If you’re anything like me, you probably started the day by recognizing that the start of a new work week had indeed arrived and then immediately began shaking your fists at the sky in anger. Monday is rarely anyone’s favorite day, and from what I have seen firsthand it feels safe to say it’s the one day of the week some people outright hate. I guess to them the arrival of the work week symbolizes the end of their quote/unquote freedom, and as a result they head into the office/factory/restaurant/store with a negative outlook already on their mind. This leads to bad attitudes, which only makes the experience of being at work worse, and for some reason it also seems to make time slow to a crawl. We’re not about that life, and we hope this post can do the same you that the song contained within it did for us.
Anyone reading this who has finished high school presumably knows the phrase, “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry,” but how many of us actually apply that concept to our daily lives? In my experience, the answer is not nearly enough, and I’m including myself in that summation. I, like many, imagine myself to be a fairly easygoing person, but if something I had my hopes set on falls apart before coming to fruition I can transform into a bit of an emotional mess that is best compared to a child throwing a tantrum. Life should go the way we want it to, right?
Your answer to that question doesn’t really matter, and neither does mine, because life could not care less about your dreams and expectations. Life is a constantly changing thing that gives absolutely no thought or attention to the desires of individuals or groups. Sometimes things work out, but other times they do not, and there is only so much any of us can do to sway the outcome one way or another. What we can do however, is decide how we will respond to things falling apart. Will you let an unexpected turn destroy you or empower you? Will you give up, or will you see things through despite unexpected hurdles that may appear along the way?
Consider for a moment the turbulent existence of Emarosa, an American hard rock band with no place to call home and a list of former members that now more than doubles the amount of people currently in the group. Emarosa formed in 2006, but thanks to a number of vocalist changes over the years the band has more or less had to reboot their sound three times over. The latest incarnation, which features Bradley Walden on vocals, may be the best yet. Walden entered the group as they were preparing to hit the studio for their third studio album (2014’s Versus), and he quickly acclimated to the band’s approach to creativity. Now two years later, the band is about to release what is arguably their best record to date (131 – Out July 8), and Walden is still steering the ship with a knack for brutally honest lyricism that has propelled the band into the hearts of thousands around the globe. This isn’t to say Emarosa were not successful prior to Walden joining the group, as they most certainly were, but when listening through the group’s discography there is a clear change of course that occurs right around Walden’s entrance that undeniably sealed their fate to become what they are today. This band Walden as much as Walden needed the members of the band, and because both sides were willing to persevere through their careers until they encountered one another music fans throughout the world – as well as the band members themselves – are now benefiting from their combined talents.
We could get into the lives Walden and the members of Emarosa lead before they came together, but for the sake of time we’re going to ask those interested in the details to do some Googling on their own time. All you need to know now is littered throughout 131, which tackles the idea of accepting responsibility for one’s own fate as no other alternative rock album has done in years. Every song plays like an excerpt from a story of triumph, failure, and growth that you never want to end. No matter what struggles you face in your own journey, I promise there is an anthem on this record to help keep you motivated when times get tough. Trust me. No, i take that back. Trust music, especially the music of Emarosa.
James Shotwell is the Digital Marketing Manager for Haulix. He is also a professional entertainment critic, covering both film and music, as well as the co-founder of Antique Records. Feel free to tell him you love or hate the article above by connecting with him on Twitter. Bonus points if you introduce yourself by sharing your favorite Simpsons character.
If you’re anything like me, you probably started the day by recognizing that the start of a new work week had indeed arrived and then immediately began shaking your fists at the sky in anger. Monday is rarely anyone’s favorite day, and from what I have seen firsthand it feels safe to say it’s the one day of the week some people outright hate. I guess to them the arrival of the work week symbolizes the end of their quote/unquote freedom, and as a result they head into the office/factory/restaurant/store with a negative outlook already on their mind. This leads to bad attitudes, which only makes the experience of being at work worse, and for some reason it also seems to make time slow to a crawl. We’re not about that life, and we hope this post can do the same you that the song contained within it did for us.
I don’t know whether it’s harder to succeed in music by leveraging the same tempos and chord progressions every major artist has used for the last half century or by finding a sound that is unique to you and pushing it out into the world, but they both have their drawbacks. On the one hand, building on the blueprints of former greats gives you the knowledge that at least part of your creation will work with audiences, but it also means you will lead a career riddled with critical comparisons to other, possibly far bigger, names for as long as you are in music. On the other hand, creating a sound from scratch requires you to convince people whatever you have developed is worth their time, and that struggle will never end. You can write the greatest song known to mankind, but unless you can convince those in radio, licensing, and major labels to give a damn your career will plateau long before those who pursue a far more traditional and commercial path to musical success.
As much as I wish my decade in music had already taught me the path aspiring songwriters should follow, that is not what has come to pass. I’ve seen knock-off make it big while creative originators exhausted their resources trying to be heard. I’ve also seen talent that feels undeniably unique make it big while bands that appear to have their image and commercial appeal down to a science struggle to get noticed. All this has taught me there is no approach that is better than the other, and maybe that is because your approach to making a name in music doesn’t matter nearly as much as how much heart goes into your music. If you can write catchy pop songs with a 120 tempo that run three-and-a-half minutes in length and carry a big dramatic punch then who am I to tell you that type of music is any less organic and true than that of an artist who only writes five-minute prog rock epics? If people are connecting to what you create, and what you create stems from something true deep inside of you, then who am I or anyone else to tell you that is not how ‘good music’ is made?
Half Hearted Hero is a five-piece rock band from New Bedford, Massachusetts. The band has billed themselves as a rock act since inception, but if you’re expecting something along the lines of Disturbed, Korn, or Five Finger Death Punch you couldn’t be further off base. The music Half Hearted Hero plays is far more influenced by the world of punk, indie, and pop, but again I don’t know that I would claim any of these genres really explain the type of music the band creates. Like many New England groups, Half Hearted Hero have a clearly defined narrative running through their music that mirrors their experiences as people. With each release the band has showcased their growth both as humans and artists through the music they create, and in doing so have attracted throngs of listeners around the globe who hang on every note hoping to hear what happens next. It’s not all that unlike a great TV series or movie franchise in that each new installment is different, yet ultimately connected to everything that came before its release, as well as everything that will come after. When you hear Half Hearted Hero you’re hearing a moment in time, captured and preserved with audacious creativity, and you want to live in that moment for as long as possible.
