ATP! Lists: Ten '10th Anniversary' Album Tours We'd Want To See
Blink-182 - S/T(Written by: James Tremain)
At the end of 2003, you still couldn’t listen to the majority of an album before it was released, so buying this was the first time I’d ever managed to hear it – and I was surprised. Where are the songs about dicks? Where are the tracks about how shitty high school is and how all the girls there are totally annoying? Blink hadn’t defied everyone and grown up had they?
Compare the lyrics to 2001's Off Your Pants and Jacket (“it’s Labor Day and my Grandpa just ate seven fucking hotdogs/and he shit his pants”) with those on Blink-182 (“I’m talking to the ceiling/my life just lost all meaning”). Clearly, all was not well in band camp.
13-year-old me didn’t fully appreciate it (I wanted dick songs), but as years went by my respect for this album has grown and grown. It introduced me to the idea that pop-punk doesn’t necessarily need to be so dumb and one-dimensional. In 2003, this was a brave album.
Blink-182 is a unique entry in the band’s canon. It has the trademark fast-paced tracks in ‘Feeling This,' ‘Go’ and ‘Violence’ but also the most heartfelt in ‘Always,’ ‘Down’ and ‘I Miss You.’ It’s given me more memories than any other album I can remember.
If they played it, I might get to see Robert Smith in the flesh, who sings on ‘All of This.’ To a 14-year-old he’s a bizarre man-crow from a boring band (sorry); 23-year-old me appreciates his personality and music. On ‘Stockholm Syndrome’, the trio peak; probably their heaviest track ever, the interplay with Tom and Mark is as good as it has ever been. It provides a uniquely personal insight into the friendship of the pair, the partnership that has always been at the heart of everything blink has done.
Blink’s self-titled effort saw them searching for a meaning and is probably the reason we still talk about them as an active band. The chance to see that passion and honesty – the dark, real side of Blink-182 – is one I wish I could take.
Yellowcard - Ocean Avenue
(Written by: Edward Strickson)
Has it really been ten years? Even in 2013, Ocean Avenue is as relevant as when it was released. It’s beautifully melodic (what’s a violin for if not for melody?), has spunk in all the right places (get your mind out of the gutter) and contains within it more anthems than some bands manage in their entire careers. Yellowcard has been working ridiculously hard recently (two albums in two years surely earns them a slow clap or two) but a tour of this album for its tenth anniversary would be epic beyond words. This is the record that brought them into the spotlight, and with good reason, so rounding off their reunion and the burst of productivity that came with it over the past few years with this celebration of their legacy would be both prudent and a fitting toast to the decadal birthday of a truly great album.
It may sound obvious, but in terms of recommended listening, go with ‘Only One,’ a great single with a powerful chorus and a technically impressive riff. It helps that it’s incredibly catchy too. If you’re feeling in a different sort of mood however, ‘View from Heaven’ is a unique song on the album. It sounds almost country, but it just doesn’t pack the same punch as its rockier contemporaries. So Yellowcard, please hear this plea and show some love to the album that won you so many fans ten years ago and beyond.
Essential Listening: 'Only One'
The Used - S/T
Has it really been ten years? Even in 2013, Ocean Avenue is as relevant as when it was released. It’s beautifully melodic (what’s a violin for if not for melody?), has spunk in all the right places (get your mind out of the gutter) and contains within it more anthems than some bands manage in their entire careers. Yellowcard has been working ridiculously hard recently (two albums in two years surely earns them a slow clap or two) but a tour of this album for its tenth anniversary would be epic beyond words. This is the record that brought them into the spotlight, and with good reason, so rounding off their reunion and the burst of productivity that came with it over the past few years with this celebration of their legacy would be both prudent and a fitting toast to the decadal birthday of a truly great album.
