10 Comments
Jul 10, 2020Liked by Jeremy Gordon

I fell in love with Celebration Rock, because I first heard it when I was a year out of college and was whimsical for the times I had no responsibilities and could drink with my friends all day. A thing I like to do with bands I like, is look them up on YouTube to see if I can find deep cuts or live performances and I found a live performance of "Fire's Highway," a song I loved because of the "A northern soul in southern lands/Will always find his way to southern hands" worked in inverse for my girlfriend and I. That live recording performed a crib death on my Japandroids hardcore fandom, without the benefits of drinks in my system or an audience's energy I was left with two Canadian bros struggling to keep it together. I still love Celebration Rock, because it fucking rocks from top to bottom, and I still love drinking, but the disillusionment is easy to understand.

Anyways, I'd highly recommend the band Martha, they slap and have emotional lyrics that are also smart.

Expand full comment
Jul 9, 2020Liked by Jeremy Gordon

Man, even as a far-too-nostalgic high school senior Celebration Rock was too much for me. I felt like on Post-Nothing they were just desperate to throw it all together, and that desperation made the record unselfconscious. Then on Celebration Rock they were like "What if we actually tried to write songs?" and they fucked it all up. Now I can barely even listen to Post-Nothing, but I fully never listen to Celebration Rock and haven't heard anything past that. Which sucks because we can all use some truly triumphant rock music every once in a while.

Expand full comment
Jul 10, 2020Liked by Jeremy Gordon

Post-Nothing meant so much to me, I could never bring myself to admit having these same feelings.

Expand full comment

This is the first I've heard about the Outline. That website was so frigging good. Damn. My condolences.

And yes, Japandroids are the definition of a band that should come with a Best Before Date.

Expand full comment

I am happy about both the return of your blog and to read about Japandroids in 2020. Getting drunk at their shows will always be a cherished memory for me even if they objectively kind of suck. RIP music Tumblr.

Expand full comment

Japandroids in 2017 was the worst crowd I've ever been in. Nobody moved or sang along; all dudes with folded arms silently nodding along, maybe having this same realization en masse.

I've soured on them some since then but I still love Adrenaline Nightshift

Expand full comment

Thanks for pointing out how genius that "These girls are all Bikini Kill/we need a ride to bikini island" is

Expand full comment