A new EP from Chicago’s own The Academy Is… comes out tomorrow, and one track has made its way online prior to its release: “Sputter,” which has backing vocals by Jack’s Mannequin lead singer Andrew McMahon. The song’s something of a grower, with twinkling guitars and a chorus that opens up nice and big. Some music supervisor should snap up this song for a big epic breakup scene soon… [Banana’s Music Club] More »
Two weeks ago, I caught an acoustic show by The Academy Is…—well, really just lead singer/songwriter William Beckett—along with hundreds of adoring teenagers, some of whom were camped out four hours ahead of showtime in the venue’s lobby, hoping to catch a sight of Beckett in person. The show itself was good, although as fan of the group’s most recent album Fast Times At Barrington High, I feel like I would have enjoyed it a bit more as a full-band spectacle. It’s not that I didn’t appreciate the Jimmy Eat World cover or the banter, but the screaming-girl contingent and the acoustic guitar took me back to a very uncomfortable memory of Dashboard Confessional halfway through the set. Still, hearing his more recent power-pop stripped down makes it obvious that Beckett has the goods as a songwriter, regardless of what direction his career ends up taking. Before the show, Beckett was kind enough to discuss the tour, the state of radio, and where his career goes from here.
Following up on their tribute to Donnie Darko late last year, awkwardly punctuated Idolator faves The Academy Is… continue their “sync up our emo-ish songs to footage from emo-ish movies” trend with a tribute video honoring Cameron Crowe’s love song to Led Zeppelin, Almost Famous. Some 17-year-old is going to probably going to post a similar, yet not-as-well-edited, clip to a video site eventually, so why not beat them to the punch? This time, the synced track is the song with the nearly painful to type title “After The Last Midtown Show.” Clip after the jump.
The Academy Is… irritate me to no end when I’m forced to add the ellipsis to their name for accuracy, but I’m willing to let it go considering how much I’ve enjoyed their album Fast Times at Barrington High this year. Still, something’s been missing. Something that would tie the occasionally angsty teen-rock lyrics of the band with the popular films that seem to inspire the band; something that would summarize one of those films to spare me the trouble of watching it again. YouTube, you always come through.
This weekend is going to be a bit shorter than usual thanks to Chinese Democracy coming out Sunday and the American Music Awards happening Sunday night, so I figured I’d leave you with a snippet of a discussion that I had with Pitchfork’s Marc Hogan, where I attempted to figure out why the indie-heavy stretch of that Blender albums list rubbed me the not-right way earlier today: “I guess maybe part of what I’m also trying (clumsily) to say is that I miss the days of the lost major-label gem? The good album that wasn’t by a megastar (either major-label ‘celebrity’ level or Jenny Lewis ‘covered by every music publication’ level—you can sub Lucinda Williams in for JL if you want) that was still worthy of recognition? That middle seems to have been lost in the great polarization between ‘music-related celebrities’ and ‘people who really mean it, man,’ and it’s a shame, because there are still tons of worthy albums out there that could have used the boost. (Maybe I’m drawing too much on personal experience here, but I do think these lists have some power, still, in this every-ear-for-itself age.)” But am I expecting too much from a wrapup that’s ultimately the result of a slightly massaged consensus?
The Academy Is… frontman/fan fiction sex symbol William Beckett posted an excellent music recommendation to his blog yesterday, one which may or may not change the course of hundreds of sensitive teen girls’ musical lives forever.
From time to time, we like to round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. After the jump, we look at the reactions to the new album by the awkwardly punctuated, oft-fantasized-about outfit The Academy Is…, Fast Times At Barrington High, which hits record stores tomorrow.
I’ve spent the last five minutes trying to figure out how, exactly, one would make the name of the bubblegum-punk outfit The Academy Is… into a possessive. “The Academy Is’…”? “The Academy Is…’s”? “The Academy Is…s'”? More »
About one-third of my Saturday was spent in the general environs of Long Island’s Nassau Coliseum, whose parking lot played host to the New York area stop of the skate/punk/emo/exercises in branding festival known as the Warped Tour. Not only were there some 100 bands playing condensed sets during the course of those eight hours, there were merch tents (one for each band on the traveling bill), signings, acoustic sets, petitions to sign, skaters performing tricks, free energy drinks, pro-vegetarianism propaganda, shutter-shade vendors, and a store with Barack Obama-branded items. Not to mention the chance to play Rock Band alongside the session musicians backing up this country’s current No. 1 song. After the jump, a rundown of the day. It will be somewhat disjointed, in honor of every single one of my joints aching after being subjected to parking-lot asphalt for most of the time.
It’s probably no surprise that the forthcoming album by bandom faves The Academy Is…, Fast Times At Barrington High, is one of the more anticipated late-summer releases around these parts. More »
