Chuck

2004 was the year mainstream pop/punk decided to grow up. Just a year earlier, blink-182 had completed its evolution by releasing its self-titled album, which ditched the dick jokes in favor of pianos, WWII-inspired monologues, and Robert Smith collaborations. This year, Good Charlotte, Green Day, New Found Glory, Simple Plan, Sugarcult, and Sum 41 all followed suit with varying degrees of success.

Sum 41's Chuck was the culmination of a transition that began on their third album, 2002's Does This Look Infected? While about half of that album showed growth in the form of songs erring on the latter side of the pop/punk equation, the other half was still written for the radio and MTV commercials. The result was a disjointed effort, stuck somewhere between the band's past and its near future.

On Chuck, however, the band fully committed to the new style, managing to create a cohesive product that was at once its heaviest and lightest output. The intro didn't start with the words "Children of the beast embrace," and the band indulged its metal influence in the form of actual songs, rather than by pretending to be an '80s hair metal band. For a band that made its name on immaturity, even relative to many of its peers in the inherently immature genre that is pop/punk, Sum 41 was actually largely successful on its fourth album.

The album's default sound is a heavier-than-usual punk sound that retains a strong sense of melody, and it works quite well with Deryck Whibley's voice and the album's big production. On "No Reason," "Open Your Eyes," and album closer "88," the band really sounds at home, providing three of their strongest tracks to date. Though they occasionally sound like they're trying to too hard to be The Offspring, most of these songs hold up tremendously well to date.

It's the other songs on the album where it gets interesting. The rest of the tracklist is split between the band's hardest and softest songs to date. On the heavy side is single "We're All to Blame," which executed the loud/soft dynamic better than I had remembered. But the other songs in this style provide the most obvious missteps on the album, such as "Angels With Dirty Faces" and "The Bitter End."

On the other side of the dichotomy are the lighter, acoustic-based songs, all of which still sound pretty good after 10 years. "Some Say" still sounds a little too much like Oasis, but "Slipping Away" and "Pieces" are both quality tunes, despite the former's significant lyrical cringeworthiness. Lyrical complexity has never been one of the band's strengths, although the music is often strong enough to overcome this fault. (The only word longer than one syllable in the chorus of "No Reason" is, in fact, the word "reason.")

At the end of the day, Sum 41 was never going to write a groundbreaking album (and 2011's Screaming Bloody Murder showed they probably shouldn't try to), but Chuck was about as strong of an album as an early '00s mainstream pop/punk band could write while still experimenting and stepping outside of their comfort zone. And, to my surprise, I actually enjoyed it better now than when it originally came out. This was also their last album with Dave "Brownsound" Baksh, who left prior to 2007's too-poppy Underclass Hero. That album saw the band begin to fade into general obscurity, remembered only when nostalgia creeps up and tempts you to play "Fat Lip" on your friend's old iPod on a road trip. But, listening to Chuck again shows that maybe they should be remembered for just a little more than that.

The Weezer-ification of Modern Pop/Punk

It is not unusual for punk bands to congregate around a single influence or set of influences. For as much as punk pretends to be revolutionary and different, the vast majority of it just sounds like other bands. The Ramones, the "first" punk band, just ran '50s pop/rock through bigger amplifiers and distorted guitars and sang about edgier topics. Now, there is a whole genre of punk referred to as "Ramonescore," featuring notable acts such as The Queers, Screeching Weasel, The Lillingtons, and Teenage Bottlerocket, who even managed to directly steal the lyrical content of an early Ramones song.

Punk music is, almost by definition, a simple form of music, so it can be difficult to sound unique within its confines. This has always been an issue of varying severity. At its most acceptable, bands simply take the influence of earlier bands and modernize it before expanding their influence and moving on. At its worst, bands rip off other bands' sounds and release the same albums year after year. Many of the bands on Fat Wreck Chords in the '90s sounded a whole lot like NOFX, and Tim Armstrong is content to sign Rancid rip-offs like Left Alone and Time Again to his Hellcat Records label. (Armstrong even guests on their songs, despite the fact that they clearly worship the guy. Weird.)

The really special bands in punk have managed to invent whole subgenres that have blown up since then. Black Flag invented hardcore, The Misfits invented horrorpunk, Descendents invented modern pop/punk, Operation Ivy invented skacore, Rancid invented streetpunk, and so on. Since 2000, two bands have defined the shape of punk to come more than any other: Hot Water Music and Against Me!, who both, coincidentally (or maybe not), came from Gainesville, Florida.

