Punk Goes Pop Volume 5- Various Artists

Hey, y'all! It's been a while since I've been on here! But, I've been wanting to do a blog for a while, and decided to talk about another CD on my shelf! As always, I put my iTunes on shuffle and, and the CD containing the first song that played is the one I'll be talking about!

Release Date: November 6, 2012

Genre: Alternative, Post-Hardcore, Punk

Track Listing
Since This CD is comprised entirely of different bands' covers of songs, I'll list the band beside the track.

1. Grenade- Memphis May Fire
2. Call Me Maybe- Upon This Dawning
3. Somebody That I Used To Know- Mayday Parade ft. Vic Fuentes
4. Glad You Came- We Came as Romans
5. Some Nights- Like Moths to Flames
6. Billie Jean- Breathe Carolina
7. We Found Love- Forever The Sickest Kids
8. Boyfriend- Issues
9. Girls Just Want to Have Fun- The Maine ft. Adam Lazzara
10. Payphone- Crown The Empire
11. Paradise- Craig Owens
12. Mercy- The Word Alive
13. A** Back Home- Secrets

About the CD:  Punk Goes Pop 5 is the most recent release in Fearless Records' "Punk Goes..." series. Besides pop, there have also been releases covering Rap/Hip Hop, Metal, and (my personal favorite) Classic Rock. Other releases include 2 acoustic "Punk Goes..." CDs, as well as an 80's CD and 90's CD. Punk Goes Pop has been the longest running series. The next release will be Punk Goes Christmas sometime near the end of this year.

IMHO: I'm a big fan of the "Punk Goes..." series. The only thing that bothers me about them is that I only enjoy a certain level of unclean vocals (screaming) in songs, and often, I'd just prefer if the songs were sung rather than some bands deciding to scream and sing. I feel like each CD, though good, is hit and miss. There are some I'm really excited about and others that I just never listen to. I also sometimes have some issues with the songs they consider to be "pop." Some songs they choose are alternative songs that happened to make it big on the radio, and I don't think that makes them pop, even though they are popular. But I'll get more into that when I get into the songs.

Since there are multiple artists on this CD, I'm going to do something a little different and talk about each song and artist individually... as well as the original song, because there are some songs on this CD that I had definite opinions on before hearing their covers.


Grenade- Memphis May Fire: I think this is a pretty good cover. I don't really listen to Memphis May Fire, but from what I have heard, it seems like they mostly have unclean vocals, so I enjoyed hearing what clean vocals they have to offer. Not my favorite song on the CD, but not a bad start either. I definitely prefer this cover over the original track, but the original isn't too bad. Bruno Mars is pretty OK in my book.

Call Me Maybe- Upon This Dawning: I have mixed feelings about this song. I really like the parts with the clean vocals. I'm not a big fan of this band's style of unclean vocals. I've never heard of this band, and they're also the only band on the CD that doesn't have a Wikipedia page. So, they seem to be relatively unknown. Overall, I like the clean vocals/vocalist, and what they've done with the instruments. It's hard to be worse than the original, but I feel like if they'd stuck with clean vocals, it would have been more successful.

Somebody That I Used To Know- Mayday Parade ft. Vic Fuentes: Mayday Parade has been featured on most "Punk Goes..." CDs that I have, and for a good reason: they do really great covers. They improve on the music but keep the clean vocals, which is how I really like to have it done. Also, they have Vic Fuentes (lead singer of Pierce The Veil, one of my favorite bands) singing the girl parts, which is just perfect. As always, I think they delivered a great cover. I also really loved the original song, so I was really excited that they were covering it. Since I love the original so much, it's hard to beat it, but I feel like this is definitely right on par with it. This is one of those songs that I thought shouldn't be considered pop, but this is my favorite song on the CD, so I'll let it slide.

Glad You Came- We Came as Romans: I actually haven't listened to this track very much. But, as I'm listening to it right now, I'm really liking it. I like the way that they're including the unclean vocals as the background vocals and as part of one verse. I haven't listened to much from this band, but I'm pretty sure they're another that's really heavy on the unclean vocals. I'm really liking the clean vocalist for this band as well. I didn't really have much of an opinion on the song before, and I'd have to say I really enjoy what they did with the cover.