It may sound obvious, but in terms of recommended listening, go with ‘Only One,’ a great single with a powerful chorus and a technically impressive riff. It helps that it’s incredibly catchy too. If you’re feeling in a different sort of mood however, ‘View from Heaven’ is a unique song on the album. It sounds almost country, but it just doesn’t pack the same punch as its rockier contemporaries. So Yellowcard, please hear this plea and show some love to the album that won you so many fans ten years ago and beyond.
The Used - S/T
(Written by: Jordan Wyman)
You’re back in middle school. All the kids in their polos and pullovers walked the halls laughing in groups while you sat on the wall blasting your CD player (or iPod if you were hip). Your judgmental eyes gazed at them as lyrics like “You ripped my heart out of my then you put it back / I'm pulling my hair” blared from your headphones. You walked home later and cranked that same song on the surround sound and dreaded the moment your mom got home. If this wasn’t your middle school experience, chances are you probably didn’t listen to The Used (or weren’t me).
The Used’s self-titled debut album was one in a sea of greats at that time, but Bert McCracken’s pseudo-screamo vocals and anger filled breakup anthems is what gave the album its flare. Which, to the average 7th grader, meant that someone finally understood “me and my problems”. When I hear the first lines of ‘Taste of Ink’, I can literally picture myself walking down Mullen Road back to my house from school, sometimes in the rain (I thought I was really hardcore and deep).
While many fans of The Used, like myself, were satisfied with a headliner and Warped run last year, the idea of a tour in which they play their debut in it’s entirety sounds divine. The crowd wouldn’t be a regular show with girls with multi-colored hair and guys with boots for surfing. It will be a crowd of late 20-somethings to early 30-somethings screaming the anthems that kept them going in times of gloom and heartbreak. Throwing fists up at losing voices slowly and slowly until the final piano fades out the night.
Essential Listening: 'Bulimic'
You’re back in middle school. All the kids in their polos and pullovers walked the halls laughing in groups while you sat on the wall blasting your CD player (or iPod if you were hip). Your judgmental eyes gazed at them as lyrics like “You ripped my heart out of my then you put it back / I'm pulling my hair” blared from your headphones. You walked home later and cranked that same song on the surround sound and dreaded the moment your mom got home. If this wasn’t your middle school experience, chances are you probably didn’t listen to The Used (or weren’t me).
The Used’s self-titled debut album was one in a sea of greats at that time, but Bert McCracken’s pseudo-screamo vocals and anger filled breakup anthems is what gave the album its flare. Which, to the average 7th grader, meant that someone finally understood “me and my problems”. When I hear the first lines of ‘Taste of Ink’, I can literally picture myself walking down Mullen Road back to my house from school, sometimes in the rain (I thought I was really hardcore and deep).
While many fans of The Used, like myself, were satisfied with a headliner and Warped run last year, the idea of a tour in which they play their debut in it’s entirety sounds divine. The crowd wouldn’t be a regular show with girls with multi-colored hair and guys with boots for surfing. It will be a crowd of late 20-somethings to early 30-somethings screaming the anthems that kept them going in times of gloom and heartbreak. Throwing fists up at losing voices slowly and slowly until the final piano fades out the night.
The All-American Rejects - S/T
(Written by: Gina Catalano)
Between Chris Gaylor’s pounding percussions, Mike Kennedy’s rhythmic pulse, Nick Wheeler’s guitar solos and Tyson Ritter’s vocals, it’s no wonder why any All-American Rejects fan would love to see their self-titled album played live in its entirety.
Although mixed reviews came with The All-American Rejects, it still managed to do remarkably well both on the charts and in the minds of its dedicated fans. It’s the album that jumpstarted their music careers and proved to the music world that AAR wasn’t going anywhere but up.
If you’ve never seen AAR live before, let me tell you how much you’re missing out on. There aren’t many bands these days that are better live than on their records, but these talented guys are one of the exceptions. Seeing one of their live shows will prove that not only are they tremendous musicians, but they also have this stage presence that will keep you constantly in motion. Every concert of theirs is different – between the songs they play or Tyson’s tendencies to blurt out anything that comes to mind – making any AAR show one of its kind.
