate, spoke to frantic music fan in me.

While revisiting the album today, I realized that – having thoroughly enjoyed their subsequent releases “The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me” and “Daisy” – “Deja Entendu” with its emotional writhing core speaks so strongly nearly a decade after its initial release.

These days, “Deja Entendu” is loved a lot more than when it came out, probably due to the fact that most of the kids who shit talked it have grown up and, in essence, grown up to be (fucked over) adults. Not to put it so obscenely, but certainly, this is a heartbreaking album, whether it’s dealing with terminal illness (“Guernica”), lust (“Tatou”), or love lost (“The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot”).

“Deja Entendu” has its flaws in its lack of brevity and, in general, just being a completely stark contrast for the rest of their catalog, and yet, it’s arguably Brand New’s best album.  It’s a standalone work that can be pointed at as a record to listen to when you do discover the band and it so neatly highlights their abilities as musicians, songwriters, and all the quirks that has made them so appealing to their rapid following. But this is stuff you already heard.

Taking Back Sunday
“Taking Back Sunday”
(WB)

I don’t know too many people who are still into this band. Most former fans I know walked away after the “classic line-up” imploded following the popularity of their debut record, “Tell All Your Friends.” Whatever goodwill they had gained with the addition of Breaking Pangaea/Terrible Things frontman Fred Mascharino and session bassist Matt Rubano fell apart when Mascharino left and TBS released the underwhelming “New Again” album.

Now back with OG members, John Nolan and Shaun Cooper, Taking Back Sunday tries to capture lightning in a bottle again with their fourth effort, a self-titled record.

If people are waiting for “Tell All Your Friends Pt.2,” this record certainly isn’t it. If anything, it’s more of a weird rock record with pop elements. It’s definitely as “heavy” and caustic as a band like Taking Back Sunday can get, but it’s not redefining the genre. In fact, I would expect kids to react to this in the way that they may have reacted to Brand New’s “Daisy” — with dismay due to the fact that they didn’t write another easily digestible record.

There’s some nods to the melodic talent of the band in songs like “Since You’re Gone” and “Faith (When I Let You Down).” And uptempo songs like “El Paso” and “It Doesn’t Feel like Falling” are strong enough to pique interest in “Self-Titled,” yet yawn-inducing tunes like “Sad Savior” and “Money (Let it Go)” make it drag.

There’s a lot in value in Taking Back Sunday’s latest/older configuration and the off-time rhythms that Nolan and Cooper brought to Straylight Run, their interim band, are present, but it’s not too overwhelming.

“Taking Back Sunday” is a slow-burning album and one that can get better the more you listen to it, but it is worlds away from the angst of what people may be expecting.

— Ryan Pangilinan

Coastal Interview
by Ryan Pangilinan

Years ago, I stopped checking the B9 board. It was quite apparent that the posts that I wanted to read were getting buried underneath your typical hardcore bro-dude posts about who could be more edge and why girls and minorities should stay out of circle pits. The cool thing about Bridge 9’s board, however, is that every now and then you can find some good up and coming bands.

Pennsylvanians Coastal is one of these bands who were posted on Viva Pizza after the blog’s admin came across them on the B9, hence why they’re on Totally Crushed Out.

Coastal’s take on 90s emo, by way of bands like Texas is the Reason, Braid and The Weakerthans are also highlighted by the cool way that vocal lines in the song weave in and out as if the lyrics were an instrument in it of itself.

Though the band is still in its infancy, they’ve put out “Demonstration” a spectacular debut demo and recently I spoke to singer/guitarist, Brandon about what we can expect from Coastal.

Totally Crushed Out: In short, how did the band get together?

Brandon: We all used to be in another band a couple years ago.  Being bored, listening to depressing music about growing up helped us come back together and start Coastal.

Stylistically, Coastal seems to take a cue from bands like Texas is the Reason. Did this naturally happen when you guys got together and started writing?

Any of us would probably list Texas is the Reason as an influential band.  We didn’t really preface our writing process with that influence, but I think when you listen to a band enough, it’s going to be apparent.  I’m listening to Texas is the Reason right now.  I listen to them a lot.  Plus, bands of that nature (early/mid 90’s emo) sound so much fucking better than 98 percent of everything else that is being put out in 2011, and everybody knows it.

The lyrics on “Demonstration” have this really unique way of meandering seamlessly through the songs, which you don’t get often unless you’re listening to crooners like Nat King Cole. How do you come up with these melodies?

