Having a Fun Time edition | Friday and whatnot #37

A mixed bag today including a 20 year old post-hardcore song, a hip-hop classic from an underrated Bay Area group, and finally a new video from an old favorite artist of the blog

Thursday “Concealer”

The record this is from, Full Collapse, turned 20 last week. Damn, does that make me feel old. I remember Thursday being “that new bad” that was supporting Saves the Day and Hey Mercedes on tour. They also happen to be one of a handful of Victory Records bands that defied the label’s scummy ethos and questionable taste to emerge successful. See also Taking Back Sunday and Catch22

I had this track queued up on my drive to get my car repaired yesterday. It had rained for the first time in months, so I took the back roads to the dealership to avoid the nightmare of Californian’s driving 60+ mph when >1 drop of rain has fallen. Watch the F out.

Fun Fact: It is still very enjoyable to yell and scream the lyrics to this song, despite never fully knowing them, and certainly forgetting plenty of them too. Background screaming guy part is more fun tbh.

More Fun Facts: Further Taking Back Sunday ties, this track was produced by Sal Villanueva, of “The Ballad of Sal Villanueva” fame. One of my favorite TBS songs for sure.

People Under the Stairs “San Francisco Knights”

This is one of those groups that I’d seen their name thrown around a lot, without having listened much, like Hieroglyphics or Digable Planets. It took the loss of singer Double K for me to check them out.

What strikes me about this track is the sampled line “On a warm San Franciscan Night” from Eric Burden and The Animals. Growing up in Texas I would have assumed that could describe at least half of the nights in the Bay Area. California and whatnot. Having lived in the area for 8 years, I realize the song is about the 2-3 nights a year that could conceivably called “warm”.

Laura Jane Grace “SuperNatural Possession”

This one has sort of a Free Energy vibe to it, a driving guitar riff and sing along type lyrics. It is a short track, but I find myself repeating it 3-4x times each time it comes up.

She released a trippy video for this song last week. Apparently the hardest part of the video was ironing the green-screen sheet flat enough to not ruin the visual effects.