I genuinely forgot these last few weeks, only to remember whenever I wasn\u2019t at my computer. It became a curse. We really are building the Lazy & Entitled website, it\u2019s just been a busy few months for both Brendan and me. <\/em><\/p> Cotton Xenomorph\u2019s \u201cCryptids and Climate Change\u201d issue continues, with so much good stuff this month. Check out \u201cPacific Waste Receptacle\u201d by Mirm Hurula<\/a>, \u201cTORSCHLUSSPANIK*\u201d by Dee Allen<\/a>, \u201cThe Water was with god\u201d by Sara Cahill Marron<\/a>, \u201cRotation, the rot: Poems\u201d by Mateo Perez Lara<\/a>, two poems by Jude Armstrong<\/a>, and \u201cMidday Heart and the Basurapaca\u201d by Steve Gerson<\/a>.<\/em><\/p> If you hate this series, there\u2019s only two more left. <\/p> If you love this series, I\u2019ll be doing more later this summer. <\/p> Today, we\u2019re talking about another San Diego band, Before Today. You might know the Vic Fuentes-led post-hardcore band as Pierce The Veil, which is fine, that\u2019s also a song on this record. I don\u2019t dislike Pierce The Veil, but I\u2019ve never quite been able to get into them, although I\u2019m trying again. <\/p> Roundabouts 2005, going into my senior year of high school, the scene shifted. Pop punk was no longer the sound that had the crowd a-clamoring. Idk if it took 9\/11 that long to catch up with us, or if we all just turned 17, but the scene became decidedly moodier and less fun, more post-punk, emo, screamo, hardcore, post-hardcore, metal. One band in my town began as a classic three piece who couldn\u2019t play their instruments and then went through like six lineup changes in six months to become a five-piece emocore band who wrote two of my favorite songs ever before turning into a Southern metal band that 1) I genuinely can\u2019t stand and 2) you\u2019ve probably heard of, even if you\u2019re not from Tennessee. <\/p> It was never easy for me to get into screaming music, although I don\u2019t dislike it. Screaming music is like hiking\u2014not something I do on purpose when other great options are available, but something I enjoy when things are going well. This 2005 shift eventually led to my atrocious attempt to be an acoustic singer-songwriter. It\u2019s safe to say I went the opposite way of most people. But there were some bands\u2014did you know Skrillex used to be the singer of a screamo band that put out one really good record? did you watch Umbrella Academy<\/a><\/em>?\u2014some bands really got into rotation in my Honda\u2019s CD player. <\/p> Chief among them was Before Today, maybe the best or second-best punk band ever at playing their instruments. Lyrically? If Thundercat writes lyrics like a sixth-grade love letter<\/a>, Before Today writes lyrics like they have 50 First Dates<\/em>-style brain damage and the first thing they do in the morning is read Howard Zinn<\/a>. That is to say, a lot of these lyrics are passionately cringe, but I do not care<\/em>. We love the passion! Maybe if the world wanted Before Today to write better lyrics, the world could try doing better<\/em>. Ever think that think? Obviously not. Let\u2019s get into these tracks. <\/p> Sight To Frame<\/strong><\/p> These ambient, clean-tone, weird sounds, and echo-y singing tracks that open albums? I can take or leave them. Maybe the only truly successful one is Brand New\u2019s opener off their worst album, which at least leads seamlessly into the second song\/lead single off the album, which is about being afraid of losing your virginity<\/a>. \u201cSight To Frame\u201d doesn\u2019t remotely lead into the next song and is kind of a wasted track, except it rhymes nicely with the ending track, \u201cColor Your World,\u201d one of the most delightful songs in recorded music history. But that\u2019s later, this is the present, and this song whiffs. <\/p> Roots Beneath Ideals<\/strong><\/p> Yeah, play that punk beat! This<\/em> is how you kick off a record. Blistering fast drums and guitar, melodic singing and <\/em>screaming some lyrics that scream \u201cI did the reading for AP History and are you kidding me? This<\/em> is the world you\u2019d like me to be a good citizen of when I leave high school?\u201d <\/p> This song rules for doing the Pop Punk Breakdown, a bygone rhythmic trick every band used from 2001-2005 and then never again. You do it by really laying into 1 E & A 2 like they\u2019re the most dramatic notes you\u2019ve ever hit, then playing nothing for a measure and a half while the drummer goes crazy in half time. It happens around the 2:38 mark. Listen and tell me you don\u2019t wanna jump off a roof into a swimming pool.<\/p>![\"BEFORE](\"https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/4eaa02a4-acdb-4a33-a74e-580123dfdd71_350x350.jpeg\")
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