Some Nights- Like Moths to Flames: When I discovered the original Some Nights in early 2012, I fell in love. That's why this cover hurts a bit. I like the grit that they added to the beginning of the song, and honestly, it's a pretty good cover (a bit heavy on the unclean vocals, but that's subjective). But, I just can't like it. I like the original too much.

Billie Jean- Breathe Carolina: Don't hurt me, but I'm really not a Michael Jackson fan. I like that this cover is a nice little relief from the heavy post-hardcore of the majority of the first few tracks... well, for most of the song. There's a cool breakdown at the end. This is another band I haven't really listened to much outside of this song, but I like this cover. And I like it better than the original, but only because I'm not a Michael fan. Seriously, you're talking to the girl who prefers both the Alien Ant Farm and dueling cellos versions of Smooth Criminal a lot more than the Michael version. Sorry, not sorry.

We Found Love- Forever The Sickest Kids: I really really hate Rihanna. Like a lot. She's probably among my least favorite singers ever. I do, however, like Forever The Sickest Kids. But this song, not so much. The way they arranged some of it is just weird and there was randomly screaming even though FTSK doesn't have unclean vocals normally. I'm just not a fan of the way they handled the cover.

Boyfriend- Issues: I feel like you already probably have an idea of how I feel about Justin Bieber. I absolutely cannot stand him, and the first time I heard the original song, I cringed so many times I probably looked like I was having a seizure. My reaction to this was the exact opposite. I really love this cover, thought I'd never heard of the band before this song. I like the unclean vocals and the way they're incorporated into the song. The clean vocalist isn't my favorite, but I think his voice works for the song. I also really enjoy tricking my friends with it, and when they actually hear it, they appreciate my music a bit more. Overall, this is one of my favorites on the CD.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun- The Maine ft. Adam Lazzara: I'm not a big fan of the original song, and I can't really say that I've ever heard it all the way through. I do really like the cover though. The Maine is one of my personal favorite bands featured on the CD, and I also like Taking Back Sunday, the band Adam Lazzara sings in. I wish they'd done a different song, because there's not too much that could convince me to really like this song. But, I do like what they did with it, so kudos to that!

Payphone- Crown The Empire: Crown The Empire is another band I believe is mostly screaming. Once again, I feel like the song would be stronger with just clean vocals, but I really like the way they incorporated the unclean vocals. They seemed to fit in really well. Overall, I'm pretty impressed with the cover, but I definitely prefer the original. It's really hard for anyone to top Adam Levine in my mind.

Paradise- Craig Owens: This is another one that left me a bit annoyed by what they consider to be "pop". Sure, this song became really popular, but it's still an alternative song. This cover got some crap for being lackluster, but I like that it's true to the original. HOWEVER, I feel like it may be a bit too true to the original. I wish it was just a little more punk. Just a little more punkified and it would get a significant amount more play on my iTunes. Don't get me wrong, though- I still really enjoy this cover!

Mercy- The Word Alive: My least favorite on the album. They literally just scream their way through a crappy song, and then do a barely intelligible rap later in the song. I dunno, I just wasn't impressed. I think I understood maybe like two words of the lyrics. Two thumbs down.

A** Back Home- Secrets: I've never even heard of this band before, but I like what they did with the song. I like the difference between the verses with unclean vocals and heavy guitar and the chorus with minimal instruments. Definitely far above the original song.

Favorite Songs: I'd have to say that my favorite covers are definitely Somebody That I Used To Know, Boyfriend, Paradise, and Grenade. I also like Glad You Came, Payphone, and A** Back Home.

Video! 

Somebody That I Used To Know cover

Boyfriend cover (lyric video)


Rating: 6/10. Beside the few winners, quite a few of these songs are completely mediocre.

Hope you liked my newest "The CDs on my Shelf" post! Want to know more information about the CD? Less? or just different info? Or is what I put good? What did you think of punk going pop? Let me know all of this in the comments. If you like my posts, I'd really appreciate if you'd subscribe, because it lets me know y'all are liking them! Hope you enjoyed! Comment, comment, comment! I love feedback! Thanks for reading!