Well, that is literally the first time anyone compared my vocals to Nat.  I like it.  I really don’t think about it, nothing is really planned.  When I go into the studio to record the vocals, they usually come out completely different from what I thought they would be.  I write songs that actually mean something to me, whether it’s about my dead friends or struggling with sexuality, identity and self.  So, the songs are important to me, most of them are apart of my journal.  I think they just come out like the way I feel about them, sometimes yelling and other times softer.  I don’t know if this answers the question, I hope it did.

I noticed that your dates on your Facebook are largely regional, what other upcoming dates/tours do you have planned?

We have a northeast tour (10 days) in late June and we want to go out in August at some point.  We started this band in March 2011, and played our first show in Mid April.  We are still at an early point of this band, so more regional dates are just necessary, unless the Foo Fighters invite us on tour, then we’ll go anywhere.

Have you guys been approached by any labels, or even entertained the notion of working with one?

This band is pushing three months of existence, so it’s still early in the game.  I don’t think any of us are opposed to labels, we’re just four guys that never really were faced with that decision/opportunity.  I’d personally like to sign to Disney, I think that would be very magical. 

Anything else you’d like to add?

We really just like playing these songs. I hope they mean something to other people at least half as much as what they mean to us.

Add Coastal on Facebook and check out their demo on their Bandcamp page.

Getting Down with the Get Up Kids
by Ryan Pangilinan

I can’t lie about this: everyone involved with Totally Crushed Out loves the Get Up Kids.  Despite varied regional upbringing, we all spent our formative rocking out to “Four Minute Mile” and “Something to Write Home About.”  As young adults, we found solace in the darker themes behind “On a Wire” and “Guilt Show.”  Following a three year breakup, the Get Up Kids resurfaced in 2008 and, this last year, release the “Simple Science EP” and “There Are Rules,” the latter of which is the first release on their independent label, Quality Hill.

Along with our sister site, Redefine, guitarists and singers, Jim Suptic and Matt Pryor sat down with TCO to talk about their new record, why they followed “On a Wire” with “Guilt Show,” and life outside the Get Up Kids umbrella.

Totally Crushed Out: Listening to “There Are Rules” it’s a huge departure from what most people would consider your “signature” sound and to me, a long time listener, it seems like it’s just a natural progression for the band to find a sound that is outside the box of the last proper full-length. Does it ever drive you guys crazy whenever someone says, “Oh it doesn’t sound like this old record or that old record?”

Matt Pryor: We’ve always made it a point to never really make the same record twice and I think that we’ve accomplished that.  Our records are always evolving and to do it any other way would be untrue to ourselves.  It doesn’t drive me crazy but it does get a bit old having to defend your creative decisions all the time.

Jim Suptic: To us, every album we have ever made sounds different. When people say our “signature” sound, they are usually talking about “Something To Write Home About”. Probably because it was our most successful album. We wrote some of those songs when we were teenagers. I’m 33 now.  I love that record but seriously, it was over a decade ago.  We wouldn’t even know how to write an album like that again. Especially not lyrically. Things that were important to me then seem quite trivial now.

Obviously along with age, the band finds new things to tackle about topically. What was sort of the lyrical drive (if there was any) behind the new album?

MP: Lyrically it wasn’t so much what it WAS going to be about as much as what it WASN’T going to be about.  There are no love songs on the record.  There isn’t any teenage longing.  I really wanted to challenge myself to write things outside of my comfort zone.

JS: We have always wrote what was around us or influencing us at the time. One of the songs I sing is about a street fight that happened in England. The song “Widow Paris” is about a voodoo priestess. Not so much “tour is hard, I miss you” lyrics.

Will Quality Hill be releasing records by other bands, as you’ve done in the past with Heroes and Villains, or will this be strictly a Get Up Kids label?

JS: I would never say never but as of right now just Get Up Kid stuff.

I’ve always felt that the Get Up Kids is one of the earliest bands whose popularity was steered by the internet in addition to touring heavily. I remember seeing the band in 2000 on a tour sponsored by Napster, though this was also during a time when people still purchased physical media for music. As a band that I would consider early adopters (even if it was inadvertent), how do you feel about the way that kids are using the internet to consume music a little over a decade later?

MP: I think that the internet is as useful or as irritating as you make it out to be.  On the one hand there are more opportunities to communicate with your fans and to grow the band.  On the other hand, everyone has an opinion and the comments section of any given review / article can either really inflate or hurt your self worth.

JS: I really think the new generation believes music should be free. They don’t want to pay for it. No one is going to change that. It is only going to get worse for record sales. So I think you just have to embrace it and become more creative in the way you run a band. I like twitter and facebook because it allows us to interact with our fans. I don’t like the fact that it makes me feel narcissistic, always having to talk about myself.