Hot Water Music, who adapted a lot from earlier bands like Leatherface, essentially invented what has alternately been termed "beardpunk," "gruff punk," and "orgcore," after the sound's popularity among the readers and writers of Punknews.org. For a while, it seemed as if every new band sounded like they had listened to way too much HWM growing up. Some bands, such as Alkaline Trio, The Lawrence Arms, and The Gaslight Anthem had clearly listened to quite a bit of Hot Water Music in their younger years, but made the sound their own.

However, many bands, like Red City Radio, Nothington, Iron Chic, and countless others, felt no shame in jumping directly onto the bandwagon. Unfortunately, most left behind the technical precision of HWM's rhythm section that made them so special, instead simply adopting their heavy, anthemic sound and rough, manly gang vocals. Some have even become influencers themselves, such as Dillinger Four, whose throaty, bass-heavy brand of orgcore has informed Banner Pilot, Off With Their Heads, and Dear Landlord. It now seems as if every punk band wears flannel and rocks a full beard.

Against Me! further pushed orgcore forward while also almost singlehandedly inventing the modern version of the folk/punk genre. Shortly following AM!'s ascension to the punk mainstream, folk/punk was dominating the new music landscape. Entire record labels were focused on the stuff, with new bands copying not just AM!'s sound, but also their DIY mindset and general aesthetic. Notable acts such as Fake Problems and Cobra Skulls were labeled AM! rip-offs when they debuted, although, to their credit, they have both since expanded their sound considerably.

AM! abandoned the sound they created almost as quickly as they founded it, but in their absence, Andrew Jackson Jihad, Ghost Mice, and Defiance, Ohio took up the torch. They absorbed the folk side of the sound and ran with it, including traditional folk instruments and producing a decidedly more upbeat version of the early AM! sound, complete with whiny vocals and much less serious lyrics.

All of this is a long-winded way of explaining that punk has always been a music that goes through certain trends. Obviously, many varieties of punk exist at the same time, but the popular boom of new bands often seems to convene around a similar sound that changes every few years. The currently booming sound is that of Weezer.

Booming is probably not an adjective often associated with Weezer, but nevertheless, pop/punk bands have been increasingly turning to the Weezer goldmine from the early '90s. Many bands are digging in the '90s alt-rock realm and modernizing the sound in their own way, but a lot of the attention seems to be focused on pre-hiatus Weezer.

While I was not nearly musically conscious in 1994 and 1996, the years of Weezer's first two releases, I can feel the band's influence still very present in the music of this up-and-coming generation of pop/punk bands. Their unique use of soft/loud dynamics, heavily distorted guitars, plodding riffs, catchy melodies, falsetto backing vocals, and self-deprecating, nerdy lyrics has proven to be quite the treasure for new bands looking to update a classic sound.

I first noticed the beginnings of the trend in 2011 when Bomb the Music Industry! released Vacation, an album that was equal parts punk, Brian Wilson, and Weezer. The Sidekicks followed less than a year later with Awkward Breeds, an indie-punk record clearly influenced by Weezer and other '90s bands (like Third Eye Blind). The trend continued as I discovered bands like Sundials and Joyce Manor. This was all harmless and fun for a while, but this year, the trend has simply gotten out of control.

Lately, the trend has been nearly epidemic. Instead of adopting their sound as an influence, bands have simply been including Weezer songs on their albums. The Menzingers' recent single "In Remission" is a little more shouty than Weezer ever got, but the first half of that song is straight-up Weezer. (That the video is a near copy of the video for "Undone (The Sweater Song)," save the dogs, doesn't exactly help discourage the comparison.) Besides that song and the Smashing Pumpkins song that precedes it on the album, the band's songs are very much their own.

Masked Intruder's "Weirdo" captures both the sound and the spirit of several early Weezer songs (think Pinkerton), while the rest of the album is essentially a Ramonescore album (full circle, see?). Chumped, a female-fronted pop/punk band, just released a Weezer song called "Hot 97 Summer Jam," which may or may not be a reference to the year Weezer started going downhill. BtMI! singer Jeff Rosenstock's side project, Antarctigo Vespucci (which also features Chris Farren of Fake Problems), released a mini-album of Weezer songs earlier this year, although that shouldn't really surprise anyone who follows those bands (BtMI! has covered both of Weezer's first two albums in full at separate concerts).

