Musical Memories
Rediscovering old sounds
A few days ago, I was asked a great question. “If band names were literal, what concert would be the worst to attend?” Imagine Dragons would be nothing but a bunch of folks imagining dragons together. Weezer would probably be a group of people who can’t breathe well. Jimmy Eat World might just be a guy named Jimmy eating dirt. The Killers would probably be the worst concert, but Kiss might be interesting. As I was going through lists of band names in my head, I was reminded of a few bands and genres that I hadn’t thought about in quite some time. Have you ever rediscovered a band and thought to yourself “why did I ever stop listening to this?” That’s the type of nostalgic feeling I got when going down this old trail of thought, but this time it wasn’t just bands, but music genres too.
Maika
I would think that the one band that I constantly rediscover every couple of years or so is “There For Tomorrow.” This was a band that I grew up listening to in high school. Particularly their album “The Verge” was what I enjoyed the most. They took promotion photos for this album up on top of stone mountain in Georgia, and as a young kid, I thought it was the coolest thing to see a band I knew promoting their work at places I knew. The Verge was a rock album that I felt really flew under the radar and was the first album I owned by TFT. I had an odd tendency, that when I purchased an album from a band that I liked for the first time, it always happened to be the album that most critics considered to be their least impressive work. Whether that was Paramore’s “Brand New Eyes,” The Maine’s “Pioneer,” Three Days Grace’s “Life Starts Now,” or Eminem’s “Recovery.” The list goes on… All that said however, There For Tomorrow consistently brings me back to my scene kid days of being an emotional teenager. After TFT broke up, a couple of the members started a more pop rock band called AFTRHR which unfortunately wasn’t long lived. Today however, the vocalist Maika, is still making music and it’s better than ever. He has a song called “All Talk” that is such a fun song for dancing around. I highly recommend giving his music a listen.
The Imperials
I’ve grown up in church my whole life. To anyone who’s ever been in church, there’s always been worship music involved. Everyone has their taste when it comes to styles, whether it’s hymns, christian rock, rap, etc. As September has now come across our doorstep this year, my friend started singing “Wake me up when September ends” and asking the question, “should I post the Earth, Wind & Fire song to my instagram?” which I told him to save until the 21st. (On a side note, you can tell a lot about about a person by what lyrics they use after the words “wake me up” whether it’s when September ends, before you go go, or wake me up inside.) Thinking about Earth, Wind & Fire, reminded me of a refreshingly unique gospel band called “The Imperials.” Most Christian worship music tends to have a reputation for being repetitive. The Imperials however, are probably a band that you’ve never heard of in the christian music scene, but have done much more than most people recognize. The Imperials actually began around 1964, and sang back-up for Elvis Presley from 1969-1971. They have an incredibly unique sound for a gospel band, and I usually suggest listening to “I’m Forgiven” or “The Trumpet of Jesus” for first time listeners. You’ll quickly recognize why I’m reminded of EW&F when listening. They’re just one of those bands that exists as a guilty pleasure every now and again for me.
Story Rock
There’s one genre of music that I find isn’t used much anymore. It seemed to have its heyday during what’s now considered the classic rock era. That genre is what I call “story rock.” This type of music, is usually sung from a third person perspective about another individual’s life. These would be songs like Juke Box Hero, Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl), or one of my personal favorites Copacabana. I’m not really sure what ever happened to this sort of writing, but it’s definitely far more rare today than it’s been in the past, and honestly I kind of miss it. I’ve slowly been putting together a playlist on Spotify that features only these types of songs called “Story Rock.” So if you like that genre too, give it a listen, and comment down below a few songs that you think would fit well into it.
(I’ll be back to the regularly scheduled “I Know A Place” series soon…)