Hawthorne Heights- Fragile Future

Release Date: August 5, 2008

Genre: Post-hardcore, Emo

Track Listing

1.       The Business Of Paper Stars

2.       Rescue Me

3.       Until The Judgement Day

4.       Somewhere In Between

5.       Sugar In The Engine

6.       Desperation

7.       Four Became One

8.       321

9.       Disaster

10.   Let Go Of Everything You Know

11.   Corps of Corpses

12.   Come Back Home (Reprised)

On this CD, Hawthorne Heights is:
JT Woodruff- vocals, guitar
Micah Carli- guitar
Matt Ridenour- bass, backup vocals
Eron Bucciarelli- drums

About Hawthorne Heights: I don't really know a ton about them, but there are some important things I should talk about. They released their first CD, The Silence In Black and White, in 2004. Their first single off of this CD is also probably their most well-known song, Ohio Is For Lovers. Then, in 2006, they released If Only You Were Lonely. Their third album, Fragile Future, was released in 2008. These are the only 3 CDs I have by them, although they have released 2 CDs since- Skeletons in 2010, and Zero last month. There was a very abrupt lineup change between albums 2 &3, which I'll talk about in the "About The CD" bit, because it had an impact on the CD.

My opinion about Hawthorne Heights: I’m not a huge Hawthorne Heights fan, although I have 3 of their CDs. It’s kinda odd, but the bands that are more mainstream, as in regular people who listen to top 40 stations (bands like Fall Out Boy and Panic! At The Disco) often aren’t ones I like A LOT. While I may enjoy their music, I’m usually not a devoted fan. I think I may have mentioned this in a previous post. It’s like this with Hawthorne Heights. While I like this CD and a lot of the songs on it, I only really like their singles on their other CDs.

About The CD: One thing that had a big effect on this CD was the sudden death of band member Casey Calvert. Casey did the guitar and unclean vocals for the band. While they were on tour in 2007, he was found dead in the tour bus. He died in his sleep of an accidental drug overdose. Two songs on the CD (Four Became One, Sugar In The Engine) were inspired by his death, and it brought the band closer together, and lead to this being, in my opinion, their best CD.

IMHO: This is my favorite CD by them. But it also holds a special place in my heart for another reason. I bought this CD back in 2009 when it was fairly new. When I opened the case, I realized that there was a second CD inside. This CD had a random selection of music videos by other artists on Victory Records (the label HH was on). I was really interested in listening to some new music, so I popped it into my DVD player. I really liked a lot of the songs, and still have a lot of them on my iPod now. These included “I Didn’t Mean To Interrupt…” by Jamies Elsewhere, a “Since U Been Gone” cover by A Day To Remember, “Still Dreaming” by Silverstein, and some songs by a band named 1997, a band that I never researched much further… but the songs on the CD are great! Anyway, among these songs, I found the music video for a song called “Warm Me Up” by The Audition. I had never heard of The Audition, but I really liked this song. The Audition is now one of my top 5 favorite bands ever, and I never would have found them without this CD.

Favorite Songs: Somewhere In Between is definitely my favorite song on the CD.

Other Gems: Sugar In The Engine, Desperation, Four Became One, 321

Video!

Music Video for Somewhere In Between

Four Became One

Rating: 7.5/10. There are a lot of songs on the CD that I really like, and the rest I just never really listen to.

Hope you liked my newest "The CDs on my Shelf" post! What did you think? Want to know more information about the CD? Less? or just different info? Or is what I put good? What did you think of Hawthorne Heights? Did you already hate them? I know a lot of people do. Let me know all of this in the comments. If you like my posts, I'd really appreciate if you'd subscribe, because it lets me know y'all are liking them! Still taking comments on the time they're posted, because if you haven't noticed, I schedule them to post at the same time, as I'm either asleep or at work at noon! Hope you enjoyed! Check back at noon tomorrow, because might possibly be a new post. Not totally sure. Comment, comment, comment! I love feedback! Thanks for reading!

