NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

  Listening to  Paper Route  makes me wonder, what if  Coldplay , after recording  X & Y   had continued making electronic music and honed in on their lyrics.  Paper Route has a solid pop-rock band, on par with any of their contemporaries (i.e.  OneRepublic , Coldplay), but their somewhat eccentric fidelity to their craft, recording their albums themselves in old Tennessee mansions to let the natural acoustics reverberate on the record, had cemented them as an indie rock band. " Balconies " was kind of Paper Route's first and last hit. The band's music had been featured in movies and television shows, but "Balconies" got them a late-night performance slot on  Seth Meyers . As one of the most obvious hits from their third album,  Real Emotion ,  the song was released to radio but didn't do too well on the charts. After touring to support the album, the band went on "an indefinite hiatus." However, as the band has had long gaps between albums

Earlier this month Pvris released their anticipated fourth record, Evergreen . Starting with their 2019 release of the EP  Hallucinations , Pvris began a departure from hard rock into Alternative dark pop. This departure was partly due to producer JT Daly encouraging the band to experiment with pop hooks. The band's 2020 release Use Me was an even greater realization of the vision set forth on  Hallucinations ; none of the songs were straight rock songs with perhaps the exception of " Dead Weight ."   PRAY FOR BETTER TIMES. Between Evergreen and Use Me, Pvris shifted from being a band to a one-woman moniker, or as cleverly stated in the song  " GODDESS , " not a woman or a man but a "motherfucking brand," with only Lynn Gunn remaining on the band's roster. Over the years, band members dropped off, with guitarist Alex Babinsky forced out after allegations of sexual misconduct just prior to the release of Use Me. As of earlier this year, bassist

I have many fond memories of my first Cornerstone in 2007, seeing a lot of the bands that I loved for the first and only time. There was a lot of effort to see as much as possible--looking at the pamphlets mailed when you purchased your tickets, trying to synchronize them with friends, and inevitably being unable to see everyone you wanted to see because of scheduling conflicts. But there was one stage that took the least effort--The Gallery.  SCATTERED IN AMERICAN CROWDS.  In the back of The Gallery stage was the coffee shop, or I should say the coffee canteen. Depending on the year, it was hot and dusty or wet and buggy, but cheap refills if you bought that year's mug early in the festival before it sold out and the music in the mornings just quiet enough to have a conversation made the stage my favorite. The evenings got a little crowded with some of the mellower hippy crowd or sometimes a CCM band that wasn't quite big enough for the main stage. But in the morning, crowds w

Fleurie is just shy of 3 million monthly listeners on Spotify. The Nashville-based singer-songwriter's majority of listeners, though, come from outside the United States from India, Turkey, Brazil, and Germany to be precise. Last year I talked about about her cover of Sufjan Steven 's   " To Be Alone with You ," which appears in the Looking for Alaska mini-series. While Fleurie has released many covers including a haunting version Linkin Park 's " In the End " and Gary Jules ' arrangement of Tears for Fears ' "Mad World," the singer also writes original songs and released her fourth LP earlier this year titled Supertropicali .  CALIFORNIA GIRLS DON'T LOOK LIKE ME. How to describe Fleurie's latest album, Supertropicali? Fleurie describes it on her Spotify page as "a world, an era, a story unfolding, all stitched together in '90s nostalgia, romance, youthful hope, and belonging." Taking inspiration from Mary Poppin

  This fall was when I got into folklore . Is this winter the one that I get into evermore ? Today, I made the jump into the record again after more cursory listens in 2020. I have a few thoughts from this afternoon's listen, but remember that I am by no means a Taylor Swift export the president of a local chapter of her fan club. I am merely offering my opinions on some damn good music. I'm hoping to have some deeper insights next year when I will probably dig deeper into this record.  THE WARMEST BED I'VE EVER KNOWN. A initial thought from when I listened to evermore,   I found that the record was even less cohesive than folklore. In my time with folklore, I began to realize that there was a cohesion to it, and I think the same is true with evermore. The next thing I noticed is that many of the tracks felt like b-sides to folklore, although the record was written and produced quickly after releasing folklore.   I first listened to evermore with my AirPods Pro when they w

  J.T. Daly , lead singer of  Paper Route , has stayed busy in the music business during Paper Route and after the band ended. In addition to releasing solo records and several side projects, he has composed for an ESPN film, produced several alternative musicians including K.Flay and Pvris , remixed Anberlin , Judah the Lion , MuteMath ,  and Switchfoot , and worked in visual arts, making band merchandise, phone cases, and even directing music videos for other bands. Of course, Daly isn’t the only creative force in Paper Route. Along with Chad Howat and for their third and on their final record,  Real Emotion , with Nick Aranda , Paper Route is a seriously creative band. YOU PROMISED ME THAT EVERYTHING IS FAIR IF IT'S LOVE AND WAR.    Like yesterday’s song, the imagery in “ Chariots ” brings my mind to old movies like  Spartacus   or  Ben-Hur .  On other songs on  Real Emotion  there seems to be a classic film theme, notably in the song “ Zhivago ” and its intro “ Lara .” “Chari