With their new album,Isn’t Real, Half Hearted Hero are continuing the narrative found on their previous released a brash an unflinching sense of honesty that is palpable in every note played and every word sung. The material included on Isn’t Real tells of aspirations for success, uncertainty over the future, and the balancing acts between relationships and dreams that any creative mind grapples with on a near-constant basis. None of these concepts are necessarily new, but the way they’re presented on the record is undeniably unique, and that results largely from Half Hearted Hero embracing their collective perspective on existence without any sense of worry over how the world might react. This is the band at their most honest and, as a result, their absolute best. You never doubt that what is pouring through your speakers or headphones is exactly the thoughts and ideas the band hoped to convey, and you love them all the more for allowing you a little more time in their musical universe.
When I first played Isn’t Real earlier this month I was immediately overcome by the realization that Half Hearted Hero had been able to accomplish something with a single album that my past decade of writing had been unable to achieve. In under an hour, the members of Half Hearted Hero presented the world as they see it and invited me to explore it with them, complete with ups and downs, emotional car wrecks and uplifting moments of self-realization. For a short amount of time, which I then repeated dozens of times in the days that immediately followed, I was disconnected from my own reality and fully engaged in that of the members of Half Hearted Hero. I wanted to live there, and as a result of having a copy of Isn’t Real to call my own I could. I still do, from time to time, and I expect to spend many more hours there in the months and years to come.
Does this mean I believe Half Hearted Hero is poised to be the next big thing in music? Not really. The band’s music is incredibly personal and honest, which doesn’t necessarily equate to mass appeal, but for those who appreciate such art the band might be the best thing to happen to that specific community of music fans in a very long time. Half Hearted Hero may never be the biggest band on the planet, but they will and most likely are the biggest band to thousands of people around the world. Isn’t Real works because it is not afraid to focus on the little details that make life great just as much as the emotional extremes that tend to make stories more compelling. They offer you a bit of everything all at once, and as a fan of music you’re thankful for that gift. Perhaps more importantly, their art also inspires you to be more up front with others about your own perspective on things. You find strength to be a more honest version of yourself because Half Hearted Hero is so self-assuredly themselves on this release. That kind of inspiration, which makes it possible to love yourself a little more by embracing what makes you unique, is something that too few records accomplish in 2016. Half Hearted Hero make it look easy, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they inspire a whole generation of aspiring musicians with the release of this record.
James Shotwell is the Digital Marketing Manager for Haulix. He is also a professional entertainment critic, covering both film and music, as well as the co-founder of Antique Records. Feel free to tell him you love or hate the article above by connecting with him on Twitter. Bonus points if you introduce yourself by sharing your favorite Simpsons character.
If you’re anything like me, you probably started the day by recognizing that the start of a new work week had indeed arrived and then immediately began shaking your fists at the sky in anger. Monday is rarely anyone’s favorite day, and from what I have seen firsthand it feels safe to say it’s the one day of the week some people outright hate. I guess to them the arrival of the work week symbolizes the end of their quote/unquote freedom, and as a result they head into the office/factory/restaurant/store with a negative outlook already on their mind. This leads to bad attitudes, which only makes the experience of being at work worse, and for some reason it also seems to make time slow to a crawl. We’re not about that life, and we hope this post can do the same you that the song contained within it did for us.
Bands comes in all shapes and sizes, cropping up wherever there happens to be a group of like-minded people with a passion for creativity, but I have always felt a sense of kindred spirits with people from places no one knows. Well, not actually no one, as almost anyone from anywhere knows someone who knows they exist, but people from tiny towns and villages that only register as legitimate places to people who grew up in the same geographic region. That was always the case with my hometown, a tiny village in the Southwest corner of Michigan known as Constantine, and as I’ve grown older I’ve unfortunately witnessed the town sinking further and further into obscurity as state plans to change the paths of major roads have made the once thriving community a place where many residents are fighting to maintain their way of life. It’s heartbreaking, but not all that unusual in the so-called rust belt of the midwest, and whenever I meet another young adult from a similar town we seem to share a mutual understanding that the place we could quite possibly outlive the place we call home. We hate that fact. Every single one of us hates this fact. That doesn’t change anything though, so instead we push forward, striving to create something that speaks to the inspiration and experience we gained from our lives in our hometowns, and in doing so at least a part of us feels like we may keep our community alive — at least in spirit.
Tiny Moving Parts hail from a place in rural Minnesota they themselves will tell you no one knows. It’s a tiny community lacking any tangible music scene, yet it gave the members of Tiny Moving Parts everything they needed to find a unique take on the crossroads between punk and indie-rock that has now become the group’s trademark sound. Listening to their latest release, Celebrate, brings to mind a lifetime of memories spent contemplating the unpredictability of the human experience from the security of your childhood home. It tells of growing up and finding one’s true identity, as well as all the hardships and unforeseen consequences that you must face in the search of truth about practically anything. In roughly thirty minutes, Tiny Moving Parts encapsulate a moment in life when you finally realize just how unique and inexplicably beautiful your own existence is, and through doing so they challenge you, the listener, to ask what you’re doing to make the most of your time.
What is it about Tiny Moving Parts’ hometown that made it possible for the young men in this group to be who they are? I could not tell you. Even if you could tell me, I am not sure I care to know the answer. When Tiny Moving Parts share their art with the world they are consciously sharing every pivotal moment and emotional exchange they have experienced through a riveting and lively take on rock that is unlike anything their industry peers are even attempting to produce. It’s a style of music that the group has more or less been sharing since day one, but in the roughly five years since they became the talk of the alternative underground no true competitors or knock-offs have made themselves known. The reasons for this are probably as varied as the reasons why certain people prefer sneakers to sandals, but I like to believe it’s because we as an alternative community recognize they are something special unto themselves. Tiny Moving Parts are part of this world, but they exist on an island unto themselves, and each new release shares a little more insight into how they see the world around them. Celebrate is the best example of this yet, and I cannot wait to see what they do next.
James Shotwell is the Digital Marketing Manager for Haulix and host of the Inside Music Podcast. He is also the Film Editor for Substream Magazine. When not working, James can be found in Minneapolis with his two fat cats, Paws Von Trier and Chub E. Chubs, watching old police procedurals and eating copious amounts of popcorn. You should follow him on Twitter.