Beyond that, bands like Meridian are getting in on the more melancholy side of the Weezer trend. Even though singer Max Stern's two bands had previously associated almost exclusively with post-hardcore/twinkly emo and folk/rock, he threw a couple Weezer songs in on Meridian's latest record. (Although some YouTube digging reveals that his passion for Weezer had presented itself earlier.) The Swellers got a little Weezer-y on their latest effort, and You Blew It!, another 2010s emo band, even released a 5-song EP of Weezer covers, titled You Blue It!, earlier this year (which feels a little half-assed, now that I think about it).

Like I said, it's epidemic. Where will this trend stop? Is it time to add Weezercore to the list of punk sub-subgenres? How much more Weezer can the world take, especially now that Weezer itself has started releasing music again? Are they aware of this trend? Are they trying to cash in on the momentum and hype surrounding their music? And what will follow Weezercore's inevitable decline? Let's all pray the grunge revival stops here.

2004

So, I've been reading The AV Club's awesome Fear of a Punk Decade series with earnest over the past few months, as it slowly gets released, and I realized what has bugged me about the articles so far. The series concerns itself with many of the most important albums, bands, and movements of 1990s punk, but, unfortunately, I view all of these albums as a relative outsider.

Yes, I grew up with the albums and bands, and I cherish them just as much as (or maybe even more than) the people who were conscious of their existence in the '90s, but they aren't really mine. Even though the songs have racked up thousands of plays in my CD player, iTunes library, and Spotify over the years, I didn't live the albums. I wasn't there when they were being released. I didn't feel the hype of the artists and the excitement of their shows. I didn't have my life changed by these bands in the same way; more accurately, they just calibrated and corrected my taste in music as it worked its way off of training wheels.

Property of Zack did a great job examining the cultural and musical impact and legacy of albums released in 2003, but their tastes seemed to skew toward the pop/emo side of things. In 2004 was regularly subjected to the likes of Incubus, Lostprophets, and even Courtney Love due to their ubiquity on Fuse, but I always found them to be thoroughly dull and uninspired. I was also bombarded with the aforementioned pop/emo, from bands like Hawthorne Heights, Armor for Sleep, and My Chemical Romance. Although I found myself enjoying the occasional song by these bands, I never took to them like I did so many other artists.

So I decided that I wanted to write about the albums I truly grew up with, since no one else seems to be doing it at the moment. The first album I bought (besides my regrettable boy band purchases in the late '90s/early 2000s) was Good Charlotte's The Young and the Hopeless, a few months after its October 2003 release, so 2004 was about a year or so into my musical journey. I feel that a decade removed is a decent perspective from which to view music, so now seems as good a time as ever to look at what 2004 meant to me and what it means to me now.

I'll do my best to write solely about the albums and artists that I was listening to at that time, ignoring great albums released that year that I later discovered, like Descendents' Cool to Be You or The Hold Steady's debut, Almost Killed Me. I also will do my best not to exclude artists that I quickly abandoned or shunned, instead choosing to explore when and why I moved away from them when they once meant so much to me.

So that's it. I don't have a timetable or a schedule or anything. I'll just write when I feel like it, and I'll try to keep it short-ish, as I tend to ramble when talking about music and/or reminiscing, which could be a lethal combo in this setting. That's all for now. Bye bye.

SONG OF THE DAY: "Resuscitation of the Year" by The Flatliners

I'm coming out of a fairly rough time in my life. I won't go into many details, but I feel like it's finally over. This has been a very good week, and I'm in a very good place mentally, professionally, and physically.

The Flatliners are quite an incredible band, and they deserve a better introduction than the one I'm giving them. Their 2010 album, Cavalcade, stands as one of the truly great and uniquely awesome punk albums ever to come out in the 40-year history of the genre. Their most recent album, last year's Dead Language, nearly equals the power of its predecessor. The songs are just as good, if not better on average than those on Cavalcade. If anything, the only thing Dead Language lacks is the same immediacy felt on Cavalcade, and, as such, the impact is somewhat lesser.

