Modern Short Stories

Here’s a playlist of all the crazy animated phone calls that celebs are makin’ to our very own Chris Fafalios.

My personal favorites are:

Drake

Fat Mike

Me (had to)

Enjoy!

Steve

Chris Fafalios Animated Phone Calls

“No Stopping Us” is the latest track from Punchline’s forthcoming album Thrilled, available December 4th, 2015 on InVogue Records.

You can stream it here via the label’s Youtube channel.

  Punchline stream new song No Stopping Us

Today Nashville turned Abu Dhabi indie rock outfit We Speak In Colors release their new song Holy Land, which was produced here at Modern Short Stories.

According to Andrew Armstrong, the man behind We Speak In Colors, Holy Land was written  “In a basement in Somerset, shed in ebensburg, attic on Nantucket, and bedroom / studio in Nashville.” This journey has now taken him across the sea to live in Abu Dhabi.

We Speak In Colors – “Holy Land”

Written by Andrew Armstrong

Produced by Steve Soboslai @ Modern Short Stories

Drums by Grady Saxman

Bass guitar by Rich Condon

Album photo by Alaina Latona

For fans of: Bright Eyes, The Postal Service, The Weakerthans

We Speak In Colors release their new song Holy Land

Hey everybody,

Who wants free vinyl + posters + Japanese CD’s you ain’t never seen before?

Hi, Steve from Punchline + Modern Short Stories here. Punchline’s video for “Tell Me How You Sleep” premiered this week on Billboard.com. We’re pretty Thrilled about this. We could get press like that even when we were on Fueled By Ramen. It feels like things are lining up for us, and for that we are very appreciated of all of our friends and listeners and supports.

We’ve got a goal for this video. We want to see it get ONE MILLION VIEWS. We’ve never had a million views. And quite honestly, we think if it got a million views that it would be a cool accomplishment and would mean that probably a whole slew of new people have heard the music we worked so hard to make. Thinking about it makes me so excited.

To get this puppy out there, we figured it’d be cool to run a contest. U down?

BACK TO THE FUTURE FACEBOOK CONTEST

(Only called this because everyone is posting about B2TF this week)

Here’s how it works.

Post this YouTube link (https://youtu.be/pUrkLHsVQaA) on your Facebook (make sure it’s a public post!)

Add your own caption to the video, like, “best song of life” or “these guys are the next 2Pac). The more interaction you can inspire the better you guys (thanks).

Use the hashtag #tellmehowyousleep in the post. That’s how we’ll find you and enter you into the drawing for PRIZES. All entries must be dated 10/23/15 or later.

HERE ARE THE PRIZES

EVERYONE will receive a digital download of a new acoustic version of “Caller 10” that I, Steve, recorded last week. There’s a story behind it. More on that soon.

Three contestants will receive a Thrilled compact disc. :: AND (DRUM ROLL, PLEASE) ::

The grand prize package is: -Thrilled vinyl LP -Action CD (Japanese version with “Play” as bonus track) -Delightfully Pleased on cassette -37 Everywhere Poster -An original drawing by Chris Fafalios -An acoustic voice memo cover from Steve of whatever song you want -Cory’s baby toe (pending his approval)

We will choose the winners at random within the next week and announce them this Thursday night, 10/29.

You down? That would be sick. Let us know if you have any questions!

You know, we went into the studio with a collection of songs that we loved. Some people might say that we took some “chances” with this album, but it’s not really much of a “chance” if it sounds good to us and makes us feel good. Making songs that we love has always been our intention with this band, and we have done that again. In fact, we believe that we have made our best album yet. We hope you feel the same!

Whether you are moved to tears, inspired to change your life, or even just inclined to tap your foot to the beat, we are THRILLED as always that you took the time to listen to our music.

THANK YOU LOVE YOU PEACE

-Steve, Chris, & Cory

I’m thrilled to show you the new Punchline song and trippy music video for “Tell Me How You Sleep”, which premiered this week via Billboard.com.