If you’re anything like me, you probably started the day by recognizing that the start of a new work week had indeed arrived and then immediately began shaking your fists at the sky in anger. Monday is rarely anyone’s favorite day, and from what I have seen firsthand it feels safe to say it’s the one day of the week some people outright hate. I guess to them the arrival of the work week symbolizes the end of their quote/unquote freedom, and as a result they head into the office/factory/restaurant/store with a negative outlook already on their mind. This leads to bad attitudes, which only makes the experience of being at work worse, and for some reason it also seems to make time slow to a crawl. We’re not about that life, and we hope this post can do the same you that the song contained within it did for us.
Two things that no one I know can shake are the fear of death and the fear of the unknown. Some try to drown these demons in alcohol or religion, maybe even both, but we all end up spending countless nights looking at our ceilings trying to answer the one question that plagues us all: Why? Why are we here? Why are we born if our only option from there is to die? Why do we love? Why do we believe we have any say in how others live or love? Why do they believe they have a say in what happens to us? We all struggle with these questions and we rarely, if ever, discuss our personal journeys as they relate to these topics with one another. The reason for this is not due to a lack of concern, but rather an abundance of fear. We may claim to seek ‘the’ answers,’ but all we really want are ‘our answers,’ and we worry someone else may come across a truth that forces us to spiral even further away from the inner peace we seek.
Enter Holy Ghost. The third full-length recording from Philadelphia alternative rock favorites Modern Baseball, Holy Ghost is a condensed indie punk infused ode to the philosophical questions that plague all humans and the way those struggles reveal themselves in our everyday lives. From battles with depression and the feeling you will never be able to free yourself from the anger you feel inside, to stories of love stretched between state lines and the terror you feel when you realize you have to say goodbye, there is a song for everyone’s current place in life strewn somewhere amongst this twenty-eight minute record.
Now, before you going believing this record is the ultimate downer because it ruminates on tough topics, just know this is a record still born from the same creative minds that gave us Sports and You’re Gonna Miss It All. Modern Baseball know that before they can tackle tough subjects they first have to pull you in with catchy melodies and original ideas, both of which are abundant throughout Holy Ghost. This is not a pivot in the band’s approach to songwriting as much as it is a great leap in the evolutionary sequence. Rather than releasing an album that felt like the next logical progression the band has jumped ahead three spaces, and in doing so put themselves in a position to explore several new ideas without having to completely abandon the sonic foundation they established on previous releases. It’s quite a feat, and it’s executed well.
When listening to Holy Ghost it’s incredibly hard not to compare the band’s progress as musicians to your own development as a person. Many people fell in love with Modern Baseball because of their unabashed approach to sharing deeply personal moments and thoughts through music, many of which aligned with feeling or experiences that everyone encounters as they begin to reach adulthood. Their journey mirror our journey as listeners, and it continued again with You’re Gonna Miss It All. Songs like “Graduation Day” addressed the sweet taste of nostalgia and how it offers an escape from the present whether or not you actually need it. The album also addressed the challenges of adulthood, and how chasing your dreams often requires a personal sacrifice in the form of relationships or your general interconnectivity to the world you’ve known for the majority of your life. Holy Ghost takes things even further, as we all must do eventually, by putting down a metaphorical foot and proclaiming that our fate is in our hands.
Maybe there is a God, or maybe there is not. I don’t know and neither do you, nor do the members of Modern Baseball. In a way, it doesn’t matter where you stand because at the end of the day you have to save yourself from whatever it is that keeps you up at night. You can pray to the heavens or beg to the world around you until your throat is too sore to speak, but the decision of whether or not to continue living is yours and yours alone. The only thing that is certain is what you are experiencing right now, and sometimes that truth may be too much to bare – but Holy Ghost hopes to convey that we are all stronger than the sum of our opposition. We can be and do whatever we want, as long as we put our minds to it. That doesn’t mean the road ahead will be easy. In fact, it almost certainly will get harder from here, but as long as you have hope and faith in yourself there is a way through it.
James Shotwell is the Digital Marketing Manager for Haulix and host of the Inside Music Podcast. He is also the Film Editor for Substream Magazine. When not working, James can be found in Minneapolis with his two fat cats, Paws Von Trier and Chub E. Chubs, watching old police procedurals and eating copious amounts of popcorn. You should follow him on Twitter.
If you’re anything like me, you probably started the day by recognizing that the start of a new work week had indeed arrived and then immediately began shaking your fists at the sky in anger. Monday is rarely anyone’s favorite day, and from what I have seen firsthand it feels safe to say it’s the one day of the week some people outright hate. I guess to them the arrival of the work week symbolizes the end of their quote/unquote freedom, and as a result they head into the office/factory/restaurant/store with a negative outlook already on their mind. This leads to bad attitudes, which only makes the experience of being at work worse, and for some reason it also seems to make time slow to a crawl. We’re not about that life, and we hope this post can do the same you that the song contained within it did for us.
Some things become better with age. Wine, for example, is believed to taste better after it has been allowed to age for months or even years. The same can be said for several kinds of liquor, as well as the bond between two friends. The reasons for this are as varied as the list of things you could say improve with time, but perhaps the most interesting evolution aided by time is that of those who create. It’s one thing to write a song, teach it to your friends, record said song, and then perform that song every night for as long as people are willing to see you play. It’s something else entirely to do all of that and then, just as interest is beginning to wain, retreat to your secret lair and do it all over again, but that is the career musicians agree to when they decide to dedicate their lives to music.
For some creative types, the time between releases is a time to focus on refining what works for their sound without necessarily trying to change the status quo. There is this belief in popular music that most listeners want more of the same. They like who they like because of a certain sound or style and all they ask moving forward is for that artist or group to give them more of what they’ve already bought. What fans fail to realize, as do those artists who try to meet this demand, is that all creative types are people just like you or I at the end of the day. They might like certain things or think certain ways right now that they won’t even be able to relate to in six months times, let alone six years. People, regardless of career or status, must evolve to survive. It’s change and challenge that keeps our mind thinking and our muscles growing, and if we want to become the best versions of ourselves we have to first accept that it’s possible no one will enjoy what comes next. We have to accept that we will change regardless of our best efforts to stay the same, and when we do that we can begin to make the most out of the people we have become.
Otep has been a force for rock and roll creativity for the better of part of two decades now, but you would be hard-pressed to find any two albums in the band’s catalog that sound the same. From record to record, EP to EP, Otep has been a band that prides itself on setting a new standard not only for the members of the group, but the rock world at large as well. You might not know some of the band’s material, but the band’s you idolize do, and they’ve probably committed a large part of that material to memory because Otep is, and for some always have been, just that good.
