The Starting Line Band • Page 43

Finally watching the livestream now and my god - this makes me so happy. I also love how into it Ken is and his “banter” between songs is lovely. I hope they keep that on the vinyl.

 

Relistening to Directions last night with a good pair of headphones and I couldn't believe how perfect that guitar lick and bass sound on What You Want. Quickly shot up to one of my favorites on the record, not sure how I passed over it all these years.

 

Also damnnn all the positive comments about the live stream has me dying to fast forward to Saturday so I can finally watch it. Was only gonna do BOATS at first but fuck it, I'm buying a 3 pack.

 

Alright, I agree with the guys - Direction is their best record overall.

 

The songs on Anyways are great, and I appreciate the “live” feel TSL and Will went for on them, but a whole record of that doesn’t sound very appealing. One thing I’ve noticed about Will over the years is how ineffective he is at elevating a hook, which is one of TSL’s biggest strengths. He’s capable of great things for sure but this feels like a poor matchup to me

 

Definitely listen to the stream with some good headphones too then. I've always liked their guitar tone anyway, but Kenny's bass really shines in the mix. It all sounds so great.

On that note, he's a really underrated bass player for this genre. He brings in a lot of non-punk influence, and he somehow manages to groove even on punk and indie songs. I love how a lot of the time he'll do some sort of subtle riff way up on the neck instead of just hammering the low notes in unison with the power chords.

 

I don’t understand how Yip made After The Party and Hello Exile. You’d never in a million years think they were the same producer.

 

This 10000000%. Super solid bass player. He especially shines in Vacationer.

 

Sounds like from what folks are saying, the vinyl copies should be pretty good quality- I’ve been thinking about obtaining Direction on vinyl for awhile now, would this be a suitable (and less costly) alternative to trying to find a copy of the studio version? I have BOATS... wondering if this would be a fun way to experience the Direction songs.

 

Finally have a free night. Just purchased the Direction rebroadcast ticket and took a few hits of weed for the first time in forever. Lets do this.

 

Aj is that you?

 

Was this able to be chrome cast to the tv? Want to watch but not on my laptop

 

Just finished. Can confirm, they rocked. Crazy that they say they only rehearsed for 3 days, they sounded so tight.
I'm starting to think that is my favorite album of theirs. It doesn't feel that dated. Like I can picture a band today making What You Want or Way With Words.

 

That's whats up.

 

Going watch the Direction show tonight. It's about to hit me hard nostalgia wise.

 

I was able to mirror it from my phone to my appletv so I’d say probably

 

Had to use Chrome and then cast it. What a great performance. Took some edibles and was just vibing the whole time. I love that Kenny talks about the band and making music so much. To me I’ve always had the impression its down to Matt and Mike becoming proper family men being the reason they’re not active or recording. Especially Mike, doesn’t seem like his heart is in it

 

I just remembered that I had some weird issue on the PS4’s browser where the stream had no sound (so I just ran it from my computer to my tv). I’ll have to remember that for the BOATS stream.

 

That’s the vibe I get as well. I can’t blame them though. That’s why I’m glad they can still get together every so often to play a few shows and not burn themselves out. Those guys also might not feel like they have it in them to write and record a full 12-song album on top of their day jobs and personal lives, particularly if they have no desire to tour afterward to support it.

 

Yeah definitely feel that way about Mike. If you watch the Somebody's Gonna Miss Us documentary from 12 years ago, you definitely get the vibe that Kenny did not want to end the band but it was other members who made the decision. It would be cool if they went The Killers & Early November route, where the full band writes and records together, but when it comes to touring they get touring musicians to fill in for those members who don't want to commit to long term touring.

 

Here’s what my dream plan would be. Take the time to write and record 12-14 songs. Release it. Set up a “tour” a la 20 Yr tour and expand it to more cities. Spread the dates out for 18-24 months.

 

Rewatching some of the stream now with a good pair of headphones. Damn, I'm now realizing this album has a lot of amazing bridges.

 

The bridge is what makes Birds for me, but yeah some of the other ones are pretty perfect as well. What You Want, Need To Love, and Are You Alone all stand out in that dept

 

Dear Howard Benson, please do a podcast all about this album. I wanna hear all about how Direction was made.

 

https://www.facebook.com/thestartingline/posts/10158235949238178

Second vinyl pressing for those of you who missed out