Pierce The Veil- Collide With The Sky

Release Date: July 17, 2012

Genre: post-hardcore

Track Listing

1. May These Noises Startle You In Your Sleep Tonight
2. Hell Above
3. A Match Into Water
4. King For A Day (Ft. Kellin Quinn of Sleeping With Sirens)
5. Bulls In The Bronx
6. Props & Mayhem
7. Tangled In The Great Escape (Ft. Jason Butler
8. I'm Low On Gas And You Need A Jacket
9. The First Punch
10. One Hundred Sleepless Nights
11. Staind Class And Colorful Tears
12. Hold On Till May (Ft. Lindsay Stamey)
13. I'm Low On Gas And You Need A Jacket (alt. version)
14. Hold On 'Till May (acoustic)

Pierce The Veil is:
Vic Fuentes- lead vocals, guitar, keyboard
Tony Perry- lead guitar
Jaime Preciado- bass, backup vocals
Mike Fuentes- drums, percussion

PTV, L-R: Jaime, Tony, Vic, Mike

About Pierce The Veil: The band was formed in 2006 by brothers Vic and Mike. Jaime and Tony joined the band in 2007. Collide With The Sky is the band's 3rd CD, after A Flair For The Dramatic in 2007 and Selfish Machines in 2010. A Flair For The Dramatic was actually released before Jaime and Tony joined, so the first PTV album is all the Fuentes brothers! PTV fans (especially those on Tumblr) often think of the bands Sleeping With Sirens and All Time Low when thinking of PTV. The 3 bands are all close friends and have done tours together. Sleeping With Sirens is especially compared to PTV because, like Kellin Quinn from SWS, Vic has a very unique voice that is especially high pitched for a guy. And, of course, on "King For A Day" on this album, the two collab!

My Opinion about Pierce The Veil: I really like them! I've only been listening to them since January, but I've definitely fallen in love with their music. I really like the unique tone to Vic's voice. There's seriously NO mistaking him with anyone else- not even Kellin. PTV is definitely in my top 20 bands, but that's about as far as they go... right now, at least. The more I listen to their music, especially Collide With The Sky, the more I want to move them up on the totem pole.

About the CD:  Since its release last year, it's been a real success for the band. Many consider it to be their best album to date. One key to that success is "King For A Day" because of Kellin Quinn, making the song essentially a PTV/SWS collab, and those are pretty much the two biggest bands in post-hardcore. King For A Day was voted as the best collab of 2012 by Alternative Press readers.

IMHO: It's definitely my favorite Pierce The Veil album. The other two were good, but I just REALLY like Collide With The Sky.

Favorite songs: King For A Day, for sure. I love the combination of Kellin and Vic and their screaming and singing. I also really love Hell Above as well.

Other gems: Bulls In The Bronx, Props & Mayhem, I'm Low On Gas And You Need A Jacket (the first version, One Hundred Sleepless Nights, Staind Glass And Colorful Tears

Video!

 Music Video for King For A Day ft. Kellin Quinn

Music Video for Hell Above

Rating: 8/10. I really like several songs, but don't listen to many of the songs past those.

Hope you liked my newest "The CDs on my Shelf" post! What did you think? Want to know more information about the CD? Less? or just different info? Or is what I put good? What do you think of Pierce The Veil? Let me know all of this in the comments. If you like my posts, I'd really appreciate if you'd subscribe, because it lets me know y'all are liking them! Still taking comments on the time they're posted, because if you haven't noticed, I schedule them to post at the same time, as I'm either asleep or at work at noon! Hope you enjoyed! Check back at noon tomorrow, because there will definitely be a new post. Comment, comment, comment! I love feedback! Thanks for reading!

Schedule for The CDs On My Shelf... Kinda

OK, as you can see, there is NOT a new post today. My humblest apologies. There will definitely be one on Monday, and I even have a CD randomly selected and everything. I figured I would take this time to create a pseudo schedule for the blog. And by pseudo... I mean EXTREMELY pseudo. I only have a couple things nailed down.