Should they take The All-American Rejects out on the road, I would give all sorts of money to be front and center for the performance of ‘The Last Song’. While I love the random structure of the melody and all the different instruments played throughout the song, it’s the lyrics that create the perfect sing-along. Typical break-up songs involve the ex and what went wrong, but this song deals with the future and what those break-ups feel like long after they’ve taken place. Can they please just tour right now? Because this really needs to happen.
Essential Listening: 'The Last Song'
Brand New - Deja Entendu
Between Chris Gaylor’s pounding percussions, Mike Kennedy’s rhythmic pulse, Nick Wheeler’s guitar solos and Tyson Ritter’s vocals, it’s no wonder why any All-American Rejects fan would love to see their self-titled album played live in its entirety.
Although mixed reviews came with The All-American Rejects, it still managed to do remarkably well both on the charts and in the minds of its dedicated fans. It’s the album that jumpstarted their music careers and proved to the music world that AAR wasn’t going anywhere but up.
If you’ve never seen AAR live before, let me tell you how much you’re missing out on. There aren’t many bands these days that are better live than on their records, but these talented guys are one of the exceptions. Seeing one of their live shows will prove that not only are they tremendous musicians, but they also have this stage presence that will keep you constantly in motion. Every concert of theirs is different – between the songs they play or Tyson’s tendencies to blurt out anything that comes to mind – making any AAR show one of its kind.
Should they take The All-American Rejects out on the road, I would give all sorts of money to be front and center for the performance of ‘The Last Song’. While I love the random structure of the melody and all the different instruments played throughout the song, it’s the lyrics that create the perfect sing-along. Typical break-up songs involve the ex and what went wrong, but this song deals with the future and what those break-ups feel like long after they’ve taken place. Can they please just tour right now? Because this really needs to happen.
Brand New - Deja Entendu
(Written by: Emma Garland)
If you went through your teenage growing pains without Deja Entendu, I feel bad for you now, bro. It was – still is – the manual on ‘The Art of Growing Up’; love, loss, sex, selfishness, insecurity, arrogance and everything in between that comes hand in hand with the overwhelming self-consciousness that begins in your pre-teens and continues pretty much forever.
Like so many others who hit high school with the turn of the millennium, this record is intrinsically woven into memories of my adolescence, and with that comes a wistful montage of sickly clichés; For what felt like years it was the soundtrack to every sleepover, the noise that poured from the windows at every house party, the lamentable life-lesson learned by that one friend who drank so much before the Brand New show in ’04 she fell asleep inside the venue and missed their whole set…
The same can be said of Your Favorite Weapon, to a certain extent. It shares the same sense of self-discovery that darts hormonally between thrill and spite, but Deja Entendu was the record that made an emotional seasonal turn so strong that neither fans nor critics could have anticipated it. Brand New had retained the same chunky riffs, the same trademark harmonies and the same arresting songwriting, but the mood was entirely different – musically and thematically. They were a band in the process of maturing held up largely by a generation of fans who were unconsciously going through the same transformation as individuals.
I can guarantee there was not a single boy who listened to Deja Entendu without hoping the line “I’m paid to make girls panic while I sing” could or would apply to him, not a single girl who listened to that line without instantly panicking and not a single Brand New fan who wouldn’t lose their absolute shit if the band were to tour this record in its entirety.
Essential Listening: 'I Will Play My Game Beneath The Spin Light'
Essential Listening: 'Thank You For The Venom'
Fall Out Boy - Take This To Your Grave
If you went through your teenage growing pains without Deja Entendu, I feel bad for you now, bro. It was – still is – the manual on ‘The Art of Growing Up’; love, loss, sex, selfishness, insecurity, arrogance and everything in between that comes hand in hand with the overwhelming self-consciousness that begins in your pre-teens and continues pretty much forever.
