Alien Ant Farm - ~mANTras~ (April 26, 2024) Album • Page 2

"A couple" of songs from TruANT and Up In the Attic should be staples? 'Side 1' of each of those albums are some of the best songs in the band's career imo - which is unfortunate, because not enough people were paying attention by then.

 

Yeah, definitely. Not arguing with that. Then again, that’s what makes the ending of the album so… half baked, I guess? If you consider the title track some type of lore-focused interlude you’re left with a four year old cover as the closer which is maddening as someone who has always tried to convince others that AAF is so much more than “that one hit wonder band that covered Smooth Criminal”.

Anyways, I love these guys. They shipped off pre-orders early because they wanted fans to get the album before they went on tour and included a signed album-related insert without advertising it. Examples of a band going above and beyond for their fans.

PS: Loving “The Wrong Things”, “What Am I Doing”, and “Prosperous Futures” at the moment.

 

“Controlled chaos is the mantra”: Dryden Mitchell takes us… | Kerrang!

Track by track breakdown from Dryden for the new album. This one also clears up some of the questions you guys had about the final track.

 

I agree with you my dude. I'm just trying to speak objectively.

ANThology is the album all the casual fans know. Now they're hoping to attract new casual fans with Mantras. So for festival sets, that leaves very little space for other songs.

I've been following the band's setlist habits for over 10 years now.

With regards to Up In The Attic, that is the only album that Terry did not play guitar on. His childhood friend was the guitarist for Up In The Attic. With that said, since Terry was not involved with the making of Up In The Attic, it wouldn't make sense for them to play a whole lot of songs from it.

Nevertheless, "Forgive & Forget", "What I Feel Is Mine", "Bad Morning", and "Lord Knows" have been staples the last few years on the headlining setlist. There is one live acoustic performance that exists of "San Sebastian" with Terry playing guitar from over 10 years ago. I don't see us getting any more songs from Up In The Attic, but I would love to hear "San Sebastian, "Crickets", "Around The Block", and "Supreme Lifestyle".

With regards to TruAnt, they've performed"1000 Days", "Quiet", "Glow", "These Days", "Never Meant", "Goodbye", "Tia Lupe", and "S.S. Recognize" since the touring cycle for Always & Forever. Lately, they've even incorporated the b-side "Words" which is crazy to me, but freaking awesome. "These Days" is a staple for sure since Dryden always talks about the music video and MTV right before going into the song. "Glow" is one of their catchiest and most streamed songs so it gets performed regularly. "Goodbye" they like performing towards the end of their sets, with Dryden waving goodbye to the crowd during the chorus. During "Never Meant", Dryden sings the chorus to Fugees' "Ready or Not" during the bridge. "S.S. Recognize" is one of the first songs the band ever demoed.

With regards to Greatest Hits, the band has been performing "Pink Tea".

With regards to Always and Forever, the band has been performing "Dirty Bomb" as of late, and they've play "Simpatico" the most out of any songs from the album.

Please don't mind me, I had a lot of caffeine to start the day.

 

This is actually pretty good, but the back half is definitely weaker and it feels a little long in the tooth by the time it ends. “The Wrong Things” rules

 

I listened to this all the way through now, and I'll agree the title track is a strange way to close out the album.

I've heard bands do things like this before, pay homage to their past song titles/lyrics and whatnot, and Marianas Trench for example has closed albums that way almost exclusively, but this feels very noodley.

Like reading how it was made, I can hear that it was the result of just having some fun with musical odds and ends. It's not bad, and actually I like that they ended it with a reference to the first song on ANThology, but it doesn't have much oomph as a closer.

 

In an alternate universe...

This could have been a 9 song album with Glasses as the closer. If American Football can release albums with 9 songs or 8 songs, then so can Alien Ant Farm.

Alien Ant Farm then could have released the title track as a non-album single release and we might have appreciated it more, so much so that we could have criticized their decision to not put it on the album.

 

There's probably an alternate universe where we didn't get a new album at all, so maybe we should just be glad we live here.

 

Some of the lyrics on this album make me think about Dryden's tumultuous relationship with Tye Zamora, the band's former bass player who quit the band.

Last Dantz and So Cold for sure

 

i agree with the first half being stronger than the second half. prosperous futures and glasses both slag but the rest of the album is great! random they threw their wham cover in at the end , it's so good!

 

Glasses is my favorite song right now

It might be the best ballad the band has ever written

Prosperous Futures is the heaviest and most nu metal song on the album

This will likely go down as album of the year for me, but I have such an emotional connection to these guys, so there is some bias there

The Story So Far might beat it, we will see with how their record ends up sounding

 

End of the album aside, I am just so thankful we’re listening to new AAF in 2024. It really seems like there’s a new fire inside the band. It’s been fun going through their discography lately. I forgot how much I loved almost all of Up in the Attic.

 

so i never really listened to much of truant or up in the attic but i see they were both released on a major label, did they produce any radio hits? something i might have heard but didn't know it was AAF maybe?

i just remember hearing movies and smooth criminal out in radio world

 

"These Days" was the first single off Truant. It was memorable because the band shot a music video featuring them actually crashing the MTV Awards. "Glow" was also a popular single. I doubt you've heard any of the singles off Up in the Attic. The band received dramatically less marketing for that album. The most popular song off that album is probably "Forgive and Forget".

 

I remember when the album was originally sold at their concerts and was called Third Draft. "Forgive And Forget" was only added once they signed to Universal to promote the renamed album.

 

AAF crashed the BET Awards for the These Days video

Also, I think when Universal acquired DreamWorks Records, AAF was caught up in all that and it affected the release of Up In The Attic

Dryden and Mike recorded all the music videos for it themselves

 

"These Days" is the only one that sounds vaguely familiar

 

Acoustic version of Glasses from two years ago with a harp player

Rarely get to see it, but Dryden is a really capable guitarist when he plays

 

Alien Ant Farm Setlist at The Meadows, Brooklyn

8 ANThology songs
2 TruANT songs
4 Mantras songs

2 of the ANThology songs getting played aren't usually staples so the setlist is alright. Last Dantz and Storms Over sound great live.

 

CKY Kicked Off Alien Ant Farm Tour After Chad I Ginsburg Allegedly Punched Dryden Mitchell - Theprp.com

 

Fair play to Alien Ant Farm for being actual pros and trying to get Chad to talk to them and trying to handle things like professionals do but if Chad didn't want to so I don't blame them for kicking CKY off the tour but fair play to the band INME for stepping in on such short notice and take CKY's slot on this tour

 

InMe > CKY