All of this is why, just days away from the band’s seventh studio album hitting shelves, we felt compelled to bring their name to the Haulix blog. In our decade of existence we have yet to encounter a rock fan who did not know the name Otep, and that is not something that can be said for the vast majority of musicians working today. Somehow, despite changing consumer behaviors and the increasingly overcrowded genre they call home, Otep have been able to establish a presence beyond the world of cookie-cutter rock that demands just as much attention and respect as the bands currently making a living off the success of radio singles. We wish we could explain how this came to be in a way you could imitate in your own career, but to do so would be to express a basic misunderstanding about why Otep is considered so great in the first place. This band, perhaps more than any other group working in rock today, understands and embraces the uniqueness of who they are as people, and that acceptance of self is then conveyed through the art they create in such a way that fans feel inspire to live similarly lives.
When you hear Generation Doom you feel a fire ignite within your soul. You’ve probably felt this same fire before, most likely when you were just beginning to grasp how big the world actually is, and for one of the few times in your adult life you begin to believe anything is possible. When tracks like “God Is A Gun” plays you feel the strength of ten thousand armies coursing through your veins as the double bass bounces off the walls of your brain, and your body believes you can do anything. You feel empowered to express who you are, go after what you want, and altogether be whoever it is you feel you are regardless of what others might think. Even “Royals,” which is admittedly a metal cover of Lorde’s hit single of the same name, feels as if it could only be created by the group of musicians bringing this album to life. It is, just like every other song, a unique moment in time captured to digital tape in such a way as to not lose an ounce of the beauty found in the initial performance. This is raw rock, captured and preserved just as it was performed, and it’s utterly mesmerizing.
We don’t kid to ourselves and believe everyone will see this release the way we do, but it would be pretty great if that we the case. It should be, after all, as Otep have crafted an album with Generation Doom that will be looked upon in years to come as one of modern rock’s great accomplishments. It’s an intoxicating and pulsating musical romp that grabs you by the collar from the opening moments and never lets go. This album wants to make you think almost as much as it wants to inspire you to fight for change, and we believe it accomplishes both those goals in a big way. If you’re feeling as if your connection to music has begun to slip, this record may be the savior you have been seeking. This record is a reminder of the positive influence at can have on the world, and we would give anything to see more records like it appear in the years to come.
Generation Doom hits stores April 15, 2016 via Napalm Records.
James Shotwell is the Digital Marketing Manager for Haulix. He is also a professional entertainment critic, covering both film and music, as well as the co-founder of Antique Records. Feel free to tell him you love or hate the article above by connecting with him on Twitter. Bonus points if you introduce yourself by sharing your favorite Simpsons character.
If you’re anything like me, you probably started the day by recognizing that the start of a new work week had indeed arrived and then immediately began shaking your fists at the sky in anger. Monday is rarely anyone’s favorite day, and from what I have seen firsthand it feels safe to say it’s the one day of the week some people outright hate. I guess to them the arrival of the work week symbolizes the end of their quote/unquote freedom, and as a result they head into the office/factory/restaurant/store with a negative outlook already on their mind. This leads to bad attitudes, which only makes the experience of being at work worse, and for some reason it also seems to make time slow to a crawl. We’re not about that life, and we hope this post can do the same you that the song contained within it did for us.
You cannot throw a rock in the modern hard rock arena without hitting a band that people have described as being passionate and/or deeply personal, but that is definitely not a problem. The last decade has welcomed a crop of new metal kings and queens who are able to connect with increasingly distracted music fans by coupling their own life experiences with some of the sickest riffs ever laid to digital tape. Some would even go as far as to say now is one of the best times in history to be a fan of rock, and those needing proof of this assessment need look no further than The Word Alive’s new album, Dark Matter.
Getting personal with fans is nothing new for The Word Alive. The Arizona based group have practically built their careers atop a series of anthemic, yet introspective cuts that have analyzed everything from the way they see themselves to the way they perceive the world around them. Fans have championed each new release for its ability to pull listeners further and further into the band’s narrative, but no progress made with previous albums can compare to the leaps and bounds taken on Dark Matter. From the politically-leaning anarchy of “Sellout,” to depicting the harsh realities of having an absentee father on “Hell To Pay,” every song on Dark Matter leaves an impact on the listener. Some tracks are thematically heavier than others, but they all come from the same desire to open fans’ eyes to the often troubling realities of the world around them.
If this all sounds a bit too heavy for your liking, just know the music elements of Dark Matter are by far the catchiest and most memorable compositions The World Alive have delivered to date. The nu-metal elements of their previous album, Real, have taken a backseat to an ever-so-slightly mainstream rock focused sound that elevates everything that makes The Word Alive great to a level with far more accessibility for the uninitiated. There isn’t a song on the record that wouldn’t perform well at radio, but there is also not a single track that feels like a dumbing down of the group. This is progression in the best sense of the word, and it sets the bar incredibly high for other bands in the same scene moving forward.
I never expected anything less than quality from The Word Alive, but what I discovered on Dark Matter completely blew me away. In a time when many have begun to question the selling power of rock in the streaming age these five men have found a way to create an album that all but demands repeat listens. It’s impossible to imagine a situation where one walks away from the record wanting anything other than to listen to it all over again, and from there they will most likely desire to discuss the record at length with anyone willing to listen. This is the kind of album that spawns new ideas and discussions about what it is we want from modern rock, and it does so without trying to be anything other than a fitting continuation for the the band that created it.
Despite having been considered a successful band for several years, Dark Matter feels like the first time The Word Alive have offered a completely unabashed portrait of who they are to fans. It’s the most personal and infectious record in their catalog, and it continuously urges the listener to better express themselves through their everyday lives. This is the kind of art we all hope to create in our lifetimes, and it leaves you with a sense the band is still just getting started. They can do anything from here, and after listening to the album you will feel the same. This is a record that will changes lives all over the globe, and I sincerely hope there are more releases like it on the horizon.
James Shotwell is the Digital Marketing Manager for Haulix. He is also a professional entertainment critic, covering both film and music, as well as the co-founder of Antique Records. Feel free to tell him you love or hate the article above by connecting with him on Twitter. Bonus points if you introduce yourself by sharing your favorite Simpsons character.