For starters, I'm 99% sure that I'm not going to post on Sundays, partially because I have to wake up early every Sunday and I just don't want to stay up super late on Saturday writing a post. I can function on very little sleep, but I'd rather not test it too much.

I work ~30 hours every week, so I usually have a couple days off. My plan is to have at least 3 posts a week. That'll be more for busier weeks. On an average week, it'll be about 4. And if I'm having an exceptionally free week, I'll squeeze in a fifth. For example, the week starting June 30, I have more days off than I usually do. So I'll probably do 5 that week. Overall, since I have schedules a while in advance, at the end of each post, I'll give y'all an idea when the next one will be. For example, I know that my next post will be on Monday at noon. I have Monday off, so you'll be getting another on Tuesday, and probably another on Wednesday, since I don't work late Tuesday night. I'm unsure after that, but there definitely won't be another until Saturday. So keep posted for that. From here on out, just make sure you're reading my final paragraph, because I'll definitely give you info about when the next post will be out. But for now, just know that some sweet sweet music is headed your way on Monday, and IMO, it's a pretty good one! It's also another fairly recent one as well- July 2012. Guesses and comments are welcome, and the answer will come 24 hours from the time this is posted. Happy guessing!

Sleeping With Sirens- Feel

Out of some weird coincidence, this next post is actually about the most recent CD I bought.
Let's start this out with some basic info about the CD:

Release Date: June 4, 2013

Genre: Post-hardcore, pop punk 

Track Listing

1. Feel
2. Here We Go
3. Free Now
4. Alone
5. I'll Take You There
6. The Best There Ever Was
7. Low
8. Congratulations
9. Deja Vu
10. These Things I've Done
11. Sorry
12. Satellites

Sleeping With Sirens Is:
Kellin Quinn- lead vocals
Jack Fowler- lead guitar, keyboard
Jesse Lawson- backup vocals, rhythm guitar
Justin Hills- bass guitar
Gabe Barham- drums

About Sleeping With Sirens: To date, they have released 3 CDs (including Feel) and 1 EP. Their debut, With Ears To See, and Eyes To Hear was released in 2010. This CD was definitely more intense than any of their other releases, with much more screaming parts. Their sophomore album, Let's Cheers to This, was released in 2011. The next year, their EP, If You Were A Movie, This Would Be Your Soundtrack, was released. This was an entirely acoustic album, including some of their previous songs performed acoustically, as well as new acoustic songs. The key to the band's sound is almost certainly Kellin Quinn's uniquely high voice for a male, as well as his attractiveness making him popular among teenage girls. SWS is definitely one of 'those' bands where everyone knows the lead singer, but many cannot even name other members.

The SWS boys. L-R: Gabe, Jack, Kellin, Justin, Jesse

About the CD: The CD features a lot of collabs with other musicians, and although it's a bit of a different direction, it's been received fairly positively by fans and critics alike

IMHO: So far, I've liked the CD pretty well, but I'm still at the point where I haven't listened to it enough times to know all the words to every song, or even be able to differentiate some songs. There are some that I really like, but I'm still in the beginning stages of my appreciation for it. 

Favorite songs: I'd say that right now, Free Now is my favorite track, because of the meaning behind it. It's about Kellin's family and how he wants to be a good father to his daughter, Copeland.

Other gems: Feel, Alone, The Best There Ever Was, Low, Congratulations, Deja Vu. While the other songs are really good, I haven't listened to them enough to like them much.

Video!

Music Video for Alone, ft. MGK

Lyric video for Free Now

Rating: 8/10. Pretty good CD. It has yet to make it into a normal rotation in my iTunes, but I do really like all the songs on it.

Hope you liked my second "The CDs on my Shelf" post! What did you think? Want to know more information about the CD? Less? or just different info? Or is what I put good? What did you think of Sleeping With Sirens? Let me know all of this in the comments. Also, any opinion on the time? I had it automatically set to post at 12, since I worked all day. Unless I get any other preferences or info, it'll be posted at 12- maybe not every day, but many days. Hope you enjoyed! Check back at noon tomorrow to see if there's a new post!