These days, individual members of the band has commitments elsewhere whether it’s family, business or other bands, but it still seems to work well on some capacity, though slightly limited. Is it weird to walk back into a situation where you were touring for a good chunk of the year to being able to tour when it works for everyone?

MP: I like it better.  It allows us to have other lives, which means we’re not so dependent upon this band and that takes a lot of the pressure off.  It’s a pain in the ass to schedule stuff but we get along better because of it.

JS: It is what it is. It can be a little annoying trying to make it all work but we find a way.

One of the things that people have commented on is the sonic departure between “Something to Write Home About” to “On a Wire,” it’s something that is chronicled in Andy Greenwald’s book “Nothing Feels Good” and is something that comes up in interviews often to this day. Personally, I loved “On a Wire” and I always felt that “Guilt Show” was the Jedi mind trick album. Upon an initial spin, it’s easy to peg it as a pop-punk record along the lines of the “Something to Write Home” but when you really listen to it, it’s seems that, lyrically, it’s a very reactionary album. Was that the intention that you guys had when writing that record or was it more along the lines of making an upbeat pop record that scratches the surface of the uglier parts of life?

MP: I’ve always been interested in upbeat songs with dark subject matter.  I think that’s been pretty present in all of our work.  If Guilt Show was particularly dark it’s because I was in a really negative headspace at the time.  We made Wire kinda quiet because we were sick of being loud all the time.  We made Guilt Show louder than Wire because we missed being a “rock” band.  It works out well now; we can do a primarily rocking live show with moments of quiet, which is nice.

JS: Lyrically “Something To Write Home About” was about love and relationships while trying to be in a young rock band. “Guilt Show” was about divorce and the crumbling of those relationships. Ugly truths are easier to swallow with an upbeat melody behind it.

When the band first got back together, I recall Jim doing an interview where he said something akin to “If this is what emo bands are like, then I’m sorry,” and even on the anniversary tour, you guys echoed those sentiments on stage. Naturally, I wouldn’t expect anyone who grew up getting their records from Crank or Initial’s distro to necessarily like some of the trash that’s out there, but what contemporary bands that you might have a direct influence on do you think stands out from the paint-by-numbers bands that are out there?

MP: I don’t listen to a lot of what people would call modern “emo” so I can’t really comment to the fact.  The one band that gets lumped into that genre that consistently impresses me is Brand New.  I think they are setting the creative bar these days in the genre.

JS: I really don’t know. When bands say we influenced them most of the time I don’t hear it. As far as that quote goes, it was really supposed to be a joke. The internet likes to find something and run with it.

Following this album’s release and its touring cycle, what other plans is on the horizon for the Get Up Kids?

MP: No plans as of yet.  Probably get away from each other for a while and work on other projects once this cycle is finished.  Get lots of sleep.  Ha.

JS: My second child is due in a week. That is going to be my focus. After that, a little more touring. Maybe we will write some more. Who knows?

Get Up Kids
“There Are Rules”
(Quality Hill)

Most people I know who grew up with the Get Up Kids hate this album. Of course, if you go back to the days of “On a Wire,” it had a similar reception and it’s a fan favorite now, albeit nearly a decade later. For their first studio full-length since “Guilt Show,” the Get Ups have replaced their primary influences of The Replacements and Husker Du with part shoegaze and part Brit-pop. There’s lots of fuzzy guitars, sound effects and distorted vocals.

The first track for “There Are Rules,” “Tithe” is an aggressive pop song that finds itself bubbling as some sort of could’ve-been-a-Sparta-song territory. It’s one hell of a way to start off the record, however, as it segues immediately into the more Get Up Kid-friendly “Regent’s Court.”

The midway point of “Rules” features “Automatic,” a Jim Suptic-lead song that prominently features a quirky synth tone as the lead instrument; it’s not terrible as it seems a little misplaced. I think that if you shuffled this song next to “The Widow Paris,” it would be easier to digest.

The Get Up Kids 2.0 is just as brash and talented as their “Something to Write Home” counterparts, however, they definitely going to alienate people who fondly and abashedly request “Holiday” and “Action and Action” at shows. Honestly, this is not the direction that I would have seen them going in, but it is welcomed nonetheless. I think the biggest downfall of the album is track arrangement, which has very little to do with the quality of the songs themselves.

These are weird pop songs, but once you get into a couple spins of the album, this is very much the Get Up Kids and that’s kind of what you have to keep in your mind. These dudes aren’t 19 anymore and I wouldn’t expect them to release music that is akin to teenagers anyway.

— Ryan Pangilinan