Nevertheless, this song speaks directly to my current situation. This song is not among the top 10 (or maybe even 20) best songs by this band, but it is a decent introduction to the band and album. However, the words and emotions portrayed on this song sum up my experiences so perfectly, it would be a crime not to choose it. The incredibly heartfelt way in which he screams about coming back to life again, the way he speaks of the debt he eternally owes to his friends for being there, it's just perfect.

One of my favorite things about music is its ability to translate very specifically to my own life, letting me know that I'm not alone and there are others going through the same thing. And, more importantly, there are others who have gone through the same thing and survived it, coming out on the other side a better, stronger version of themselves. That's what "Resuscitation of the Year" is about: coming back to life. And that's the way I feel today. I hope that feeling never goes away.

SONG OF THE DAY: "The Beach" by Parov Stelar

Okay, I'm getting really bad about these SotDs. Sorry. Things have been busy around here. Anyway, I gotta go to bed, like, now-ish, so here's a really quick song for ya. Parov Stelar is a dude who plays a kind of music often referred to as electro-swing. Most of his stuff is a lot more upbeat and dancey than this, but I really like this song. So, chill out a little tonight and throw this one on your next hangout playlist!

SONG OF THE DAY: "Childhood" by Downtown Struts

Downtown Struts are a band formed in 2008 in the great city of Chicago, IL, though they also feature two dudes from the Bay Area. These influences result in a blend of Cali street punk and Midwest pop/punk for a sound that is rough around the edges but distinctly melodic and upbeat. I saw them open for The Lawrence Arms on New Year's Eve, and it was a bummer to see the crowd relatively motionless for the entirety of their set. It's a shame, because they are actually a very good band. I think this is mostly because they are not very well-known and their music doesn't have the manic pace that the other three bands playing that night have.

With one full-length, a few EPs, and a split 7" under their belts, we see them starting to move into new territory, carving out their own unique sound among the often similar-sounding bands who play Midwest punk. Their most recent new song, "Childhood," came out on a split EP with Nothington, which featured a new track and a cover from each band. Downtown Struts' cover was of New Order's "Ceremony," which I highly recommend checking out if you like that song or what you've heard from Downtown Struts. The cover is a great choice to pair with the original, which is a step away from punk. It is clear that New Order and similar bands are becoming an increasingly greater influence on the group.

If "Childhood" is any indication, the new album from Downtown Struts has a chance to really break some ground in the punk scene. Their 2012 album, Victoria!, had flashes of this new sound, but although the album was well-received, it wasn't really anything all that new, and it largely flew under the radar. I expect them to turn heads with whatever comes next. Give "Childhood" a listen to see where they've come from and where they're headed!

SONG OF THE DAY: "Pray For Rain" by The Ergs!

The Ergs! were a pop/punk band in the vein of Screeching Weasel, The Queers, Chixdiggit!, and a million other bands that sound like these guys. They played fast, snotty, poppy punk songs mainly about girls and being young. If that sounds like nothing new, well, you'd be right. But sometimes you don't need to do anything especially new, you just have to take a classic sound and do it really well.

That's what The Ergs! did. They were one of a long line of great punk bands coming from New Jersey, the same scene that has produced bands like The Bouncing Souls, Lifetime, The Misfits, Saves the Day, Streetlight Manifesto, The Gaslight Anthem, and many, many others. During their short, eight-year run, The Ergs! released two classic albums and a whole bunch of EPs, splits, and singles. Their debut album, dorkrockcorkrod, came out in 2004 and instantly made a huge impact on the scene.

But lead singer/drummer Mikey Erg had different plans for the band. He had long expressed a desire to be more than just a simple pop/punk band, and they proved it with their second and final real album, 2007's Upstairs/Downstairs. A lot of the same short, fast punk was still on the album, but there were also touches of other things. They dropped a random country song with "Stinking of Whiskey Blues," and "Books About Miles Davis" sounds like an old soul song played by a pop/punk band, which is kind of what it actually is.

Some people think the band got a little experimental on Upstairs/Downstairs or felt that the album that followed would have been the one where all the experimenting came together in a much more logical way. But, the band broke up a year later, so we'll never know. Most fans prefer dorkrockcorkrod or the half-album Jersey's Best Prancers that came between the two. "Pray For Rain" is one of those perfect pop/punk songs that you can listen to endlessly and never get sick of. As such, it's become something of a signature song for The Ergs!, and it's easy to see why. It's a love song about a hopeless guy who can't figure out a way to get the girl to return his love. It's fast, ultra-catchy, self-deprecating, and simple. And sometimes, that's all you need to make a great song. It even ends with a clip of Henry Rollins being cynical and angry, as usual. Check it out!

