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The Menzingers - new album


Broken English

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On 8/9/2019 at 2:00 PM, daveyjones said:

yea, but they cribbed it from gaslight anthem. still, i like both bands (but not bruce springsteen, go figure).

What are you even talking about?

 

They hardly ripped off Gaslight, and Gaslight doesn’t deal in nostalgic storytelling anything like Menzingers do, except for maybe a few songs on The 59 Sound. 

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1 hour ago, daveyjones said:

to my ear the nostalgic aspect is a clear component of both band's formulas.

I can see where both of you are coming from. 

I think Gaslight are more about making references to other bands, literature (i.e. Great Expectations), etc. The 59' Sound is obviously a giant reference to the 50s and Springsteen, but Handwritten is a love letter to 90s grunge bands like Pearl Jam. As the band developed, I feel their lyrics became more and more personal, with Get Hurt heavily referencing Brian Fallon's recent divorce. 

Menzingers are more about storytelling and recounting their stories. They're less abstract or referential, and more narrative driven and IMO eloquent. 

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14 minutes ago, daveyjones said:

ah thanks, that informs my perspective. the last album of theirs i have is american slang.

Handwritten is a good, polished/produced 90s rock album. Get Hurt is a bit of a mess but has some of their best tunes on it (Have Mercy and Underneath the Ground are peak Brian Fallon song writing IMO).

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I always considered the Menzingers Gaslight's more real life, down to earth, pop/punk cousins who reflect on life as they try to capture the nostalgic feeling of their youth. 

I love Gaslight more and I'm a sucker for Brian Fallon's nostalgia for a time and place that didn't actually exist but I think he stepped up as a songwriter when he stopped talking about "the old days". Get Hurt was fresh in terms of lyrics. No more Maria, no radio, no Cadillacs - songs like 1000 Years, Helter Skeleton, Have Mercy, Halloween, Underneath The Ground and his two solo albums all seemed to have new and more ordinary/original lyrics. 

 

 

 

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On 8/9/2019 at 4:29 PM, vic vinegar said:

Springsteen's greatest record is Radio Nowhere. Or maybe I think that because it's the only record I'veactually listened to all the way through. Not trying to be ignorant but the dude gets repetitive pretty quickly.

I gotta say, the album that has Radio Nowhere is a pretty hilariously random one to have listened to haha. He has a lot of straight up classic albums but his prime was especially in the 70s and 80s

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On 8/11/2019 at 7:18 PM, Elisa said:

I always considered the Menzingers Gaslight's more real life, down to earth, pop/punk cousins who reflect on life as they try to capture the nostalgic feeling of their youth. 

I love Gaslight more and I'm a sucker for Brian Fallon's nostalgia for a time and place that didn't actually exist but I think he stepped up as a songwriter when he stopped talking about "the old days". Get Hurt was fresh in terms of lyrics. No more Maria, no radio, no Cadillacs - songs like 1000 Years, Helter Skeleton, Have Mercy, Halloween, Underneath The Ground and his two solo albums all seemed to have new and more ordinary/original lyrics. 

 

 

 

 

Nailed it. 

 

Except for the loving Gaslight more bit haha. The Menzingers are probably my favourite band at the moment. 

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On 8/11/2019 at 8:14 AM, daveyjones said:

to my ear the nostalgic aspect is a clear component of both band's formulas.

It’s a very different brand of nostalgia, you can hardly say one ripped off the other. 

 

Gaslight (up until American Slang anyway) dealt in the old Americana kind of folklore, a time and a place that never really was.

 

The Menzingers are more straight forward storytellers, the universality of what they’re writing is so relatable, irrespective of whether you’ve lived it or not. Take Lookers, Casey and Anna as exhibits A, B and C. 

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On 8/13/2019 at 5:26 AM, Broken English said:

It’s a very different brand of nostalgia, you can hardly say one ripped off the other.

it's true... i was being a *bit* cheeky. they both formed in 2006 and played in the same scene, so i'm sure they each heard what the other was doing.

sidenote: gaslight had deeply personal lyrics, even before the more recent albums.

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13 hours ago, Broken English said:

America (You’re Freaking Me Out)...

great tune, amazing lyrics:

On the lonely end of history, swingin' and swayin' to the murder mystery.
Rhyme and reason fled the crime scene of new penthouses next to tents in the streets.

Oh, how do I steer my early 30's, before I shipwreck, before I'm 40.
Oh, ain't it a shame what we choose to ignore...
What kind of monsters did our parents vote for?

Lately I feel like I'm in puppet Vichy, France, tryin' to teach the devil how to dance.

To these sing-alongs of siren songs,
To ooh's to ahh's,
To big applause,
With all of my anger I scream and shout,
America, I love you but you're freaking me out.

Driving through the Bible Belt, billboards claiming how Jesus felt.
Oh, how'd his words confuse themselves?
With cranks for Christians in powerful positions.

I've always felt like all their pomp and circumstance is just cover for the devil to dance.

To these sing-alongs of siren songs,
To ooh's to ahh's,
To big applause,
With all of my anger I scream and shout,
America, I love you but you're freaking me out.

 

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