Like so many others who hit high school with the turn of the millennium, this record is intrinsically woven into memories of my adolescence, and with that comes a wistful montage of sickly clichés; For what felt like years it was the soundtrack to every sleepover, the noise that poured from the windows at every house party, the lamentable life-lesson learned by that one friend who drank so much before the Brand New show in ’04 she fell asleep inside the venue and missed their whole set…
The same can be said of Your Favorite Weapon, to a certain extent. It shares the same sense of self-discovery that darts hormonally between thrill and spite, but Deja Entendu was the record that made an emotional seasonal turn so strong that neither fans nor critics could have anticipated it. Brand New had retained the same chunky riffs, the same trademark harmonies and the same arresting songwriting, but the mood was entirely different – musically and thematically. They were a band in the process of maturing held up largely by a generation of fans who were unconsciously going through the same transformation as individuals.
I can guarantee there was not a single boy who listened to Deja Entendu without hoping the line “I’m paid to make girls panic while I sing” could or would apply to him, not a single girl who listened to that line without instantly panicking and not a single Brand New fan who wouldn’t lose their absolute shit if the band were to tour this record in its entirety.
Simple Plan - No Pads, Just Helmets...Just Balls
(Written by: Jon Ableson)
The first time I heard about this album was during a conversation with a friend's cousin via AIM in 2002. She sent me the song ‘I'm Just A Kid’ and I was hooked. When exploring the Internet for more information, I found out they were scheduled for a tour that was set to hit my hometown. After buying tickets and getting to the show, I was instantly a fan for life. I remember rushing to the merch table and buying a CD from Patrick Langlois (friend of the band/videographer/co-host of 'Man Of The Hour' radio show with SP guitarist Sebastien Lefebvre). The rest was history.
It's so hard to believe No Pads, No Helmets...Just Balls saw its release just over ten years ago. At a time when pop/rock and pop-punk was making a huge impact breaking its way through to the mainstream audience, the Canadian five-piece left their mark with NPNHJB - an album featuring fan-favorites ‘I'd Do Anything,' ‘Perfect’ and ‘Addicted.’
Despite drummer Chuck Comeau saying the band do not have plans to commemorate the album's 10th anniversary with a full album show or tour, we can still dream, right? Instead Simple Plan released a book: part album, part scrapbook, with special interviews and a remarkable collection of artifacts from the band’s personal archives. Name another band that has done this!
Essential Listening: 'I'd Do Anything'
Good Charlotte - The Young And The Hopeless
The first time I heard about this album was during a conversation with a friend's cousin via AIM in 2002. She sent me the song ‘I'm Just A Kid’ and I was hooked. When exploring the Internet for more information, I found out they were scheduled for a tour that was set to hit my hometown. After buying tickets and getting to the show, I was instantly a fan for life. I remember rushing to the merch table and buying a CD from Patrick Langlois (friend of the band/videographer/co-host of 'Man Of The Hour' radio show with SP guitarist Sebastien Lefebvre). The rest was history.
It's so hard to believe No Pads, No Helmets...Just Balls saw its release just over ten years ago. At a time when pop/rock and pop-punk was making a huge impact breaking its way through to the mainstream audience, the Canadian five-piece left their mark with NPNHJB - an album featuring fan-favorites ‘I'd Do Anything,' ‘Perfect’ and ‘Addicted.’
Despite drummer Chuck Comeau saying the band do not have plans to commemorate the album's 10th anniversary with a full album show or tour, we can still dream, right? Instead Simple Plan released a book: part album, part scrapbook, with special interviews and a remarkable collection of artifacts from the band’s personal archives. Name another band that has done this!