SONG OF THE DAY: "Everlasting Light" by The Black Keys

Okay, it's late and I'm feeling somewhat lazy right now, so I'm going to pick a song everyone knows by a band everyone knows. But it's still a good song, so deal with it. Plus, they're from Akron, and that's cool. 

Brothers is a great album. After five albums of varying levels of quality and success, the band finally broke through to the mainstream with this one. As such, it's generally seen as the first album where The Black Keys started going in a poppier direction. I don't really care about things like "selling out" as long as the music is good, and I especially don't care when I don't know a band's underground/indie past. In fact, one thing I respect about The Black Keys is their willingness to experiment, as they did on Blakroc.

The single "Tighten Up" was and is a super cool song. I love the whistling and the change in tempo about two-thirds of the way through. That was all I knew about the band for some time, but then they got huge and continue to be after the release of the less good, more poppy El Camino. "Lonely Boy" is catchy and had a hilarious video, and "Little Black Submarines" is an undeniably tight song that sounds like Zeppelin at their best, but the rest of that album was rather unmemorable. Brothers was likely a creative peak. I mean, listen to those first four songs. Most bands are lucky to have one song in their whole discography that is as good as any of those four songs.

"Everlasting Light" starts things off in the best way. That intro gets stuck in my head for days at a time, so, I'm bringing you all down with me. Listen and enjoy!

SONG OF THE DAY: "Ruby" by Cheap Girls

Cheap Girls is a band that's very much in the middle of the whole '80s/'90s alt-rock revival scene. They sound like the direction The Replacements were starting to go in before they started getting bad and broke up. The band's biggest downfall, unfortunately, is their lack of diversity. Their songs are all catchy, upbeat, fun songs with loud guitars and good lyrics. Not great lyrics, but good lyrics. This sound usually works well for them, but they come off seeming like a one-trick pony.

Cheap Girls will be releasing their fourth album, Famous Graves, on May 13th, so we'll see if they've started branching out a bit. The first single, released a few days ago, indicates that they probably haven't, but I'll wait until I hear the whole thing before passing final judgement.

But that's enough negativity about this band, because I actually do like them quite a bit. In fact, one super cool thing they've been doing is releasing acoustic versions of their entire albums. They did so for the first two albums they released, and I actually find myself enjoying the acoustic versions more than the official albums sometimes. I think his voice works a lot better on acoustic songs, and I was happy to see that they included a single acoustic song on their most recent album. It's a trend I hope they continue. But, of course, they released the electric version of that one acoustic song as a bonus track, so I'm fairly certain they just record every song they write both ways. They should try swapping a few electric versions out on their albums. Or I guess I could just do that and create my own versions of their albums. I don't know.

Okay, that's way more than enough rambling for now. Just listen to the song. It's called "Ruby." Enjoy!

SONG OF THE DAY: "Bury My Bones" by Pure Love

Okay, so, real quickly, because it's Friday night and it's been a crazy day and I have things to do, here's the SotD!

Pure Love is a British band that formed about two years ago when Frank Carter of the U.K. hardcore band Gallows quit to pursue other interests. Gallows was a very abrasive-sounding band that was quite angry most of the time. That's all well and great if you're in that mood, and, for what it's worth, they were actually much better than most of the bands in that genre. They went beyond just making loud, scary, angry music, instead making thoughtful, almost beautiful arrangements that was also loud, scary, and angry.

I prefer Pure Love much better. They released their first and only album thus far, Anthems, in 2013 to a decidedly mixed response. There were some real bangers on this album, like "Bury My Bones" and "Handsome Devil's Club," but the entire album was just pretty okay. But, "Bury My Bones" should be played at every sporting event for the rest of eternity. It pumps me up so much and just has that sound that would totally work in an arena setting.

This song was the first single from the first album, and the first taste the world had of Carter's new group. It served as a great introduction, leaving no question about what the album would sound like and embody. The first line, right off the bat, reads, "I'm so sick of singing about hate / It's never gonna make a change / It breaks me down, bit by bit / Keeps me steadily feeling sick." So, right there, at the very beginning of the song, you get an explanation of why Carter left Gallows and why Pure Love sounds totally different.

