The Menzingers - After the Party (February 3, 2017) Album • Page 138

what does this mean? like, I think I know what a head voice is (it's that kinda nasally thing people do, right?) but not sure about throat voice. I've heard about singing from your chest so I guess I can figure that one out

 

Singing from your throat is usually what you do when you can't figure out how to sing with your chest or at least so are my memories from chorus class.
You're supposed to be able to swiftly transition from head voice, which is where you're going to make generally high-pitched, more crystalline sounds (think Frankie Valli, who sang almost exclusively with his head voice) to chest voice where you're gonna make deeper, lower sounds.
The throat doesn't really have any acoustic qualities, and it's where the vocal chords are, so singing from your throat usually results in sounds that don't carry and sound strangled. You can't sing long, extended notes from your throat, and keeping a note straight is quite difficult, for example. It's all fine for punkish vocal styles because it does have a roughness to it and it's a very "talky" style. But when you're a dude adapting to a range that isn't yours (Tom's head voice just cannot go as high-pitched as Regina Spektor's) knowing to use your chest voice can allow you to unlock the ability to sing the deeper notes that result from having to downtune the song to be able to sing it.

chest voice is hard and you have to do breathing exercises and shit and learning to make the transition is hard especially with a lifetime of smoking tho

 

this explains so much about Tom's vocal melodies through the years and why it seems like he focuses more on rhythmic phrasing than anything


so is Greg usually singing in a chest voice around OTIP? I'm sure it's probably some sort of mixture, but he does like to do sustained notes for parts of his melodies that correspond to, like, climactic parts of his songs and it largely seems like vocally he's a lot more deliberate than he might've been in the screamier Chamberlain Waits stuff.

 

Yes, it's a mixture, as a mixture of both registers is necessary to use your whole range. He can do it pretty well, I think, that's why Greg is a much more melodic singer. He also has that tremolo thing going on, which makes his voice so characteristic. As you said he really unlocked his voice on OTIP. He also has a wider and higher range than Tom in general.

Tom doesn't really write songs that force him to use a """real singing voice""", so he never really encounters the head voice/throat voice/chest voice issue, since his style is so talky. I'd really like to hear what he sounds like trained and melodic though, you can hear some bits of it breaking through on the cover ("beneath the sheets of paper lies my truth" 1:50 and "they're just old light" right after)

 

Tom definitely knows how to sing with his diaphragm though. No way he could pull off The Talk by singing through his nose.

 

Oh completely that’s why I like The Talk so much.

 

I appreciate what Tom brings to the band although I much prefer Greg's songs in general. Greg probably has 17 of my top 20 Menzingers songs.

 

I love tom's style. He really maintains those classic punk rock vocals and I really like it when he gets emotionally vulnerable once (1) every 2 albums. But Greg's emotional accessibility does make his songs easier to get attached to. All my fav songs on ATP are Greg songs.

 

was listening to atp just now and found myself wanting a few more Tom songs. like two more at least

 

Quite hopeful there'll be more Tom action on next album thanks to this

 

i feel like i would really enjoy a tom record on its own. just having to go back and forth from greg and tom these last two albums is emotional whiplash and makes for a confusing listen

 

plenty other bands do what Tom does so much better

Greg's songwriting, imo, is pretty much 90% of what makes this band special and so far above their peers

 

no. tomhate. on. my. watch

 

Tom looks like he doesn't want to be there

 

I bet this Tom wants to be there haha

 

They need to a speakerboxxx/the love below style double album to please all their fans imo

 

F market tour

 

might hit up one of the PA shows, never seen iron chic

 

i mean, yes please

 

Come to Lancaster!

 

@slowheart is going to that one, and I’m talking about carpooling with @US Camera to one because I’ll be living in philly by then. Hell yeah

 

I will be there. Drinks on me if anyone is down.

 

aHEM

 

wanna come with us too pal????

wow it'll be a party