Good Charlotte - The Young And The Hopeless
(Written by: Victoria Patneaude)
Back in the day (yes, 2002 officially counts as back in the day now – feel old), Good Charlotte led the pop punk scene with their second studio release, The Young and the Hopeless. Chances are, if you’re in your early 20’s, that album contained at least one of your middle school anthems. In fact, there probably aren’t many people who didn’t know the lyrics to ‘Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous’. That being said, The Young and the Hopeless was a piece of pop-punk gold which showed all of us middle school kids that even though we felt like life sucked, there was someone who understood just how much we thought life sucked. Leading the Hot Topic generation with their catchy melodies and way with words, The Young and the Hopeless is arguably Good Charlotte’s defining moment.
Yes, we know that this is technically the album’s 11th year in existence, but we’re willing to look past that if it means the chance to pull out those Tripp pants again and rock out to one of our favorite pop-punk albums.
Essential Listening: 'The Anthem'
Back in the day (yes, 2002 officially counts as back in the day now – feel old), Good Charlotte led the pop punk scene with their second studio release, The Young and the Hopeless. Chances are, if you’re in your early 20’s, that album contained at least one of your middle school anthems. In fact, there probably aren’t many people who didn’t know the lyrics to ‘Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous’. That being said, The Young and the Hopeless was a piece of pop-punk gold which showed all of us middle school kids that even though we felt like life sucked, there was someone who understood just how much we thought life sucked. Leading the Hot Topic generation with their catchy melodies and way with words, The Young and the Hopeless is arguably Good Charlotte’s defining moment.
Yes, we know that this is technically the album’s 11th year in existence, but we’re willing to look past that if it means the chance to pull out those Tripp pants again and rock out to one of our favorite pop-punk albums.
My Chemical Romance - Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge
(Written by: Claire Louise Sheridan)
(Written by: Claire Louise Sheridan)
2004’s Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge may not have been My Chemical Romance’s debut, but it was certainly the record that secured their place in rock’s hall of fame.
Think back to a time where the whole scene thing was really kicking off, and any memories that spring to mind will likely have you reminiscing on this record, which more or less epitomized the anthems of a generation.
Tumultuously passionate shows on the tour for this album, complete with (seemingly obligatory) black and red eyeliner, ensured that millions of teenagers the world over had their hearts stolen. These guys were the ultimate obsession -arguably bringing the genre to the attention of even the mainstream media.
They may have had their ups and downs, and a lot may have changed in what’s coming on ten years, but there’s no doubt that an anniversary tour of this daring 13-track masterpiece would be beyond awesome for everyone, whether they care to admit it or not.
With gems such as… well, basically every track on there, I challenge anyone to not want to dance and sing along like they were back in their teens. Just me? I know I’m not the only one. Face it, what twenty-something doesn’t want to recapture their youth? I know this one sure does!
Fall Out Boy - Take This To Your Grave
(Written by: Jordan Wyman)
Let’s be real for a second, we all love Fall Out Boy. If you say you don’t, stop lying. There isn’t a single person alive who hasn’t sat in front of at least one stoplight mumbling the words to ‘Grand Theft Autumn’ - or any other one of their songs, for that matter.
2009 was a rough year for all Overcast Kids (Fall Out Boy die-hards, in short). It was hard for us to express our feelings because we were too busy crying to ‘I’m Like a Lawyer…,’ but many of us took this opportunity to take a trip down memory as we laid in our beds, turned on Take This To Your Grave and basked in all of its glory. I honestly look back and realize that these Fall Out Boy songs were the ones that empowered me, in a way. They were one of the only bands I listened to that wrote songs about break-ups that didn’t involve sulking. Instead, they taught me to not be afraid to say “FUCK YOU” to who ever that other person may be.
Whether or not recent rumors of their reunion are true, there will always be a special place in me for this album. I think I speak for many when I say that a “TTTYG Revisited” tour would be a huge thrill to anyone that grew up watching Fall Out Boy’s career. Ten years later, a tour with any, and I do mean ANY, of these songs on it will make any Fall Out Boy fan forever happy with the anthems these four remarkable men have given us.
