“Playback ‘99” (Burn the Cassette Deck) by The Juliana Theory (reworked repost), Wednesday, May 22, 2024
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In 2020, The Juliana Theory signed to Equal Vision Records. After releasing the singles “Can’t Go Home” and “Better Now” and a collection of rerecorded classics from their Tooth & Nail and Epic Records discography, the band released Still the Same Kids, Pt. 1 in May 2022. According to the band’s page on Equal Vision’s website, Still the Same Kids is a three-EP project, though we have yet to see parts 2 and 3. We’ve been waiting for a while; however, it seems that Brett Detar and crew never rush the band's music. Long-term fans of The Juliana Theory have suggested that the band's post-2005 Deadbeat Sweetheartbeat music doesn't fit with the band's direction, and while many fans like it, 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. DON'T LOOK BACK IN ANGER. The music video for “Playback ‘99” (Burn the Cassette Deck) imagines a post-apocalyptic world in 2033 after the world presumably ended at Y2K. A lone survivor in a hazmat suit searches for relics of the past, and in the basement level of what appears to be a nightclub in the basement of a mall, he finds a VHS of a Y2K-themed Juliana Theory concert. The video gets dark at the end, depicting the death of all concertgoers in the band, signaling the alternative universe of if Y2K had ended humanity. Going back to the line, “I’m living on borrowed time,” reminds the millennials and Generation X of the absurdity of living in the early decades of the twenty-first century. We think about the bands we were listening to as teenagers when the world felt so uncertain after 9/11. The evangelical kids may even have been told that they wouldn’t make it to 2020 because of the rapture or the New World Order. The music video metaphorically connects the Y2K generation with the COVID-19 lockdown generation. Time feels precocious as it slips away adding years to our faces. We can’t rewind it like a cassette tape, we just have to watch it play.
Spoken formed in 1996 and signed to CCM singer-songwriter Crystal Lewis 's Metro 1 label the following year. The band's early music was influenced by Rage Against the Machine and P.O.D., mostly consisting of rap-core and nu metal. After releasing three studio records and a greatest hits compilation through Metro 1, the band signed to Tooth & Nail Records in 2003 and released their fourth studio record, A Moment of Imperfect Clarity . A CHANCE TO CHANGE THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT. Spoken's fourth record, A Moment of Imperfect Clarity developed the band's sound from a rap-rock, nu metal band to a melodic post-hardcore band. With the Tooth & Nail years during the explosion of the record label and the mass-marketability of Christian Rock, Spoken gained a greater audience. Also with the backing of the record company, the production on their Tooth & Nail albums increased significantly. On the first Tooth & Nail record for spoken, the band worked with Garth ...
East West was a Christian hard rock band that released two albums in the early 2000s. The most successful single from their debut album The Light in Guinevere's Garden was the guitar ballad " She Cries ," in which the band didn't scream the lyrics. East West's two releases are between two very important releases in Hard Christian Rock: P.O.D. 's Satellite and Underoath 's They're Only Chasing Safety . The band's follow up, Hope in Anguish was produced much better than TLiGG. The grungy sounds of slow songs and the gut-punching screams of the heavy songs met the drums, effects petals, and truly depressing lyrics--dealing with addiction, child abuse, and the music business. Four of the songs--three of the non-screaming tracks--made their way to Christian Rock radio. East West was a band that showed that they could write a hit and have a heavy album. I COULD NEVER REALLY FIND THE ANSWERS. Three years ...
TWS (pronounced two-us or in hangeul 투어스) debuted earlier this year on Pledis Entertainment , an independently-operated sub-label of Hybe Corporation . Today all successful K-pop group members promote their group on social media, but the concept of Pledis’s latest boy band was to release “boyhood pop,” or pop music that “captures the daily stories of boys.” Furthering this concept, the group uses the tagline: “twenty-four seven with us.” The group is well-marketed as the cool boyfriends of voyeuristic K-pop fans. With members ranging from 16 to 20, TWS serves as a fifth (or fifth?)-generation K-pop group, marketed to middle school and high school students, which can be seen in their highly-stylized music video “ Plot Twist .” The video features the group living in dormitory-style quarters and attending a co-educational high school. FIRST ENCOUNTERS ARE ALWAYS HARD. Lyrically, "Plot Twist" by TWS is about the awkwardness and nervousness of first encounters. The lyrics de...
In 2020, The Juliana Theory signed to Equal Vision Records. After releasing the singles “Can’t Go Home” and “Better Now” and a collection of rerecorded classics from their Tooth & Nail and Epic Records discography, the band released Still the Same Kids, Pt. 1 in May 2022. According to the band’s page on Equal Vision’s website, Still the Same Kids is a three-EP project, though we have yet to see parts 2 and 3. We’ve been waiting for a while; however, it seems that Brett Detar and crew never rush the band's music. Long-term fans of The Juliana Theory have suggested that the band's post-2005 Deadbeat Sweetheartbeat music doesn't fit with the band's direction, and while many fans like it, 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.
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