NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

  Today our representative song is  Wham!' s " Last Christmas ." Maybe it's overplayed, but it's a synth-pop classic. It's the kind of song that gets stuck in your head for days, and it's okay because it's Christmastime. It's one of the signature songs of Wham!  and one of the most played songs of Christmas. It's been covered by many artists from Jimmy Eat World to  Carly Rae Jepsen  to Hawk Nelson and each cover has its merit. But today, my Christmas mix begins with the original, the band that was somewhere between cringe and critical darlings. Enjoy the mix! Listen to the mix on Apple Music.

Nineteen years ago, Hoobastank killed rock music when they released their only ballad, " The Reason ." The song rose to number 2 on Billboard's Hot 100 and is the only song remembered by the band, despite the group having several Alternative radio hits. The band formed in 1994 and played local gigs with Incubus and Linkin Park before those bands were popular. Like Incubus and Linkin Park, Hoobastank were known for an eclectic hard rock sound--something listeners of their 2004 hit probably wouldn't get if all they knew was their biggest song. And no, it wasn't the band that ruined rock music, but it was certainly an indicator of the changing of times when music A&R pressured rock bands to follow the Hoobastank model. IT'S SOMETHING I MUST LIVE WITH EVERY DAY. Howard Benson produced Hoobastank's sophomore record, The Reason . We've talked about Benson as a rock producer of bands like P.O.D. , Mae , and The Starting Line . While Hoobastank's

  While Jimmy Eat World purists cite Clarity as their favorite and their true break-through album, most of us humble music listeners would have never heard of one of the defining bands in the pop-punk/ emo scene if it wasn’t for their 2001 record Bleed American . It was specifically their second single from the record, “ The Middle ” that is the band’s most well-known hit. When you’re talking about hits from your child-hood and bands you like, many people won’t recognize the name of the band but they know the song. Jimmy Eat World had released two albums on Capitol Records when the first wave of emo sparked by bands like Sunny Day Real Estate became popular. Jimmy Eat World, though, underperformed and were dropped by Capitol. The band then recorded Bleed American independently but signed to DreamWorks before releasing the record.   DON’T WRITE YOURSELF OFF YET.   First Jimmy Eat World released the title track “ Bleed American ” to rock radio before releasing “The Middle.” The second

  If you namedrop   Jimmy Eat World   in a casual conversation, people might look at you funny. The name sounds like its origins: two little kids teasing each other. Though fronted by   Jim Atkins,   he is not the "Jimmy" who "eat[s the] world," but rather it was an insulting picture guitarist Tom Linton 's little brother, Ed, who drew a picture of his slightly older brother  Jimmy looking so fat that he was "eat[ing]the world." Jimmy Eat World is a band's band. They are responsible for influencing everyone in punk, pop punk and even hardcore punk in the last 20 years. Best known for their song " The Middle ," a top 40 pop hit, the band spun several singles throughout the years, even today. Their most commercially successful albums have been   Bleed American   (2001),   Futures  (2004), and   Chase This Light   (2007). ARE YOU DIZZY YET?    I've talked about the burnout I've experienced as a teacher. Burnout is very common with te

Today we revisit Jimmy Eat World 's 2007 album, Chase This Light . Over the span of four records, from Clarity to Chase This Light, Jimmy Eat World showed what a band with a driving punk-rock rhythm can do with modern production. Clarity is a cult-favorite record. It shows the early days of Power Pop and Emo. Bleed American shows what happens if you get the energy of MxPx , an articulate voice, and  throw in a few sound effects, you get a few pop hits and and some Alt-rock bangers. GOTTA LOVE HOW IT’S SOMEHOW ALL ON ME. The band's follow up to Bleed American, 2004's darker  Futures  was somewhat of a departure from the punk rock origins of the band. The titular opening track had a different driving energy than a punk-rock beat. In fact, the songs that follow on Futures don't return to punk until track 6, the first single from the album " Pain ." The band's 2001 Bleed American had paved the way for other punk-rockers to enter the spotlight, whether it we

You could probably derive 2000s Christian Rock and Christian Rock adjacent bands from two sources: Linkin Park and Jimmy Eat World . Falling Up was an example of how Linkin Park influenced Christian Rock. Today's example is Jimmy Eat World, particularly their 2001 hit " The Middle ." The first single released from  Never Take Friendship Personal   sees   Anberlin   remembering their poppier tracks from   Blueprints for the Blue Market ,  but taking a much more mature approach to writing the lyrics. Rather than a complaint about how " Girls speak in code " and cliches that sound a bit sexist in today's world, " A Day Late " relies on storytelling about something that could have happened in the past, and really shouldn't happen now. SO LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT... Never Take Friendship Personal  is an album all about relationships, and it was a perfect album for high school. While certainly not as big as  Fall Out Boy , I found the lyrics on  Fr

On a cold winter's day, in the middle of the stress of house-hunting, I thought I'd make a playlist for those bad days that aren't quite depressing and not quite angry. Today's featured song is " Beth/Rest " by Bon Iver. I resisted putting this song on my Pseudo '80s Playlist  because, despite the soft-rock keys and saxophone, the vocal distortion sounds more of a product of its time than a retro track. Some of the songs on today's list will be a little sad, but something about them gives me strength rather than pushes me further into a despair. As always, I'll put the links for each song. I'm going to stick to tracks I've written about and add to this list as I feel the song is appropriate. First, I'll share my Spotify playlist: 1. "Beth/Rest" by Bon Iver is the representative song of the day.  2. "Tell Me How" by Paramore is a sad song, but the resolve at the end leaves the power in Haley Williams' hands. 3.

