Featured Band: All Time Low

There’s always that one band you listen to in your early teen years that you never forget.

When I was 13, I discovered All Time Low and fell completely in love.

I usually like one or two songs by a band.  Four songs TOPS.

But All Time Low…they were different for me.

To date, they’ve recorded 4 albums and one EP.

The Party Scene (2005)

This album is no longer available. There are only 1,000 known CD copies.

EP: Put Up or Shut Up (2006)

So Wrong, It’s Right (2007)

Nothing Personal (2009)

They also released a “Straight to DVD” album of a live concert in New York City in 2010, along with a full-length DVD about their lives backstage and on the road.

In 2011, they released their latest album Dirty Work.

The album cover was also released in red.

They are the only band I’ve ever listened to that I have liked every single song they’ve written.  Well almost every song, I’m not a huge fan of three songs.  But other than that, I love all their music.

Until Dirty Work came out.

One thing I thought was absolutely fabulous about All Time Low, was that they never used autotune, except for one song (a version of “Coffee Shop Soundtrack”) that was CLEARLY supposed to sound super strange and synthesized.

Their latest album featured autotune and it was much more… pop that they used to be.  The lyrics were still pretty dynamic and poetic.  But they took on a co-writer for some reason.

Their three original albums are absolutely brilliant.  The lyrics make me want to laugh out loud they’re so beautiful and strange and wonderful.  Frontman Alex Gaskarth is truly a spectacular composer and lyricist.  So I have faith in him and I’m sure their next album will be back to their original marvelous magic.

Anyway, I’ve loved the band for a long time.  The music is catchy and fresh without being too pop.

And Alex just has the most magnificent, smooth, gorgeous voice.

New York City: 2008

According to Urban Dictionary, you know you’re a New Yorker when:

“You say “the city” and expect everyone to know that this means Manhattan.

You have never been to the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building.

The subway makes sense.

The most frequently used part of your car is the horn. 

You think Central Park is ‘nature.'”

Click here to view an entire list of what makes you a New Yorker.

I am most definitely NOT a New Yorker.  As my best friend would say, I don’t know how to cross a city street (because pushing the “walk” button doesn’t count).  I’m from San Diego, 8th largest city in the United States with an estimated 1.307 million residents.  So I should know about cities right?  WRONG!  I moved to Ventura, California when I was 7 and the population is barely crawling past 106,400 thousand people.

So when I went to “the city” in 2008, I was mind blown.

My aunt and uncle used to live in Chelsea, a neighborhood on the west side of Manhattan.  I took this picture out of their loft window:

It was weird to me, seeing all the big buildings and winding streets, beautiful, but strange.

We went in April, but it still felt like winter.  All the people were still decked out in their long black clothes and all the women wore tall black boots and (faux) fur hats.  It seemed as if they all carried the same cups of coffee in their right hands and their breaths mingled together, swirling and white  in the early spring air.  Such uncanny, unintentional synchronization was fascinating.

Where I live, people do all sorts of things.  One time I went to go see a movie with my dad and a guy with a toilet plunger ran down Main Street screaming and doing back flips off the sides of buildings.  So obviously, New York was a complete change of pace.

The height of the buildings alone impressed me.  We walked though Times Square and I looked up to see this:

Not only were the buildings tall, they were beautiful.  I had never seen such modern and sophisticated architecture (that I can remember).  I liked how I could see the reflection of buildings in other buildings.  Like this:

And some were unusual shapes.  Like this:

The Flat Iron Building

Well, needless to say, I fell in love with New York City.  Its beauty, its grace, its style, unforgettable.  Check out the links.  I promise they’re not just Wikipedia pages.  They’re cool.  Bye now!