I loved that direct declaration of his intentions. When that song came out, I thought it was the most badass line I'd heard in a while. He basically said that he was was done with his past, and this is the new me. Judge as you will. Listen to "Bury My Bones" below and get ready to put it on your next pump up/party playlist!

More Callahan Thoughts

I'm realizing now, after letting some hours pass and letting others' comments sink in, that I complained a lot about the current system of Callahan voting without offering up any concrete solutions, other than delaying voting until Nationals is finished. I also realized that I hate when people are negative without suggesting ways to improve something, and I don't want to be a hypocrite. So, here are my thoughts on how to make the Callahan Award a more accurate representation of the best player in the game.

While it's great that Skyd has continued to allow the Callahan to be decided entirely college players, I don't think this is the best way to manage the rapidly growing attention the sport has been receiving. Despite the increased media attention on players and tournaments, we are still at a point where the vast majority of college players never get to see the elite players in person, yet they vote on them anyway.

The fact that the biggest individual award in the entire sport is decided solely by anyone who plays is insane. Giving a casual B-team player who has heard of a few of these guys the same voting power as someone who actually played against these players is ridiculous. The fact that the votes are not weighted more heavily for those who write about and report on the sport on a weekly basis is wrong. Reporters often spend entire weekends watching these players in person for several full games. Surely they have a better idea of how good the nominees actually are than those who have never seen them play.

While tournament recaps, player write-ups, and game videos are great, not everyone reads or watches them, and they still do not provide the same experience of seeing games played in person. I propose that the vote be split 50/50: the collective votes of all USAU college division members combine for 50 percent of the Callahan vote. The other 50 percent goes to the collective votes of all players on teams at the College Championships, plus the votes from writers and reporters for major ultimate news sources.

By doing so, the most informed voters get more say in the matter, but the rest of the ultimate-playing populace still gets a large say in the matter. I think this will allow a better consensus on the winners, and it will ensure that the Callahan Award winner is the player who truly deserves it the most.

On the Callahan Award

With the college ultimate season finally revving up after a very long winter, I've been thinking a lot about the game and how it has changed over the years. I've also been thinking about the Callahan Award, which will be voted on in the coming months.

Skyd Magazine lists three main criteria to be considered when voting for the Callahan that I'd like you to keep in mind while reading:

• A. Overall offensive and defensive abilities
• B. Dedication to ultimate and leadership ability
• C. Sportsmanship

Okay, first of all, sportmanship is a joke. Based on Nick Lance's and Dylan Freechild's wins, nobody is really taking that into consideration when voting as much as USA Ultimate would like. Furthermore, Skyd insists that "All candidates should be judged by their performance only during the 2014 spring college season." Again, that won't happen, but it's something to keep in mind. Here are some thoughts I have about the award:

                                                                Source: SkydMagazine.com

1. Voting for the Callahan should take place after Nationals.

I think it is a crime that all the votes have to be placed before the biggest tournament of the entire year. This is when the truly great players separate themselves from the ones who disappear on a stage like this. This tournament also has the highest level of exposure, meaning fans will actually get to see the players for whom they are voting. Voters will also get to judge players based on their performance against the toughest competition of the year, instead of judging them based on a sweet scoober they threw against a team that finished 10th at D-I Regionals.

I understand it will never happen though. USA Ultimate uses the platform and exposure of Nationals to highlight their star players and do a whole ceremony and everything. If voting and awarding of the Callahan happened a month later, no one would get to actually see it, it wouldn't be on ESPN's coverage, etc. But if they truly want to award it to the best player, this is how it needs to be done.

A quick comparison to college football: do you think Manti Te'o would have won the Heisman after his abysmal, invisible performance against Alabama in the 2013 National Championship game? Probably not.

2. Too much importance is placed on the Callahan nominees' videos.

This is nothing new. It's been this way since ultimate videos have existed. This catch alone essentially won the Callahan for Joe Kershner in 2008. Nick Lance won in 2012 because of his video. No doubt about it. Yes, he's a great player. Yes, he's now a star on one of the best club teams in the world (Johnny Bravo), and yes, the video was awesome. It featured some of the craziest throws I've ever seen, displayed all parts of Lance's game, and was edited extremely well. It was amazing. There was no way he wasn't going to win.

