NewYearsDayProject | a song a day blog

In 2016 ,  Yellowcard  called  it quits, echoing many other bands in a changing music industry. Best known for their fourth album,  Ocean Avenue , Yellowcard headlined Warped Tour and were at the top of the genre thanks to  MTV 's  Total Request Live  and placements in video games. But the band that had once been played on pop and rock radio, soon saw waning promotion, particularly in their later years. With albums underperforming and internal conflict in the band, they released their self-titled final album in 2016. They have only reunited in a  controversial lawsuit  against rapper  Juice WRLD , which the band later dropped after the rapper died in 2020. YOU TOOK MY EDGE, SHARPENED IT IN CASE.  My experience with Yellowcard was much like most of their fair-weather fans.  Ocean Avenue  was novel and fun. It was a time when bands could experiment with the format of a rock band to include something like, say, an electric violin on every track substituting for guitar leads. Their sec

This Is All I Know is the final album by Number One Gun . The band from Chico, California, became one member-- Jeff Schneeweis —in 2007 on the band’s The North Pole Project . The other members went on to form the band Surrogate and work with other bands such as Emery .  There was a lot of controversy surrounding Number One Gun's last album, related to the late fulfillment of crowd-funding. Some backers for the 2014 album claimed as of 2021 they hadn’t received what they had been promised. After releasing This Is All I Know, Schneeweis declared that Number One Gun finished and started releasing music under the moniker Lael . This Is All I Know is the end of the Christian Rock era. HEAVY IS UPON US. Just as Anberlin had announced their farewell in 2014, several other bands called it quits. In 2017 the band Yellowcard , along with Anberlin drummer Nathan Young, recorded their final album and gave their farewell tour. After Anberlin ended, Stephen Christian was busy first in Nash

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

We’re at the end of another month, now solidly into fall in the northern hemisphere. This month’s playlist has been the most repeats of any other month with 17 reposts and 13 new songs. And yet I don’t regret the choices because almost every song fits a certain autumny nostalgia. So today, despite the weather being a record high, I chose one of my favorite fall songs from an album I’ve talked about to death. But repeated listening is not the same as repeated reading. So, if you've read enough about Acceptance, skip today's post and just go listen to  Phantoms   or " In the Cold ." THE WORDS, THEY TAKE THEIR MEANING.  While " In the Cold " is a mid-album track that had very little potential to become a single, I feel that this song best encapsulates the "cooling" of interest Columbia Records had with Acceptance . I've talked about the  anti-piracy CD recall  that took the band's record from the shelves. But there were more problems. Columbi

Artists often show off their influences when they play a cover. In 2004, Copeland released an EP of covers of songs by singer-songwriters from the '70s and '80s. While the band has moved into more experimental territory in recent years, know nothing stays the same shows the musical education, the melodies, the song structure from which Copeland came. Today's song was written by Billy Joel and released in 1977, and Billy Joel's version appears on the Spotify and AppleMusic version of the April 2022 Mixtape  because know nothing stays the same is a rare Copeland release. Copeland's covers EP is worth checking out, though. Hearing the band's unique take on the soft rock classics gave me a new appreciation for the band when I heard this EP, and I only wish it was more widely available. THE WORST SHE CAN DO IS THROW SHADOWS AT YOU. Now we come to Under the Covers,   Volume 3 (see below), naturally another YouTube Edition to the playlist because the main song on wh

We've talked about the demise of the band Yellowcard three days ago , but today we're going to delve into Yellowcard's lead singer William Ryan Key 's solo career. Although during his tenure in Yellowcard, Key was known on stage by his middle name, Ryan, the singer wanted to craft a solo career in his own right without relying on Yellowcard's popularity. With two EPs released in 2018, first Thirteen and then Virtue , Key's solo music career went on pause until his EP earlier this year, Everything Except Desire . During the the gap between these projects, Key worked on reimagined Yellowcard songs and wrote and recorded with an ambient electronic side project called JEDAH along with fellow Yellowcard guitarist Ryan Mendez. Bowery Street (in pink) in  Manhattan, photo Wikipedia WHO DO I THINK I AM? Listening to Yellowcard and William Ryan Key's writing, we get a nostalgia for home. But where is home for Key? Yellowcard is famously from Jacksonville, Florida,

In 2016 ,  Yellowcard  called  it quits, echoing many other bands in a changing music industry. Best known for their fourth album, Ocean Avenue , Yellowcard headlined Warped Tour and were at the top of the genre thanks to MTV 's Total Request Live  and placements in video games. But the band that had once been played on pop and rock radio, soon saw waning promotion, particularly in their later years. With albums underperforming and internal conflict in the band, they released their self-titled final album in 2016. They have only reunited in a controversial lawsuit against rapper Juice WRLD , which the band later dropped after the rapper died in 2020. YOU TOOK MY EDGE, SHARPENED IT IN CASE. My experience with Yellowcard was much like most of their fair-weather fans. Ocean Avenue was novel and fun. It was a time when bands could experiment with the format of a rock band to include something like, say, an electric violin on every track substituting for guitar leads. Their second albu