Entertainment Weekly called  Jimmy Eat World 's seventh album, Chase This Light , "Extroverted guitar pop." Recently on an episode of Slate 's Hit Parade , host Chris Molanphy told a compelling story tracing the evolution of punk to emo to its eventual influence on pop and hip hop. Between Green Day making an album about crap and My Chemical Romance sending out invitations to the black parade (and long before Machine Gun Kelly sold tickets to his downfall) came a pop one-hit wonder who from Mesa, Arizona, who is often cited early in a list of influences for pop punk, punk, emo and screamo bands. But Alternative Rock radio listeners knew that Jimmy Eat World was no one hit wonder. DON'T ACCEPT CRITIQUE OR CREDIT. When we think of emo, we picture neo-gothic-looking kids dressed in skinny jeans and over the-the-top haircuts. The Wikipedia image to the left best sums up the stereotype. Molanphy points out that a phenomenon that I remember quite well, everyone ass

It's important during the creative process to get feedback and look at your work from every possible angle. Jim Adkins reportedly hates his band name, Jimmy Eat World , especially because of the band's acronym, J-E- you get the point. Today's song was released in 1950 and was inspired by the sound of the Salvation Army Santa Clauses ringing their tinkling bells. But when songwriter Ray Evans brought his work home, his wife said, "Are you out of your mind? Do you know what the word tinkle is?" And just like that, the song changed to " Silver Bells " and it wasn't the first Christmas song about pee. We'd have to wait for that, apparently. Google if you dare. CITY SIDEWALKS, BUSY SIDEWALKS. First recorded by William Frawley and popularized in the film The Lemon Drop Kid   sung by Bob Hope and Marylin Maxwell, "Silver Bells," like most Christmas standards has so many recordings, it's hard to choose a favorite. The song was recorded by

Musicians sometimes have to change something about their projects in response to world events. Squad 5-0 released an album called Bombs Over Broadway  which showed WWII jets flying over New York City. Bombs unfortunately coincided 9-11, so the record label changed the cover of the album and the band didn't play the song live at first. Jimmy Eat World 's hit album Bleed American was changed to J immy Eat World  also following the 9-11 attacks. CCM singer Plumb changed her 2013 album from Faster Than a Bullet to Need You Now, in response to the Sandy Hook shooting. And in response to the 2020 Pandemic, Sam Smith retitled their upcoming album To Die For  to Love Goes . Not only did Sam Smith retitle the album, but also they restructured it. The pre-released singles, " Dancing with a Stranger ," " How Do You Sleep ," and " To Die For " would all be tacked on at the end of the album.  HOW DO YOU SLEEP WHEN YOU LIE TO ME. Sam Smith's third album

Sandwiched between two metal bands, Anberlin played the show that kickstarted their career in Atlanta, Georgia. Brandon Ebel , Tooth & Nail Records ' founder, and owner loved the band's hits, but Chad Johnson , Tooth & Nail's A&R wasn't impressed with the live show. For starters, the band was playing pop-punk in between heavy, pre- They're Only Chasing Safety Underoath and chaos metal act Norma Jean headlining.  Anberlin sounded a bit more like Jimmy Eat World and Third Eye Blind. Nobody at the show knew Anberlin and were only there to most to the bands that they knew. What was worse was if the band was melodic, they had to have a singer who could hold a tune. Stephen Christian was off-pitch. Eventually, Ebel was able to convince Johnson to sign Anberlin. Their demo of " Ready Fuels " recorded by Matt Goldman , an Atlanta musician-turned producer, helped to solidify the decision. Ebel agreed to sign Anberlin as long as Stephen Christian t

If you namedrop   Jimmy Eat World   in a casual conversation, people might look at you funny. The name sounds like its origins: two little kids teasing each other. Though fronted by   Jim Atkins,   he is not the "Jimmy" who "eat[s the] world," but rather it was an insulting picture guitarist  Tom Linton 's little brother, Ed, who drew a picture of his slightly older brother  Jimmy looking so fat that he was "eat[ing]the world." Jimmy Eat World is a band's band. They are responsible for influencing everyone in punk, pop punk and even hardcore punk in the last 20 years. Best known for their song " The Middle ," a top 40 pop hit, the band spun several singles throughout the years, even today. Their most commercially successful albums have been   Bleed American   (2001),   Futures  (2004), and   Chase This Light   (2007). ARE YOU DIZZY YET? Yesterday, I talked about the burnout I've been experiencing lately. Burnout is very common with t

Let’s call this part two of yesterday’s  post . I’d like to quote a few lines and dissect  them . This is my view imposed on the song.  "Why is it so hard to find the balance/ between the cold and real?"  I started to think of this song as the futures contract market. I don’t really have a mind for economics, but as far as I can tell the futures contracts are bid on in hopes that the venture will make money and that the economy will be good. But it doesn't always work out, like the housing crisis in 2008 or the current pandemic. Future markets bid on the fact that the economy is going to be as good as it is as the time the venture starts. Throw in a few misguided or bad actors who have access to our pension and retirement funds (Enron?) and we get ourselves into a real problem.  HOPE FOR BETTER, IN NOVEMBER . I get very depressed whenever I think about money. My generation is pretty screwed and all I can rely on is keeping a job and making the payments to pay off my stude