If you’re anything like me, you probably started the day by recognizing that the start of a new work week had indeed arrived and then immediately began shaking your fists at the sky in anger. Monday is rarely anyone’s favorite day, and from what I have seen firsthand it feels safe to say it’s the one day of the week some people outright hate. I guess to them the arrival of the work week symbolizes the end of their quote/unquote freedom, and as a result they head into the office/factory/restaurant/store with a negative outlook already on their mind. This leads to bad attitudes, which only makes the experience of being at work worse, and for some reason it also seems to make time slow to a crawl. We’re not about that life, and we hope this post can do the same you that the song contained within it did for us.
The best music has the ability to transport us from wherever we are on this spinning rock we call home and place our feet in the shoes of another. Be it a bird in the sky or a first date at a punk rock show, music offers us perspectives and experiences in life that we may otherwise never be able to experience. For a few minutes, or maybe even just a few seconds, music allows us to shed the trappings of our skeletal cages and explore the endless possibilities of the imagination.
Romp, hailing from same New Jersey stomping ground that gave bands The Gaslight Anthem and Thursday their start, offer listeners the chance to view life through their eyes. Lead by vocalist and keyboardist Madison Klarer, the group blurs the lines between punk, indie rock, and revivalist emo to deliver anthem tales of love, life, exploration, and heartache with deeply personal lyrics that all but reach through the speakers and grab you by the collar. Like the influential bands that hail from their hometown, Romp find relatable in the minute details of existence. They find the simple beauty of a an everyday moment and through doing so create art that can and often will stop you in your tracks, or in the midst of yet another text, and demands you not only pay attention, but fully submit to the sonic adventure they wish to share.
Listening to Departure From Venus, the band’s full-length debut out this month on Bad Timing Records, is akin to sharing memories, problems, and aspirations with a close friend over coffee in the dead of morning or night. You know, when the sky is as quiet as the city streets and for a brief span of time you feel as if you and your friend are the only two people on the planet? This is album is like that, only in in musical form. Departure From Venus is a crash course on the band, its members, and who those members are as individuals channeled through anthemic choruses and hypnotic melodies meant to move your feet just as much as your soul. You could argue that other albums accomplish similar feats for their creators, and you may be right, but none of them hum with the emotional intensity or lyrical whimsy present in every note shared by Romp. This is their adventure, and they are guiding us as only they know how to do.
All of this musical magic would make a lot more sense if it had come from a band with years of shared memories and experiences behind them, but that is not the case with Romp. Two years ago no one in Romp knew the people who would soon be their bandmates, and it’s only because of a chance meeting through Tinder that the band even had a chance at being forged into existence. The fact their artistic chemistry mixes as well as it does at such a young age, both as individuals and a group, would be considered a miracle if not for the profound dedication and work ethic shared by the group’s members. You cannot find a person in alternative music who knows of Romp and does not swear by their talent. People have been cheering for this group long before they were being promoted by one of the hottest young alternative labels in music, and that fact speak entirely to their talent which, at the end of the day, is what always matters most.
As you head into this week, make time to experience Departure From Venus and allow yourself to fully engage with what you hear pouring through your speakers. Put down your phone, close your laptop, pour some coffee, and lose yourself in everything that Romp has to share. Their music, while riddled with angst, is as beautiful as anything laid to tape in the last year. It’s a sudden rush of pure energy and excitement for life, delivered through music, that will lift your spirits and make you think differently about the world around you, as well as how you deal with any hurdles in your way. Romp provides a soundtrack for self-acceptance that begs the listeners to embrace their every flaw with the same confidence as they do their strengths, and the best part of it all is that they’re only just getting started.
James Shotwell is the Digital Marketing Manager for Haulix. He is also a professional entertainment critic, covering both film and music, as well as the co-founder of Antique Records. Feel free to tell him you love or hate the article above by connecting with him on Twitter. Bonus points if you introduce yourself by sharing your favorite Simpsons character.
If you’re anything like me, you probably started the day by recognizing that the start of a new work week had indeed arrived and then immediately began shaking your fists at the sky in anger. Monday is rarely anyone’s favorite day, and from what I have seen firsthand it feels safe to say it’s the one day of the week some people outright hate. I guess to them the arrival of the work week symbolizes the end of their quote/unquote freedom, and as a result they head into the office/factory/restaurant/store with a negative outlook already on their mind. This leads to bad attitudes, which only makes the experience of being at work worse, and for some reason it also seems to make time slow to a crawl. We’re not about that life, and we hope this post can do the same you that the song contained within it did for us.
I couldn’t tell you when I first felt like I was punk, or that I belonged to the quote/unquote “punk community,” but it was probably sometime in my early teen years. Blink-182 had converted me from a person who simply enjoyed music to someone who believed they needed music like they needed their next breath with the release of Enema Of The State, and from there my love for the alternative world grew like vines on the side of an old brick house. If there was a show nearby, I was there. If there was a new album on display at the record store that claimed to be pop punk, hard rock, or edgy in some way, I wanted to hear it. More often than not I probably bought that record as well. For me, it was impossible to have too much of a good thing, and in many ways that belief still stands true today.
It wasn’t until I reached college and the age of discovering music online arrived that I really began to consider the numerous styles of music that existed outside my audio comfort zone. Even though I was quick to find artists outside the world of rock I enjoyed, my admiration for their art was something I largely kept to myself. After all, every moment of my life in music before that time had been defined by my love for all thing alternative, and it was in that genre that I found a sense of community that I had not known in my hometown or through school. While other kids had friends in the so-called “real world,” my closest companions often lived on a CD, mp3, or (for a few years) audio cassette. Bands were my friends, and their songs were the stories we shared when no one else wanted anything to do with us. Punk, and I am admittedly using that term in the loosest sense of the word, had kept me company through thick and thin. I didn’t know if I could ever feel as close to anything as I felt to the alternative community, and as a result I feared venturing away from it for fear it may turn its back on me.
That may sound silly to you, but the above is entirely true, and I think it may be true for many others as well. When you find yourself associating who you are as a person with the thing, scene, or group that first made you feel free to express yourself it can be incredibly hard to consider even the smallest change because you worry that thing, whatever or whomever it may be, won’t love you anymore. What’s even worse is that you also begin to fear that no one or no thing will want you either, which is preposterous, but as a young person still finding confidence in yourself it seems as likely as anything. So you stay stagnant, preventing yourself from having a chance at being or trying something new, and in my experience that complacency will eventually lead you to feel less and less interested about the world of music, as well as art in general.