Essential Listening: 'The Pros and Cons of Breathing'
Let’s be real for a second, we all love Fall Out Boy. If you say you don’t, stop lying. There isn’t a single person alive who hasn’t sat in front of at least one stoplight mumbling the words to ‘Grand Theft Autumn’ - or any other one of their songs, for that matter.
2009 was a rough year for all Overcast Kids (Fall Out Boy die-hards, in short). It was hard for us to express our feelings because we were too busy crying to ‘I’m Like a Lawyer…,’ but many of us took this opportunity to take a trip down memory as we laid in our beds, turned on Take This To Your Grave and basked in all of its glory. I honestly look back and realize that these Fall Out Boy songs were the ones that empowered me, in a way. They were one of the only bands I listened to that wrote songs about break-ups that didn’t involve sulking. Instead, they taught me to not be afraid to say “FUCK YOU” to who ever that other person may be.
Whether or not recent rumors of their reunion are true, there will always be a special place in me for this album. I think I speak for many when I say that a “TTTYG Revisited” tour would be a huge thrill to anyone that grew up watching Fall Out Boy’s career. Ten years later, a tour with any, and I do mean ANY, of these songs on it will make any Fall Out Boy fan forever happy with the anthems these four remarkable men have given us.
The Ataris - So Long, Astoria
(Written by: Emma Garland)
Without a shadow of doubt, So Long, Astoria is one of the most innately nostalgic records of its kind. I can’t count how many hours of family holidays were spent in the backseat of a car shoveling it into my ears.
Ten years later, it still provokes the same feelings of longing and homesickness for people, places and things - some not yet encountered - as it did then. The only difference now is I’m old enough to drive the car myself.
Significantly, So Long, Astoria is not an album for making memories to. It’s an album for reflecting on memories already made. ‘In This Diary,’ ‘My Reply’ and ‘Looking Back On Today’ are the sort of songs you play at the end of a trip, a relationship or an era (the clues are in the titles, duh).
The name of the album refers to the town The Goonies was set in, and just like the film, So Long, Astoria perfectly captures the transition from a childhood in reverie into considered adulthood with the lyrics: “So long, Astoria/ I found a map to buried treasure/ And even if we come home empty handed/ We’ll still have our stories/ Of battle scars, pirate ships and wounded hearts/ Broken bones and all the best of friendships.”
And if there’s one message we can take from this record as a whole, specifically the lines “Being grown up isn’t half as fun as growing up/ These are the best days of our lives” it is surely: to hell with growing up.
Dear Kris Roe and gang please do all us overgrown children a favor and tour this album.
Essential Listening: 'Unopened Letter to the World’'
Without a shadow of doubt, So Long, Astoria is one of the most innately nostalgic records of its kind. I can’t count how many hours of family holidays were spent in the backseat of a car shoveling it into my ears.
Ten years later, it still provokes the same feelings of longing and homesickness for people, places and things - some not yet encountered - as it did then. The only difference now is I’m old enough to drive the car myself.
Significantly, So Long, Astoria is not an album for making memories to. It’s an album for reflecting on memories already made. ‘In This Diary,’ ‘My Reply’ and ‘Looking Back On Today’ are the sort of songs you play at the end of a trip, a relationship or an era (the clues are in the titles, duh).
The name of the album refers to the town The Goonies was set in, and just like the film, So Long, Astoria perfectly captures the transition from a childhood in reverie into considered adulthood with the lyrics: “So long, Astoria/ I found a map to buried treasure/ And even if we come home empty handed/ We’ll still have our stories/ Of battle scars, pirate ships and wounded hearts/ Broken bones and all the best of friendships.”
And if there’s one message we can take from this record as a whole, specifically the lines “Being grown up isn’t half as fun as growing up/ These are the best days of our lives” it is surely: to hell with growing up.
Dear Kris Roe and gang please do all us overgrown children a favor and tour this album.
