"Calling You Out" by The Ex Box Boys, Tuesday, June 29, 2021

I have no idea how this song ended up in my Apple Music library. I had no idea who the Ex Box Boys were. Maybe I had heard it when Apple Music played "infinite" music after an album or a playlist had ended. However, there seems to be no financial incentives for Apple to promote a song from 2008 that seems not to exist anymore. The band's last Tweet comes from 2016. The band has sixteen monthly listeners on Spotify. Their albums aren't available on American Apple Music, just singles that have been featured on compilations with other D-list bands. Hailing from Bellevue, Washington, the band's motto was: "Four dudes. Good music. One vision."

THE PERFECT WAY TO MISBEHAVE. In 2010, it appears that Microsoft sued the band for using the name of their console. The band used the Microsoft spelling for their website. Self-professed geeks, many of the band's song titles have to do with video games. The reviews on Amazon for this album are quite funny. Three listeners have rated the album, two giving it a five-star review and one giving it a one-star review, calling it "gimmicky" and "an attempt to leech onto the gaming industry." All that is to say, the band tricked me. "Calling You Out" is seriously catchy. It's lyrically confusing, but the production is pretty good. Until looking into it today, I wondered, "When was this song a hit?" I wondered what kind of music it was. On one hand, it sounds like it could have been an '80s new wave song. The harmonies remind me of bands like The Outfield. And while The Outfield has more thought-out lyrics, both are pretty cheesy. Or could it be an ambiguous pop-rock boy band like 30h!3 or The Wanted. Is it teen pop? Is it rock?

THESE PUZZLES ARE MAKING ME YOUR SLAVE. For every musician or band that has made it big, there are thousands that have been lost somewhere along the way. I think of the countless band posters I saw on portapotties at Cornerstone of the next deathcore band playing on a generator stage. Most bands break up and most musicians eventually stop chasing the dream of a record contract when it comes time to start paying the bills. It would take several lifetimes to listen to all of Apple Music or Spotify and not every band has made it onto that platform either because of licensing or obscurity. Whether The Ex Box Boys were purely gimmicky or had actual potential, it's important to remember two things: 1) the gaming world is pretty hostile. They'll call you out for anything. They'll say anything sucks. And they'll come for your mom. And 2) corporations have much more money than up-and-coming bands. Don't mess with copyrights, especially if you're a nobody. 

https://genius.com/The-ex-box-boys-calling-you-up-lyrics