Hands Like Houses are an Australian rock band that formed in 2008 and quickly found international acclaim thanks to alternative sound that played well with what was popular in the genre at the moment. The group found a home in Rise Records, a label known for setting trends in the alternative world, and in 2012 the group released their debut LP, Ground Dweller, to critical and fan acclaim. The band then toured extensively, touching down on several continents, and then in 2013 another record (Unimagine) hit shelves. More positive reviews were received, more tours were planned, and the group once again found themselves in a global whirlwind of press and publicity that would find them being face-to-face with throngs of followers from every corner of the planet.
By the time Hands Like Houses found themselves celebrating the dawn 2014 they had already accomplished more than most bands ever hope to achieve. They had risen through the Australian music underground, caught the attention of one of the biggest alternative labels in the globe, and managed to build a dedicated international following that continuously showered the group with praise. No one could have blamed the group if they chose to write and release another album that sounded similar to the two they had already released. Heck, the band probably could have toured with the same group of bands they had always toured with as well. Hands Like Houses had enough going for them at that point that such decisions would have felt obvious, albeit safe, but as you can probably guess based on the rest of this post that is not what happened.
Starting with 2014’s Reimagine EP, Hands Like Houses began a sonic pivot that found their sound trending more towards mainstream rock than ever before while still retaining the alternative edge that had always been a cornerstone of the group’s music. Reimagine was little more than reinterpretations of material from the group’s previous LP, but it offered the group a chance to showcase a side of themselves audiences hadn’t really heard before, and fans of the bands were quick to express their pleasure in the change. Some were admittedly turned away as well, but that was bound to happen regardless of what the band chose to release. Some people simply hate change, and there is no way you can, well, change them.
Fast-forward another two years and Hands Like Houses are preparing to release their third full-length album, Dissonants, on February 26. The arrival of the record marks an end to the longest period that Hands Like Houses have gone without releasing new music, and it’s clear from the opening track “I Am” that the time away was very much needed. This album, more than any other release in the Hands Like Houses catalog, feels like the most authentic representation of who the band is and what they hope to convey through their music. That is not to say the group was ever dishonest in either respect, but listening to Dissonants makes it clear that some of the group’s earlier material had far more influence from the genre and culture it was produced in than what the band may have intended. This record, front to back and back to front, feels like a wholly authentic release created without any desire to cater to a specific scene, sound, or genre. Whether it’s the bouncy riff of “Perspectives” or the radio ready sounds of “Stillwater,” this album is a pitch perfect representation of what the men of Hands Like Houses have become over the better part of the last decade. It’s diverse collection of ideas and emotions presented without restraint, and it’s without a doubt the best material the group has ever released.
When I hear Dissonants I am reminded of that period in my life when I feared what might happen if I admitted to myself and everyone else that I had interests outside of punk. Like so many artists and music professionals, I thought my value to the world was equal to my standing amongst my alt/punk peers, and it wasn’t until I shook this thought from my head that I found true happiness and purpose in my life. I am punk, just like Hand Like Houses, but neither me or the men of that band are punk and nothing more. We are all humans, and as such we are influenced and inspired by a wide array of art, experiences, and conversations that all mesh together to make us the people we have become. My hope, like the hope of Hands Like Houses, is that I can show my true self to the world and be accepted just as I was when I thought being punk was all I would ever be. Life has taught me that such acceptance is possible, and Hands Like Houses new album has reminded me of that fact once again. The hardest part is taking it upon yourself to make a change. Once you do that, everything else will being to fall into place. Life might not be what you thought it would, but it won’t be as bad as you feared either. Just be you. No matter what, just be you.
James Shotwell is the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. He is also a professional entertainment critic, covering both film and music, as well as the co-founder of Antique Records. Feel free to tell him you love or hate the article above by connecting with him on Twitter. Bonus points if you introduce yourself by sharing your favorite Simpsons character.
It’s hard to believe anyone looking at this article has been able to live in a world where they are connected to the internet without having heard the news that Kanye West has a new album. The Life Of Pablo arrived later than promised, hitting the net shortly after midnight on February 14 instead of Friday, February 12, as originally planned, but that did not stop fans from consuming the album as quickly as possible. The hours that followed the record’s release found social media filled with hot takes from critics and fans alike, and it didn’t take long for the first album reviews to begin appearing online. Pitchfork, for example, gave the record a 9/10 after being able to enjoy it for less than forty-eight hours. We didn’t review the record ourselves, though we have had it on repeat since release, but we did take a hard look at Kanye’s album rollout out and everything that did and did not work during his one-of-a-kind promotional run. We might not all be able to live like Kanye, but we can learn from his efforts, and that is exactly what we aim to do with this post.
The promotion leading up to The Life Of Pablo’s release was unlike any marketing efforts we’ve seen previously from Kanye West. This was an album that, at least for a while, seemed like a figment of everyone’s imagination. The world knew Kanye was in the lab, but the world famous producer and rapper never made much effort to offer clarity to fans as to when his material would be available. When that silence was broken, right around the beginning of the new year, everyone expected some large scale experiment in line with the global videos premieres that occurred when “New Slaves” was released in advance of Yeezus. Though a moment quite like that never came, West did manage to keep people on their toes for better and for worse. He would reveal information about the album one day, then changed his mind the next, and in doing so make the previous announcement irrelevant. He also set a release date, held an album listening party at Madison Square Garden on the day the album was meant to drop, and then failed to make the album available for another day and a half.
We respect Kanye’s desire to be unique, but we believe The Life Of Pablo deserves better promotion than what it has received so far. The album’s current success speaks more to the world’s obsession with Kanye than it does to the quality of the material, and that is a shame because the music West is creating right now should be able to speak for itself. We know no one can tell Kanye what to do, but if we had the opportunity to do so these are the 11 things about The Life Of Pablo’s release that we would have changed:
Pick a release date and stick to it. Period.
You do not have to have a master’s degree in Business to understand that there are few things worse for a new product launch than missing your deadline. No one told Kanye his album had to come out on February 11. he chose that date, just like he chose to share that date with fans almost a month early. People planned their day around Kanye’s album release, including making time to skip out on work or school to see his album reveal be broadcast live from Madison Square Garden, but once that event was over so was Kanye’s output for the day. TLOP did not arrive until nearly two days after its intended release, and even then accessing the record was not as simple as visiting any digital retailer. Tidal had the exclusive stream, but Kanye also put the record on his site for purchase. Then Kanye decided to close the sale on his site and only stream the record, but not until after several people had been able to purchase the album. Are you confused by all of this? If so, you’re not alone.