The video was animated and directed by Devin Ensz. Punchline’s album “Thrilled” comes out December 4th, 2015 on InVogue Records

  Punchline – “Tell Me How You Sleep” music video

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I started a band with my friends. They were the only people that would start a band with me, and that was plenty enough for me. We made a plan to practice the next day and we did. We learned how to play Green Day’s song “One Of My Lies.”

I had never sang before, but sure why not. I sounded terrible, but it was a good enough place to start. Our bassist Chris would sing, too. He brought in songs he wrote from home. He wrote out the lyrics in his gorgeously cartoony handwriting and drew little pictures on them. Our songs were shaky, but they were enough to fill our drummer PJ’s basement with friends who came to watch us imitate our favorite bands (MXPX, Less Than Jake, Rancid – though thinking of myself imitating Tim Armstrong now gives me a good laugh).

We went to college out of high school because it was expected of us, but we had other plans. Our friend Paul joined the band and every weekend we’d bail out of Pittsburgh to see how far we could get and still be back for class on Monday. All weekend we’d drive insane distances to play shows that certainly weren’t worth those long distances, but it didn’t matter.

The four of us poured all of our time into our band. There was nothing else. We honestly played pretty much any show we were asked to. We found ourselves thrown across the country to places like El Paso, where we somehow opened up for RX Bandits (we had asked to play and someone had said yes, likely because they couldn’t believe we had the nerve).

We came back home for less and less time. Within a few years, we had played a thousand shows. We made friends around the country. We grew more confident. Confident enough to walk up to Henry Rollins at a truckstop and give him a CD (if anyone wants to hear that full story, I would love to tell it).

We always did what felt natural to us. Other bands were pitching themselves to record labels, but it felt more natural to us to tour a lot and wait to see if anyone took notice. This somehow worked out tremendously; we signed to Fueled By Ramen and toured with all these crazy bands who started blowing up and practically becoming sex symbols (what’s up Pete). We, however, wore big floppy Dickies shorts all the time and literally had no style. It’s cool though. It’s pretty funny actually.

We found ourselves in more and more crazy places. In countries outside of our own. On stages in rooms that were (finally) packed. We played our hearts out, just like we had back when the rooms were far from packed.

We didn’t want to ride the coattails of our famous friends, because this seemed unnatural and, for lack of a better word, pretty icky. For the first time, things started to slow down. We began touring much less. It was a relief to be home for a while, but it was also a little scary that we didn’t know what would come next.

I remember spending a lot of time in my bedroom, making some really cool and different song ideas. Songwriting was the constant that kept me driving, even when I didn’t know who or what I was writing these songs for.

Some of our brothers took breaks from being in the band. At the time, I was angry with them, but looking back it all makes sense. Those kinds of breaks or departures are totally natural. I wish I hadn’t been so dramatic about it, but at that time I also had a soul patch, so that’s just one of many things I wish I could go back and change.

As people inevitably do, we grew up. We developed our own lives outside of the band. Explored other creative avenues. I took it as far to as to move to another city, to try and wipe the creative slate clean I guess. Nashville is filled with amazing, creative people doing really awesome things in music. There were opportunities to make a little bit of money through music, but I quickly found out that most of them didn’t have much heart.

I began to realize (again): Stick with your people. Grow with your people. Stop trying to climb some creative ladder to be on the bottom rung of someone else’s thought or the next big trend. Create your own world so one day you and your people can thrive in it.

In our case, those people came to our shows for years. We got to know some of them as friends. They bought our records. They let us sleep on their floors when we played in their town. They participated in an experiment in 2012 to help us break the top ten on iTunes (thanks again you guys). These are the people that matter. To me, starting a band should have everything to do with creativity and personal connection and very little with the music industry.

When we started sending our (admittedly, very different) new record THRILLED out to people in the music industry, many of them told us that we should change our band name. That we should “re-brand” ourselves to fit with our “new sound”. We weren’t cool with that.

