News you may have missed! (7/8/19)
blink-182 & Avril Lavigne drop new songs, my band once "almost" signed to Drive-Thru Records and Spotify is making it harder for independent artists.
Hello again! We’re back with another edition of the All Punked Up Weekly Newsletter. We hope everyone enjoyed the 4th of July holiday, and if you’re still enjoying, keep doing so.
Let’s get to some of the trending news from the past week.
News you may have missed…
We thought that this was pretty cool. On blink-182’s tour kickoff date, they dedicated “Aliens Exist” to Tom DeLonge. You can check out the performance by clicking the above link.
Speaking of blink, they released a new song called “Happy Days”. Check that one out!
Might as well keep the blink train going. All Punked Up writer, John, reflects back on Blink-182 Day and realizes just how much this band has helped everyone. It’s a good read for anyone who considers them a blink-182 fan.
Remember JNCO jeans from the 90’s? Well, they are making a comeback.
The All-American Rejects started teasing with a cryptic video.
Foo Fighters have released an archival live EP and are asking fans to share their stories for what seems to be the band’s 25th anniversary.
Stand Atlantic has announced that they have added their touring bassist as an official member.
Avril Lavigne released a new single called “I Fell In Love With The Devil”. Be sure to give it a listen.
All Punked Up specific news…
Quick update on the “new thing” I’ve referred to in previous newsletters (except for last week’s). Bare with me. It’s coming. I really need to kick myself in the ass to launch this thing. I’m making it one of All Punked Up’s main priorities over the next couple of weeks. There will be more news about this soon. And since you’re a subscriber, you’ll get the teaser before anyone else. It may come in the form of it’s own email blast. So stay tuned!
As mentioned previously, I’m really hoping everyone is enjoying these weekly newsletters as much as I enjoy putting these things together. If there is anything at all that you would love to see featured within these mailers, please let me know. I am open to all ideas. I want these mailers to be for you. And because of that I want to make sure you all are receiving something, not only that you like, but that you look forward to receiving week after week. Please send your thoughts and ideas for requests to info@allpunkedup.com.
9 songs All Punked Up was digging this week…
If All Punked Up made an album for this past week, these are the songs that would be included on it. These songs could be old or new, maybe even unrelated, but they all traveled through APU team members’ headphones this week.
“She's a God” — Neck Deep
“Happy Days” — blink-182
“In Violet” — Grayscale
“Threat Level Midnight ” — Neck Deep
“Narcolepsy ” — Third Eye Blind
“Saviour Of Nothing ” — Disturbed
“Grow Up ” — Paramore
“Hollywood Whore” — Machine Gun Kelly
“Too Close To Me” — Ballyhoo
If you’re interested in listening to this “album”, we’ve got the playlist created over on Spotify here. Feel free to give it a listen. Maybe go ahead and just subscribe to the playlist while you’re at it. This same playlist will be updated weekly with new songs.
Random Thoughts…
When I felt so close to snagging a record deal with Drive-Thru Records
I recently was driving down the road when I came up behind a Greyhound bus. Seeing this bus immediately brought back some nostalgic memories. Memories of the time my band and I took a Greyhound bus to L.A. to meet the head of THE pop-punk record label at the time: Drive-Thru Records.
Some of you who follow me on Twitter have asked me in the past what pop punk band I used to sing in. So I thought that writing this post could be of interest to some people. The band I was in was never huge. It was just a local band in Springfield, IL that I was in throughout high school and through the early part of college. I can say it was one of the best times of my life. Being in a band with my best friends and creating music with the sounds of the bands we loved was nothing short of amazing. The band ultimately broke up after a 5 year run and two recorded albums due to us going our separate ways to attend different colleges. We didn’t break up; however, until after our crazy trip to L.A. via a Greyhound bus.
First, a little backstory on how we got invited to meet with Drive-Thru. I would occasionally skip college classes and promote my band’s PureVolume page in MySpace band forums. These were forums catered to fans of blink-182, Sum 41, The Starting Line, New Found Glory, Green Day… Basically, all of the popular bands at the time. I spammed the heck out of those groups and enjoyed watching our song play-counts rise.
One day, and I can’t remember how exactly, one of my bandmates and I came across Richard Reines’ (Drive-Thru Records owner) AIM screen name. We must have gotten the screen name through an acquaintance from another band we knew. Again, not sure, but either way, we got it. So we did what anyone in a band would do. We immediately add him to our contacts and notice he’s online. We promptly shoot him a message. We asked him to check out our PureVolume page. He said he liked what he heard and invited us to come visit him in L.A. where we would end up staying at his house.
At the time, this was a dream come true. Drive-Thru Records was THE label to be on and most of our favorite bands were on their lineup. With him inviting us, I immediately jump to the conclusion that he likes us so much that he wants to sign us. I mean, why would he invite us all the way out to L.A. to meet with him otherwise? Silly me. So, we notify the other band members and we schedule a time to go out to Cali.
The drive there was absolutely terrible and we did such a horrible job of planning. We hopped on the full-to-the-brim Greyhound bus for our two-day trek across the country. Trying to sleep at night in an upright position was not easy. At one point during the night, the guys and I were in the way back of the bus next to the bathroom when a guy walks back to use the shitter. The guy keeps the door open and reads the newspaper while sitting on the toilet! There was another time where I was randomly punched in the face for no reason whatsoever and resulted in the dude getting kicked off the bus. Another random dude tried talking us into letting him stay with us (fucking weird, right?). Once we arrived in L.A., we had no idea how to get to where we really needed to go, so we asked a different random guy on our bus if his partner, who was picking him up, could give us a ride to the Sherman Oaks area.
We finally get to Sherman Oaks where Drive-Thru Records was located but my bandmate who got Richard’s AIM screen name only had a P.O. Box address. So at this point, we’re four Midwest dudes basically lost in sunny and super hot Los Angeles because a P.O. Box address does us no good. Long story short: I can’t remember how we found the actual physical address of the label, but we get it and wind up at the doorstep of the label. We meet Richard. He gives us a tour of the office space. Excited and thinking we’re getting ready to sit down to discuss our band, Richard says he has plans to go out to eat. He didn’t think we would actually show up. Oh well. So he drops us off in some shopping area and tells us he’ll pick us up later.
We wait. He finally picks us up and we head back to his super huge awesome house. We get cleaned up and then we have the meeting we’ve been waiting for. At this point, we’ve recorded two albums. Both sounded pretty good considering our low budget. However, before we traveled to California, we rushed into a friend’s studio to record some newer songs. We loved our new songs, they were catchier, they were harder, but the recordings were garbage. Not sure what happened, but some songs would have sections with instruments missing. Anyways, when it was time for the meeting, our dumb asses show Richard our new shitty songs and not the cleaner recordings of the older songs he originally listened to. He wasn’t exactly thrilled with those newer recordings. He offered some critiques. And that was it. No record deal. We left the meeting. We went to bed in a nearby room. Woke up the next morning to catch the next Greyhound bus out of town without a record deal that I was so hoping for.
I’m not sure why we didn’t show him the older stuff that he actually liked well enough to actually invite us to meet with him. I think we were somewhat starstruck and weren’t thinking straight. If we could replay that meeting over, I think we would have done it much, much differently. Either way, I guess I can say that I was in a band that was good enough to get the attention of one of the most influential labels ever for pop punk. And that’s pretty cool.
Thank you!
As always, thank you so much for reading and being a subscriber! If you have a friend who may be interested in this weekly newsletter, feel free to forward them this email and they can sign up here!
Cheers,
Tyler Winters, Founder
All Punked Up