Tidal is not going to happen. Stop trying to make Tidal happen.
Everything Kanye does is ultimately intended to benefit Kanye, so it makes sense that he would share his new album with fans through a company he has a vested interest in, but that does not mean choosing Tidal as the exclusive home of TLOP was a smart decision. A year ago, Tidal was considered a failed experiment, and though several big names have contributed exclusive content to the streaming service over the last several months public opinion has been largely unchanged. Forcing users to signup for a free Tidal trial in order to access TLOP takes focus away from Kanye’s art and places more barriers between his fans and the content they seek. Signups only take a few minutes, but that fact is beside point. Fans want TLOP, not a new streaming solution, and Kanye should have catered to that demand.
Make your album available easy to find and purchase as soon as possible.
Exclusivity in the digital age is a recipe for unnecessary piracy. People who either hate the idea of joining Tidal or those who simply cannot be bothered to sign up would likely rather download a pirated copy of the record than wait for the album to be made available elsewhere. After all, a download of TLOP is only a google or Twitter search away at any point in time, so why should they give their credit card information to a service they don’t plan to use after getting to hear the one album they may or may not end up buying? Downloading the record is easier and quicker than joining Tidal, and it also does not require listeners to share personal information with a third party. We hate the idea of piracy, but it’s not hard to understand why some might choose this route if they feel the wait for TLOP to be made available elsewhere is taking too long.
The solution for this problem is simple: Make the album as easy to find as possible. It should have gone on sale via iTunes, Amazon, and Kanye’s website at the same time as Tidal. Kanye could still encourage people to use Tidal, but fans wouldn’t feel they were being forced to try something they might not like to experience an album they don’t know anything about.
You should have a single
Kanye made it a point to share several songs with the public in advance of the album’s release, but he never mentioned whether or not the songs shared would make TLOP or how/if they would be marketed further. Most, if not all tracks did end up making the album, but here we are days after the record’s release and there is still no single. Radio does not care about TLOP, nor does YouTube just yet. Word of mouth is the only thing driving awareness for TLOP, and considering how short most attention spans are these days that hype won’t last very long. If Kanye wants this album to have legs he needs to choose and single and start pushing it to the public. That way, people who may have been turned away from earlier releases due to changes in sound or controversies related to Kanye’s private life may have a chance to rediscover the rapper’s immense talent. Who knows? He might even reach some new listeners who have never made time for his music before.
You should also have a video
This goes hand and hand with the reason why TLOP needs a single. Study after study has shown that video is one of the biggest contributors to awareness when it comes to marketing new music. Kanye’s name can bring a lot of attention to his work, but having a creative video that showcases the album in a unique light can go even further. West has a long history of strong video work, including his memorable short film for “Runaway,” but so far he has yet to show us anything visual for TLOP. We hope that fact changes in time, but ideally a video would already exist. After all, the album is here and people are consuming it as you read this post. Interest is already beginning to wane, albeit slowly, so Kanye would be wise to act fast and get some kind of video out sooner rather than later.
If Practice. A lot. And don’t take gigs unless you are able to perform at your best.
Did you happen to catch Kanye’s performances on Saturday Night Live over the weekend? The taping of show occurred while West was busy putting the finishing touches on TLOP, so he literally had to leave the studio in order to make it to the stage in time to perform. When he arrived, accompanied by Young Thug and others, he hit the stage to share two new songs that he had clearly never performed before. This could have been an exciting reveal that further impressed upon viewers how great TLOP really is, but his presence on the show could not have looked less planned or rehearsed. West couldn’t lip sync well, and not a single person in his posse could dance in time with the music. What should have been an awesome return to national TV for one of the industry’s biggest stars ended up looking like a bunch of rich friends dancing like idiots to unfamiliar music in front of cameras and a live studio audience.
Work with the press
It’s hard to imagine any major music publication who would turn down an opportunity to speak with Kanye West. Heck, it’s hard to imagine practically any culture focused publication doing that. Kanye West sells magazines and brings clicks, both of which are desperately needed in the modern news world, but for one reason or another Yeezy doesn’t usually use those avenues for promotion. Like many celebrities, West reached a point some time ago when he felt he did more for reporters than they did for him. That may be true in some ways, but journalists still have the ability to present and promote talent in a way artists could never hope to promote themselves. They also have the ability to reach consumers artists cannot reach themselves, especially those at Kanye’s level. We’re not saying Kanye should be talking to every blog in the world, but he should be doing more to engage fans outside of random tweet-sprees.
Choose a title and stick with it
There was a time last year when everyone thought Kanye’s new album would be called So Help Me God. A little time passed and that album then became Swish. People were confused by the change, but they went with it anyways. Then the album became Waves. Then, almost at the last minute, The Life Of Pablo was born. West teased the final title just days after the previous name change and only days before the album was set to hit stores. As such, there was next to no time for the album to be properly promoted under its official title. The record was promoted simply as ‘Kanye’s new album,’ which carries weight in some circles, but to the unfamiliar consumer holds all the allure of stale saltines.
There is a reason why marketing professionals often spend years in college, and that is to learn the proper way to promote a new product or event regardless of time constraints. Kanye has a history of making his new album titles and material almost impossible to ignore, but on this record everything feels so thrown together at the last minute that the general public has almost no familiarity with anything album related. They might know Kanye has a new record, but they might not know if it’s out yet, and I am willing to wager a good portion cannot even tell you what it’s called. That all results from bad marketing, and it’s incredibly frustrating because any professional could have told Kanye that would happen.
Accept blame when things fall apart (it’s not Chance’s fault, it’s yours)
When Kanye’s album event at Madison Square Garden came and went without the album being made available to the public people immediately began to cry foul. West remained silent for several hours, but shortly after midnight on Saturday, February 13, the rapper tweeted the record was still not ready because Chance The Rapper had demanded the song “Waves” be added to the final track list. Kanye later followed this message with another tweet that included the hashtag ‘#blamechance,’ and not long after Chance became the talk of the music business.
Whether or not TLOP’s delay was the result of Chance telling Kanye his two cents does not change the fact that the album’s release ultimately fell on Kanye’s shoulders. He could have told Chance no, or he could have told fans ahead of the failed release that the record would not be ready in time. Blaming Chance after the record was already late served no real purpose aside from getting the Acid Rap creator a few extra headlines, which did nothing to further promote TLOP. Had Kanye accepted responsibility, and perhaps in doing so cited the fact he thought the album could be better, fans would have been far more understanding about the delay. As is, Ye comes across being even more childish than his critics have claimed.
