The Wonder Years Band • Page 6

Been listening to a lot of this band and Aaron West in the last few days, and honestly I think NCTH stacks up well against their other albums. I really admire how Dan branched out lyrically, and overall I think it's a nice progression.

 

Very solid album. I love the theme of the album and how Dan's lyrics progressed a ton. We've come a long way from "I'll disconnect the captain's neck and make him wish that he was dead," lol. Overall it stacks up really well with the rest of their discog, although this album has more songs, that are "meh" than any other album they've put out. Really excited to see where they go after this album. I can image they'll do a fall tour in the US, and hopefully they give themselves some much deserved time off after that.

 

From what I've been hearing, there's rumors of a The Wonder Years, Moose Blood, Real Friends, Knuckle Puck, Seaway tour in the fall

 

Yeah same here. Have heard that quite a few times, but somebody else I know says there's a Real Friends headliner this fall, so I'm not sure what to believe right now. I'd say it's safe to assume Moose Blood will be on since they were supposed to be on the spring tour.

 

So this is going to be long and I'm sorry.

This is embarrassing to admit, but I've been trying to distance myself from this band for the past 2 years or so. I'm not really sure what the catalyst of this was, maybe the JJR situation, maybe the critique of the band not really progressing, maybe the turmoil that's been having in my personal life, but I've been trying hard to not only disassociate myself from the band but actively insulting the band.

Something has happened recently in my life that I don't want to get into here, but it made me want to revisit The Upsides. I then remembered how much I adored that album, and continued on through the discography. I remembered why I loved this band so much and why I still do. I still know the words, I remember borrowing my friends laptop without her permission to stream "Me Vs The Highway". I remember the first review that made me want to make an account on AP was @Thomas Nassiff Suburbia review, if only to say "great review". I remember when "Passing Through A Screen Door" crashed the site, and "Devil In My Bloodstream" soundtracked my grandfathers death. All those memories rushed back to me and I felt such a strange mix of emotions.

What I'm trying to say is I adore this bands music and I'm not going to run away from that anymore.

 

I remember when PTSD crashed the site too
I got angrily tweeted at by staffers :') good times!

 

I was trying to find that tweet and instead found irony

 

fuck Appleby youre wonderful Casey even though sometimes I want to strangle you

 

Hehehehehehe
You know I do it all for a reason!!!!!

 

intense love, i know.

but seriously that applebees guy or w/e his name was was a real asshat

 

I always asked what he did to make people think he was a such a shitgoblin but never got an answer hahah

Might give this band another go now the sun's out again. JJR and my utter disappointment with NCTH really threw me off listening to them, despite how much I loved Upsides, Suburbia and TGG

 

If you're referring to Jack, he was really sexist and condescending and lied a lot and had a lot of issues with some users and he stole records from a certain user who I won't name.

 

Jeeeeez glad he's gone

 

Gave NCTH a listen today for the first time in a while, still love it even if it's not my favorite TWY record.

Them not specifically calling out JJR was annoying but I get that they were just trying to distance themselves from that shitstorm.

Also, fuck Appleby, that guy is just terrible

 

this was cool to read. i have more history with this band in terms of covering them on AP.net and writing about them overall than any other. that relationship will probably be what i remember most from my time as a staffer on AP and it means a lot to me. we were able to get the first song stream from five or six releases in a row from them, which was very cool. i think many people who visited AP regularly between 2010-2014 will have a soft spot for this band for many years down the road, if nothing else. their music has made a huge impact on this community.

 

also i may as well note that i was the person who hired jack appleby on staff, he never really did the type of stuff i discussed with him before bringing him on (i wanted someone else to write long-form feature articles like i was doing in 2012) but he clearly made a bunch of people in the community pissed off at him and overall wasn't a great fit with the staff. i don't regret bringing him on because i think he was a pretty good writer but sometimes these things don't work out.

when i was first brought on staff i was pretty regularly abrasive with certain members of the forums as well and not the easiest to deal with (to put it lightly) with the staff. it took a pretty big blow-up where many staff members got angry at me for me to turn the corner and become more level-headed / more of a team player / generally less of a jerk. jason almost fired me once and now we co-host a podcast together that has made us cool and rich (sans the rich part). it's really hard to align with a group of totally web-based contributors, especially when you consider writing something like an album review is an inherently egotistical task (especially when you're 21 years old and still in college). you have to balance your own passions / reasons for doing this with the consciousness that everyone is here for a different reason. plenty of staff members over the years have fizzled out, but jack did so more publicly which is why i feel there was a fuss about him. a lot of this, generally speaking when it happens with any staffer, is due to the average age of an AP.net contributor (you have the most time to contribute when you're in college), but being 20ish and dumb isn't a good excuse to be a jerk either.

 

i miss the days where we were at each other's throats
good times, t-nasty!!!

 

'Smaller' room tour with support from Knuckle Puck, Real Friends, Moose Blood and Seaway in the fall

 

shitty tour, forever bummed they never even attempted to branch out outside of their little pop punk niche at all

that tour with menz and laura stevenson that everyone was imagining around TGG would still have been so good for them

 

Was this tour officially announced?

 

The TWY thread used to be a real special place on AP and was he first and only time I truly felt a sense of community online. Sadly a bunch of shitheads came in and completely ruined it for their own entertainment.

 

not really

 

Difference of opinion. It's been years but What I remember is a bunch of people who weren't even fans of the band coming in and deliberately berating the usual posters, the band, and derailing conversation. Most of us just stopped posting and made a Facebook group instead.

 

You'd think they'd be playing bigger rooms since all bands could headline a tour if they wanted to

 

i was in the facebook group for years back when everyone was posting in the thread at its peak lol, i was one of the OG members
it was basically a chat thread, a discussion amongst people who had similar interests in the band, and some of those interests wore over time (a not very good record, the JJR drama, etc). can't just keep solely positive discussion all of the time