This record may be different from what you’re used to hearing from Punchline, but as so many people are so quick to tell us, we’re older now. You can’t play the same kind of music forever, but what you can do is continue to write songs the same way you always have: by collaborating and letting things happen naturally, regardless of genre or trends. That’s how we made Action, and that’s how we made Thrilled, and that’s how we’ll make every album after.

We found an unlikely home for this record on a label called InVogue Records. Yes, they are primarily a hardcore label, but our good friend Nick (who owns the label) believes in our band and that belief trumps all. I’ve known him forever and have met his parents and their weird French dogs. Nick, if you’re reading this we love what you’re doing and I’m sorry I sent you the wrong version of the music video the other day.

Animator Devin Ensz came on board shortly after and spent over THREE HUNDRED HOURS making the music video that’s coming out on Tuesday, hand-tracing every frame. It’s insane how much time he put into this. But all these people – that’s what it’s about.

So what I’m saying is: Find your people. Start a band, or something else. Do amazing things. Not everyone will see eye to eye, but you are a unit. You are greater than the sum of your parts. And down the line, when someone tells you to change your name and rebrand to fit the latest trends, tell them to fuck off. (And hey, even though our new album doesn’t sound “punk”, that’s definitely the most punk thing I’ve ever written on the internet).

A few years ago we made a little tiny dent in the music universe with the help of our people. Come Tuesday, we’re hoping to do it again and show the BIZ that no, we’re not going to abandon our past. Because it doesn’t matter. What matters is that we’re here, doing what we love and just being thrilled to still be together after all this time.

This is why you should start a band.

Steve Soboslai

UPDATE

One more thought to add to “Why You Should Start A Band.” Band dudes and dudettes, I think you’ll know what I mean.

We were all willing to put our lives on the line because there was nothing we wanted more than to see our band grow and write and perform and succeed. I can say pretty confidently that that alone was the biggest factor in us ever accomplishing anything.

Had we had the attitude of ‘well, let’s put out this record and see what happens’ – I don’t think we’d have ever done a thing. While blind conviction might not be the most efficient approach, you can get a lot of mileage out of it while you figure out the rest.

Honestly, if presented with the chance now – I might not be smart enough to start a band again with the same people. But that commitment I made in one second, without really thinking about it “Yeah sure let’s start a band” – is the best thing I ever did.

Back in July I traveled with Badboxes to Ft. Worth, TX, to the Music Bed headquarters. What is Music Bed?

Music Bed is a music licensing website that does “curated content for the exceptional creative”. This is a place where filmmakers, commercial producers, and really making a video to put on the internet can properly license music from Music Bed for their project.

They brought the band in for their new series Music Bed Sessions. This is one of the best live videos of a band I’ve ever seen. Bravo Music Bed! Thanks for having us.

Here’s “JSMN” by Badboxes. Pick up the whole album JSMN on iTunes or stream it on Spotify and Soundcloud.

Nashville Indie Rock is We Speak In Colors.

Here’s the latest from the Modern Short Stories studio. This song is called “Black Bears” by @WeSpeakInColors. For fans of Nada Surf, Death Cab For Cutie, and Bright Eyes.

Check out Badboxes album Violet now available for listening on YouTube.

Harrison from Badboxes sent me a folder of samples to post for anyone who wants to download them and use in their music. Enjoy!

Download them here.

Photo by @jmy_jam.

In the sample folder there’s an Mp3 of “Palm Tree” from the latest Badboxes release VIOLET.

  It’s a GREAT thing to see your people get recognized by the big dogs for just being really good at what they do. Here’s the official remix of FOB’s new single ft. Wiz Khalifa produced by BADBOXES + ID LABS.

Badboxes teams up with ID Labs on Fall Out Boy’s official Uma Thurman Remix featuring Wiz Khalifa

www.badboxes.com | soundcloud.com/badboxes | facebook.com/badboxes

  Here is a new Blue of Colors song called “Run” that I wrote/produced in promotion of Eric Smith’s brand new novel INKED, available now through Bloomsbury Spark.