Keep your website updated
When Kanye was playing his album for a sold out Madison Square Garden, as well as a large audience online, his official website was nothing more than an embedded voicemail from Yasiin Bey discussing his recent legal troubles in South Africa. The clip was originally posted on January 19 and no one in Kanye’s camp ever thought to change it. You know, because who would want to visit an artist’s official website for information about their new album?
The complete lack of updates to Kanye’s official site is the final nail in the coffin of TLOP’s promotional efforts. Even when the entire world was giving Kanye their attention he couldn’t be bothered to update his official website with relevant information regarding his latest release. If not then, when?
Even now, days after release, Kanye’s website is still little more than Yasiin Bey’s voicemail. Pitiful.
Your music might not have the same kind of brand recognition as Kanye West, but if you learn from Kanye’s mistakes there is no reason you cannot find just as much success in time. Use our changes as a guide and do everything in your power to know how your album will promoted, when it’s coming out, and what it will be called long before sharing your release plans with the public. That alone will put you miles ahead of Mr. West, and from there the sky is the limit.
If you’re anything like me, you probably started the day by recognizing that the start of a new work week had indeed arrived and then immediately began shaking your fists at the sky in anger. Monday is rarely anyone’s favorite day, and from what I have seen firsthand it feels safe to say it’s the one day of the week some people outright hate. I guess to them the arrival of the work week symbolizes the end of their quote/unquote freedom, and as a result they head into the office/factory/restaurant/store with a negative outlook already on their mind. This leads to bad attitudes, which only makes the experience of being at work worse, and for some reason it also seems to make time slow to a crawl. We’re not about that life, and we hope this post can do the same you that the song contained within it did for us.
When I was growing up in Southwest Michigan there were never many opportunity to be exposed to a genuine artist community. There were local bands, sure, but no one knew anyone outside our region who could help artists move their career forward beyond random gigs in the greater midwest. Whenever my friends and I wanted to see, do, or experience something related to the music industry we had to take it upon ourselves to make it happen. If we wanted our favorite bands to play in our area we had to book them at a venue we could enter. If we wanted to record our demos we had to buy the equipment needed to do so because no one knew any real producers. We didn’t call it DIY at the time because it was literally the only way of life we knew, but looking back now it’s clear that is exactly what we were doing. Every step we took towards our dreams of careers in entertainment were the direct result of action being taken by us to keep a tiny, yet thriving local scene alive, and I am not sure I have ever felt more alive than I did during that time. There were no guarantees. Heck, there weren’t even how-to guides. We tripped and fell almost as often as we did something right, but in the long run those experiences made us all who we are today, and that is something I know I will always treasure.
Bryce Avary, mastermind behind The Rocket Summer, has a slightly similar origin story. Hailing from Dallas, a city known for hip-hop and country-western music, Avary realized early on that he had a taste for music that fell outside what was popular in mainstream culture. After learning to play several instruments at a young age he began playing in bands, only to later step out on his own under the TRS brand. Every release in his career has more or less been a product of his immense creativity. From music to lyrics, production, marketing, and everything in between, Avary has had his hands on essentially every part of his career since the very beginning. Not every song has been a hit and not every album has sold better than the last, but Avary has grown with each release and he continues to do so today.
I first discovered The Rocket Summer almost by chance. It was the early 2000s and my parents had sent me to a three-day youth conference for Christian teens where I was made to attend a discussion on the intersection between faith and entertainment. The speaker informed everyone in the audience that there were faith-oriented artists who were just as good as those in the secular world, and they offered a number of comparisons in hopes of converting more kids to Christian friendly talent. I was heavily into pop punk at the time, having only recently discovered Blink-182, so when the man on stage told us that fans of Blink would also enjoy Relient K and The Rocket Summer I knew I had found an opportunity for new music discovery. My father bought an album from each, and while I liked both there was something about TRS that kept me coming back again and again. Unlike any other talent whose faith found its way into the artist’s music that I knew the music of The Rocket Summer also made it a point to discuss other areas of life as well. Faith and being spiritual was never out of the picture altogether, but Avary was also discussing young love, growing up, and the struggles with figuring out who you want to be, all through music he had largely composed himself. I could sense the DIY nature of his work ethic and I was attracted to it because he was far more successful in his pursuits than I had been in my own. I wanted to learn from TRS, study TRS, and ultimately be more like TRS.
Over a decade has passed since that initial introduction, but as soon as I heard The Rocket Summer would soon be releasing a new album I felt myself pulled back to those days when every step I took felt like an experiment in whether or not the greater world of entertainment would accept me. I have changed immensely sense that time, but so has Bryce Avary. The material on his latest album, Zoetic, speaks to this fact through constant musical experimentation. The pop rock sound that made TRS a household name is still present, but Avary has found several new ways to present it, often accompanied by synth, digital base and the kind of exuberant songwriting that you might expect to find at top 40 radio. Yes, after years on the underground Avary seems better positioned than ever before to breakthrough to the mainstream in a very big way, and as far as I can tell the only explanation for this growth is his constant desire to push himself further than he previously thought possible.
Being in the position I am I have the luxury of being able to experience new music long before it arrives in store. Zoetic was first sent to me in late December, and since that time I don’t know if more than a day or two has passed without me revisiting the record. Every single song is different from the rest, but it’s all tied together through themes of life, love, and the pursuit of knowing your true self. Avary has once again delivered a collection of songs that not only speak to who he is as a person, but one that also manages to capture the human experience for most twenty-somethings in 2016. It’s an incredible record from beginning to end and I urge you to find to experience it for yourself in the weeks ahead. I know not everyone will feel the same way about the material as me, but just listening to the album should reveal to you what is possible when someone constantly challenges themselves to be better than they were the day prior. I know that is something I hope to do myself, and when I hear Avary’s progression on this release I know in time I too will improve. It’s not going to happen overnight, or at least I don’t believe it will happen that quick, but as long as The Rocket Summer exists myself and everyone else will always have a soundtrack to encourage us to fight a little harder to be the people we know we can be.
James Shotwell is the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. He is also a professional entertainment critic, covering both film and music, as well as the co-founder of Antique Records. Feel free to tell him you love or hate the article above by connecting with him on Twitter. Bonus points if you introduce yourself by sharing your favorite Simpsons character.
