Taking Back Sunday - Tidal Wave (September 16, 2016) Album • Page 17

Tidal Wave or You Can't Look Back?

 

Both at the same time.

 

Can't Look Back.

 

I wonder what the marketing will be for this album. It seems like they're trying to reach to the Menzingers' crowd which is a good thing, in my opinion.

 

I think they are trying to reach a much bigger audience than that...

 

Of course but the minimum is Menzingers. They aren't popular outside of being for nostalgia purposes, I find.

 

As good of a band as The Menzingers are... I don't think they are quite as big/popular as you may seem to think. Like, TBS have a bigger audience than Menzingers as it is, they wouldn't want to aim for thta level.

You can simply look at the performance of both band's most recent albums. TBS sold way better and charted.

 

You're right. Hmm. Perhaps they're looking for the Menzingers respect. I only think this as they've shifted with touring with those bands, not so much their contemporaries (not like many of them are still bands).

 

Ah yeah, in that sense it totally makes sense, more of a "getting in with the kids" kind of idea.

 

I'm not so sure the marketing has been any good, at least from Hopeless Records standpoint. For starters, You Can't Look Back doesn't even have 100K views yet on YouTube and Tidal Wave only has about 250K. Those are chump numbers compared to TBS' earlier work.

Furthermore, they're playing a 'small club tour' this fall and not too many dates are sold out. I know in Cleveland, they're only playing a ballroom with a cap of about 500-600. They normally play House of Blues which is easily twice the size (and have played in bigger venues in Cleveland in the past).

I get they aren't anywhere near as popular as they were in the past, but the marketing hasn't been great imo. I think I know more about the album/tour just because TBS is still one of my favorite bands so I keep tabs on them. But general public or casual fans do not.

Also, on a side note, Vacancy was just released by Bayside through Hopeless and they had BY FAR Their worst opening on the charts since The Walking Wounded (2007). Which was really, really surprising.

 

It's weird to think that this album is two weeks away and there's pretty much zero marketing for it. They're not really out there doing too many interviews, and Adam got shit on for one of the ones he did do. Secondly, I've seen no web advertisements, which I'm seeing a ton for bands that I typically research. There was nothing on iTunes for the release of either singles (aside from the actual song), and I barely see posting on Facebook from TBS.

Seems lazy and a waste of potential for me. TBS brings the $$$$

 

What interview did Adam get shit on?

 

the small club tour was a calculated thing on TBS' part. they wanted to do it. also, the ticket prices reflect it. most ticket prices are $35+ before fees. so they are compensating for it a little bit. i looked at my tickets for the last few tours and they were ~25 each before fees.

 

The point about the small club tour was that it's a small club tour and you can pretty much still get a ticket for any date on the tour. The Agora in Cleveland just tweeted out last night that only half the tickets have been sold so far for the Cle show. You'd think 500 to 600 tickets for a TBS show would be able to sell like that.

I guess the point of all this is, not much buzz about the album or the tour.

 

I'm no longer convinced that Hopeless is no longer a good fit for any of these bands. I don't know the inner workings of their contracts, and what they do for these bands behind the scenes, but it seems like (regardless of a bigger or smaller artist) no band's releases have gotten significant marketing pushes in a long time. As compared to Side One Dummy and Epitaph, two labels that are really doing the whole marketing / brand awareness / band name awareness / getting media outlets to pay attention to their acts etc. thing very, very well.

With that being said, this TBS album kind of speaks for itself because it's just so damn good. So hopefully word of mouth about the album's quality will really give it a sales hike.

 

All that matters is that they get the stream on a good outlet

 

You Can't Look Back is a STUNNING shift in style for this band. I agree that for the most part I've seen very little marketing for this record, but I'm also not looking for the marketing either. But regardless, good for them if the first two songs are reflective of what the whole record will sound like. Sounds to me like they are making an album for themselves and for their true fans, which at this point in their career I think is a perfectly acceptable move.

People that already like what TBS do will likely be on board, and they might grab a few new fans from people who are into Menzingers/Gaslight Anthem/etc type bands. Stoked to hear this whole album.

 

Didn't TBS just go on a big tour? Too much market saturation.

 

Interviewed John yesterday - should have it transcribed and posted within a week

 

Was it all TBS or did you touch on Straylight/solo material at all?

 

<advance brag>

<not really a brag, i'm just very excited>

fuckin' DEATH WOLF

</not really a brag, i'm just very excited>

</advance brag>

 

i'm super jealous.

 

so, the two enormous slow songs on here are fucking AMAZING

 

right! I talked to John about that song in detail

 

So how do the two songs we've heard stack up against the rest of the album?