“Playback ‘99” (Burn the Cassette Deck) by The Juliana Theory, Saturday, December 31, 2022

 

This year, The Juliana Theory released an EP presumably the first half of an album that will probably come out next year. The EP was released in May, which is a long time to wait for its second half; however, it seems that Brett Dettar and crew never rush the band's music. Long-term fans of The Juliana Theory have suggested that the band's post-2005 Deadbeat Sweet-heartbeat music doesn't fit with the band's direction, and while many fans like Still the Same Kids, Pt. 1, they suggest that The Juliana Theory isn't still the same band. But that argument could be made for any band that stuck together consistently, updating their sound into the '20s music landscape.

SHIT, I GET NOSTALGIC. I've heard that the Germans consider nostalgia as a kind of illness. If that's the case, the film, television, music, and fashion industries are sick. The pandemic reunited lots of bands to play reunion shows. Extra time at home had us revisiting the music of our past. Even teenagers felt homesick for a time they never had as they discovered classic rock albums for the first time. While Brett Dettar had been writing film scores and country music, The Juliana Theory was on hiatus. Today's song is blatantly nostalgic for late '90s culture, namedropping technology and Oasis's "Don't Look Back in Anger," and talking about things the speaker did in high school. When the speaker says, "I'm just living on borrowed time," he suggests that we think of our own prime. Usually, a band's listeners will be younger than the band members, for Dettar and The Juliana Theory, the bandmates came of age in the early '90s and formed in the late '90s with their peak arguably 2000's Emotion Is Dead, when emo started going mainstream. While The Juliana Theory may not be first in the conversation of mainstream emo bands, hipsters both admire The Juliana Theory for their contribution and call them a sell-out for turning to a pop rock/alternative sound, as a recent video on emo the YouTube channel Trash Theory suggests. 

DON'T LOOK BACK IN ANGER. So we come to the end of another year. What does that mean for my New Year's Day Project? It's looking like a busier year, and I'm dying to get back to the gym to get back in shape. In some ways, it's like this blog has me stagnating. This year I tried to make playlists for different moods and events and tell in-depth stories about bands I was learning about. I'm not sure that my schedule will allow for that kind of research next year. During the school year, particularly March-June and September-November I'm going to be busy with extra classes, eating up hours in my nightly free time. I'm considering doing lots of repostings and maybe a weekly update of song suggestions in addition to my repeated song of the day posts. Also, I will try to do some of my writing during my vacation period so that I have a reserve of posts. Music and writing are still very important to me, but there are three other priorities that I want to achieve: 1. Focusing on my teaching and picking up extra classes 2. Actually speaking Korean 3. Returning to the gym the minute the indoor mask requirement is lifted--going for personal training at first to build muscle memory, which is time-consuming and not cheap. Music will fit into my day, but I'm not sure how as of yet. But for now, I'm going to keep going, pressing forward into the future. Happy New Year!

Read “Playback '99 (Burn the Cassette Deck)” by The Juliana Theory on Genius.