Listening to  Paper Route  makes me wonder, what if  Coldplay , after recording  X & Y   had continued making electronic music and honed in on their lyrics.  Paper Route has a solid pop-rock band, on par with any of their contemporaries (i.e.  OneRepublic , Coldplay), but their somewhat eccentric fidelity to their craft, recording their albums themselves in old Tennessee mansions to let the natural acoustics reverberate on the record, had cemented them as an indie rock band. " Balconies " was kind of Paper Route's first and last hit. The band's music had been featured in movies and television shows, but "Balconies" got them a late-night performance slot on  Seth Meyers . As one of the most obvious hits from their third album,  Real Emotion ,  the song was released to radio but didn't do too well on the charts. After touring to support the album, the band went on "an indefinite hiatus." However, as the band has had long gaps between albums,

There's always a certain level of trust an artist has to have in a producer. Pvris had worked with one producer, Blake Harnage , on their first two albums and EPs. But after recording with Paper Route 's JT Daly , the band decided to finish their third album, Use Me , with him. The result was a hookier, poppier, vibier version of the group. This met with some backlash with some of the fans of the band's older material; however, lead singer Lynn Gunn told Alternative Press , "We've always been kind of a pop act." The first single from the Hallucinations EP " Death of Me " helped to bridge the old sound to their second single "Hallucinations," which sees the band flirting with EDM production, yet in the haze and psychedelia, it's still clearly rock. MY MIND IS RUNNING WILD.  Gunn had had a songwriting session with Marshmello and Amy Allen, but she didn't think anything from that session fit her band. JT Daly told Gunn, "Serio

Paper Route signed to Universal Motown before releasing their debut LP, Absence , following their Are We All Forgotten EP. Only the title track of the EP appeared on Absence, as the band stepped further away from their Americana roots and more into the realm of retro-synth pop. Bassist/keyboardist  Chad Howat recorded the album. The band played multiple instruments, recorded in an old mansion near Nashville. I remember reading something about how the album was intend to be rerecorded but the band and the label preferred the originals, but I can't find an article about that. Absence was the debut of Paper Route as a band, complete with a guitarist, bassist, drummer, and a ton of synthesizers. Paper Route, though, would become a revolving door of drummers and guitarists. Only singer and multi-instrumentalist JT Daly and bassist/keyboardist Chad Howat would stay for the entire duration of the band's career. I WISH YOU WOULD LISTEN, TO GET THROUGH IT . Paper Route's early wo

In 2007 Paste Magazine named Paper Route "One to Watch." And while they never lived up to their potential, the Nashville band recorded music that they believed in. The band released several independent EPs before signing to Universal Records. Their debut LP Absence  and remix EP Additions were released on Universal Motown. But before their major-label debut, the band released a 5-song EP titled Are We All Forgotten, a named for a song which would also appear on their debut LP. After sharing several songs on the band's MySpace page,  Are We All Forgotten was released on July 8, 2008. Absence was released on April 28 the next year. THIS IS THE FIRST YEAR. Are We All Forgotten featured big studio production the band hadn't used on their earlier EPs, Paper Route and  A Thrill of Hope. The band's previous work had been more in the vein of Americana. But the complex beats and noisy synths on AWAF  showed where the band was heading. Yet, the band's ear for Americana

A group of friends from Lowell, Massachusetts, formed the metalcore band Operation Guillotine while they were in high school. With the addition of singer Lyndsey Gunnulfsen , stage name Lynn Gunn, the group grew into Paris, later Pvris --spelling changed for copyright purposes. The band's first EP was described as post hardcore. But by the time the band released their first album, they had begun to incorporate pop elements including electronics. In 2019 the band worked with Paper Route 's JT Daly  to produce their EP Hallucinations , their major label debut on Warner/Reprise Records. The band incorporated more elements of EDM into their sound. Three songs from Hallucinations made it onto the band's third studio album, Use Me. Two days prior to the release of the album, the two remaining members of Pvris ousted their guitarist for sexual misconduct allegations. With only Gunn and bassist Brian Macdonald left in the group, Pvris seems like a pop group that incorporates rock

J.T. Daly , lead singer of Paper Route , has stayed busy in the music business during Paper Route and after the band ended. In addition to releasing solo records and several side projects, he has composed for an ESPN film, produced several alternative musicians including K.Flay and Pvris, remixed Anberlin, Judah the Lion, MuteMath,  and Switchfoot, and works in visual arts, making band merchandise and phone cases. The first single from Paper Route's third and final album, "Chariots" deals with Paper Route's most common theme--break ups. While lead singer J.T. Daly maintains his privacy in his personal life, cryptic statements from stage, such as "This has been the hardest year ever" on two separate years, the lyrics alluding to break ups, divorce, and using "chemicals" to forget, have fans speculating about the singer's love life and mental state. The song "Chariots" depicts the speaker and his love, who is "giving up the fight&q