365 project: "the needle on my record player has been wearing thin. i havent heard this record since the day you've been with him"

97.

artist:new found glory
album:new found glory

the sun was shining and the air was warm. that is the perfect set up for driving around with the windows down and pop punk blasting through the car's speakers. its been a while since I've listened to this CD, but that's not for lack of want.

I'm trying to think of a good story to share about this album. i know that i spent a lot of time listening to it in college, but i cant think of anything specific that happened while it was playing. the best i can do here is talk about skate and surf. if you don't know about skate and surf, you are missing out on some musical history, at least as far as the scene is concerned.

skate and surf is the precursor to bamboozle, run by some of the same people and under the same basic idea, only skate and surf was a thousand times more awesome. it was held in Asbury park, it incorporated most of the beach-end of town, including the convention hall, the park out front, the boardwalk, the big hotel who's name escapes me currently, and some of the bars in town including the bowling alley and the stony pony.

the first year that skate and surf happened, i was doing promotions for my college radio station and got to go for free, i had to work the table, but we kind of arranged things so that we could get up and wander away when a band that we really wanted to see was on stage. we were along the concourse of the top level anyway, though, so we could hear all of the acts. this was probably the year 2000, so it was right when the album was dropping. at any rate, i can remember walking in with our stuff to set up the table and seeing a bunch of dudes standing around playing hacky sack. they seemed like alright dudes so we hung out with them for a few minutes, not really knowing who they were. when NFG took the stage later that night, i happened to notice the same shirtless fat man on stage from the circle earlier that day.

that is one of my favorite memories of skate and surf, though i have tons. that festival was everything a festival should be, and bamboozle is the antithesis of that. skate and surf felt like it was about the music and the sports, but bamboozle really feels like its about corporate greed. I'm sure both were, in reality, but bamboozle doesn't seem to want to hide that at all.

its always interesting to see where these albums take me in this blog. i wasn't expecting a rant on corporate greed, either.