Blue of Colors – “Run”

Run by Blue of Colors

www.blueofcolors.bandcamp.com | www.blueofcolors.com

In case you missed this last week… Punchline is Thrilled, apparently.

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Post by Punchline.

  Oh, the power of “writing it down.” Before making my EOTY list, I wouldn’t have thought this year to be an exceptional year in music. But now that it’s completed, I’m all excited about making music myself in 2015. Here are my top 9 favorite songs, in no order!

There are 24 more songs on the playlist, too. Death to rounded numbers. Oh and, they might not all be from this year, so GET OFF MY BACK. Also, please note that I used a bulleted list to keep things organized.

Thanks for reading. Happy New Year!

  MODERN SHORT STORIES BEST SONGS OF 2014

St. Vincent – “Prince Johnny”

Cloud Nothings – “Now Hear In”

Sondre Lerche – “Bad Law”

Badboxes – “Palmtree”

Copeland – “Ordinary”

The Kooks – “Around Town”

Prince of Spain – “Rising Sun”

I Am The Avalanche – “Where Were You”

Modern Baseball – “Your Graduation”

Have you ever heard a song and thought, “Wait, that sounds like another song I know?” Sure you have. As a songwriter, I’m always sending song ideas around to friends to verify the idea came from me, and not from another song by someone else, tucked away in my brain somewhere. I remember one time thinking I had this great chorus—it turned out to be Toni Braxton’s “Unbreak My Heart.” Go figure. I honestly don’t remember ever hearing that song before I had the idea.

Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me” was one of the most inescapable tracks of 2014. Something about it seemed familiar the first few times I heard it, before realizing the chorus sounds just like the verse to Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.” I thought about this every time the song came on. How could Sam Smith do that without realizing it?? Listen for yourself.

I saw others making similar comments online. Some went as far to say that Tom Petty should sue Sam Smith for ripping him off. It should be noted that it wasn’t just Petty that wrote the tune. “I Won’t Back Down” was co-written with producer Jeff Lynne, who is most well known as the frontman/creator of Electric Light Orchestra (“Mr. Blue Sky”, “Evil Woman”).

Their comments, and the whole thing in general, reminded me of claims in 2006 that Red Hot Chili Peppers ripped off Tom Petty’s “Last Dance With Mary Jane.” I don’t think the similarities are as strong between these two songs as they are with “Stay With Me” and “I Won’t Back Down,” but I do remember reading what Tom Petty had to say about the whole thing.

Here’s a clip of the interview from RollingStone.com:

 RS: Have you heard the Red Hot Chili Peppers song “Dani California” yet, because obviously it sounds a lot like “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”?

 Petty: Yes, I have. Everyone everywhere is stopping me. The truth is, I seriously doubt that there is any negative intent there. And a lot of rock & roll songs sound alike. Ask Chuck Berry. The Strokes took “American Girl”[for their song “Last Nite”], and I saw an interview with them where they actually admitted it. That made me laugh out loud. I was like, “Okay, good for you.” It doesn’t bother me.

Did Sam Smith and “Stay With Me” co-writers James Napier and William Phillips have “negative intent”? Apparently they did not, because they gave Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne writing credits on the song, according to ASCAP.com, the main website for one of the performing rights organizations that collects and protects royalties from airplay for writers and publishers.

I’ve been unable to find out if Smith and his co-writers gave the writing credit to begin with or not, but based off of Tom Petty’s super cool attitude in handling the Red Hot Chili Peppers controversy, I’m assuming they did.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with what Sam Smith did. The amount of art in the world is near endless, as is the number of artists looking for new art projects. These “derivative works” are bound to happen. “Stay With Me” is a hit, and that’s not easy—even with Tom Petty’s help.

Rap and hip-hop have been taking advantage of pre-existing hooks for over twenty years now. Sometimes they use “samples” of the original record, and others they recreate the samples themselves, as to not have to owe any royalties to anyone for sampling the master track. What Sam Smith and company did here was different though, in that it was not blatant usage of the song. I’ve seen this happening more and more in the songwriting community. Writers incorporate hooks into their songs that are so similar to hooks from the past without being obvious enough for listeners to even realize it’s happening, but generally they’ll give a writing credit to the original songwriter(s). Or not.

And by the way, I think it’s great that Tom Petty didn’t care, although I can’t be so sure Toni Braxton would be as cool.

Let me know what you think and if you’ve noticed what song Sam Smith’s new song “I’m Not The Only One” resembles.

“Stay With Me and I Won’t Back Down” was written by Steve Soboslai

  First off I’d like to say… Pinkerton. Definitely Pinkerton.

Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo recently appeared on the popular comedic podcast “WTF with Marc Maron” to discuss the band’s latest release “Everything Will Be Alright In The End” as well as the ups and downs in his long career as a professional Weez-er. Although the conversation didn’t reveal Rivers to be the crazy person some make him out to be, these three things really stuck with me.

I’d like to list them now if that’s ok with you. Yes? Ok, great.

1. BLUE ALBUM BOUNDARIES

Rivers Cuomo’s musical career began when he threw himself into the Sunset Strip scene in 1989. Hair Metal ruled the land and Rivers dreamed of one day becoming king. As the metal died out, the band decided to take another direction. Yes, Weezer’s original sound was a complete departure from the style of music the band naturally played and/or wanted to play. They enforced strict rules like “no palm muting” and “no shredding solos” to keep themselves in line while producing the Blue album. Isn’t that crazy?? It’s a nice thought to think they arrived at that music by simply picking up guitars and playing what they played, but no – it took serious dedication to honing in on their sound. And look where it got them. Yes, they were in the right place at the right time. But no one might have ever noticed if they just did what they wanted to do. That kind of self-awareness and dedication to developing your sound is something I admire very much.

2. STILL TRYING

Rivers is still trying to write the perfect song. Yes, the guy who wrote songs like “Say It Ain’t So”, “Island In The Sun”, and “Beverly Hills” (not my fave, but was their biggest song) is still trying to write his best song. Again, it’s a wonderful thought to think that Rivers sits down to write, and then releases whatever comes out, but no – he continues to push himself to the limit, always trying to write his own version of a perfect pop song.

3. KNOW YO FANS

If you have fans – know them! Be cool to them. It’s actually a really easy thing to do. Weezer has hosted two cruises for their fans. How cool is that? Yeah, they weren’t free. Yeah, I went to… neither of them. :/ But it’s such a cool and unique thing they did. In the podcast, Rivers says they used these cruises to (unintentionally) get closer to their fans. To listen to them and get feedback about the reasons that keep them coming back. Look, it’s no secret that the biggest Weezer fans are pretty much haters when it comes to their later records (Red Album, Hurley), but how cool is it that the band is not only aware, but proactive in working with their fans to deliver a record they can love on the level of those first two classics? They brought back Blue producer Ric Ocasek (lead singer of The Cars) and set similar rules for themselves in making the new record. Obviously recreating an album with the same sentiment you had twenty years prior is near impossible, but they did their best to mesh the new with the old, and you can tell right off the bat in the first song “Ain’t Got Nobody.”

There’s something special about Weezer, in a way that being famous doesn’t necessarily grant you with specialness. To your ears, they may have strayed from the path for a few records, but their love for making Weezer records appears to be back in a brand new way.

Back to all of the things I was doing before I oddly switched gears to write a blog post about Weezer. But I must know before I go! Blue or Pinkerton?

  Stream Weezer’s “Everything Will Be Alright In The End” album on Spotify.

Also, one time Punchline covered some Weezer songs. Here’s one of them, which was recently listed on this Alternative Press “36 of your favorite bands covering Weezer” article.