But, I'll be the first to admit that I voted for him to win the Callahan that year, even though I had never heard of him before that video came out and I had never seen him play a full game before. That is just wrong. How can you really say whether someone is the best based solely on a highlight reel? I can show you a hundred athletes who aren't near the top of their sport who happen to make pretty cool plays pretty frequently. But it is over the course of a whole game where you find out how good they really are.

Furthermore, many of the plays featured in Callahan videos are made during club seasons or previous college seasons, thus going against Skyd's recommendation that only a player's performance in the spring of that year should be considered. Nick Lance's video did not do this (see Jay Clark's comment below), which makes the video even more impressive. But most of the videos do, possibly because they want to show that the player can compete on the highest level, or they just need to fill up more time. Freechild even used video from his freshman year.

But to again parallel this award to college football, that would be like giving the Heisman to Jadaveon Clowney based on his one hit on that Michigan running back. No one would even know Clowney's name if it weren't for that hit. He may be freakishly athletic, but he's not an especially great defensive end, and he should not have even been considered for the Heisman.

3. The Callahan should be awarded based on a player's achievements, not their talents.

This ties in with the last point I made, but it's worth exploring on its own as well. Georgia Tech finished 12th at Nationals in 2012. Respectable, but not dominant. A truly great player, and one who encompasses everything the Callahan award stands for, is able to bring his team at least to the quarters or semis. Sure, it's great to be the best player on a pretty good team, but if you're the best player on one of the best teams, that's on an entirely different level.

This is where Skyd's second criterion, concerning "leadership abilities," comes into play. Lance might have been a great player, but he was not the greatest leader, at least not in his ability to get his team to perform its best.

4. Alex Thorne should have won the Callahan in 2012.

I feel like I've been ragging on Nick Lance too much. In reality, I think he's a tremendous player, and I really admire his abilities. I just think he was not the best player in college that year, and his Callahan win represents a lot of what's wrong with the voting process. But now, let's focus on why Alex Thorne deserved to win.

First of all, his team won the championship, and he was easily the best player on that team. After watching the championship game against Wisconsin, it was very clear that he was playing on an entirely different level from everyone else. He stepped up and played the best game of his life when it mattered the most.

It was a rather windy game, but he seemed completely unfazed by the weather. His throws were perfect, even when throwing an outside-in flick around a cup two-thirds the length of the field, like he did to his brother, Max, multiple times. His hucks were spot-on, and more than that, they seemed effortless. He was totally in control of that game and remained calm throughout the whole thing. It was like he wasn't even trying.

Alex Thorne is an incredibly pure thrower with so much natural throwing ability. Thorne has more command over the disc than anyone I've seen in the college game. He also was a huge part of Pitt's signature comeback win against Carleton. To be the best player on the best team, play your best game when it counts, and not win the Callahan is messed up.

5. Tyler Degirolamo should have won the Callahan in 2013.

I had the pleasure of watching Nationals in person last year, and I couldn't help but draw comparisons to the previous year when it came to the Freechild/Degirolamo fight for the Callahan. Freechild had the better video and the flashier moves (give-and-gos, high release flicks, stuff that shouldn't work but does, etc.), but Degirolamo was clearly the better player. He proved it throughout the weekend and it was especially evident during the semifinal game between Pitt and Oregon.

From 2012 to 2013, Degirolamo became a whole different kind of player. He used to be the best deep threat and probably the most athletic player in the game, who had the ability to occasionally huck it for a score as well. By 2013, he was a complete player. He remained the most unguardable deep cutter, and teams adjusted their entire defense around him. So, he decided to become a handler half the time. There were many points where he touched the disc every other throw. He was the most important player for Pitt that year on offense, and he is the reason they skated through Nationals without much of a challenge. Oh, and by the way, he was one of the best defenders in the game as well.

Freechild is very good, but he never took over games at Nationals the way Degirolamo did. Teams didn't have to change everything about their defense when Freechild stepped on the field.

6. Jimmy Mickle should win the Callahan in 2014.

Now, by saying this in February, I'm already contradicting several of my points stated above. But if Jimmy Mickle doesn't win the Callahan, I'll be shocked. Essentially, unless somebody comes out of the woodwork to wow people, the voting this year is between Mickle, Freechild, and Will Driscoll. I don't think people want to see Freechild win again, and Mickle is way better than Driscoll. More than that, Mickle is way better than most college and club players in the country.

Watching Mickle play for Johnny Bravo in the Club Championships proved that he is one of the best players in the world at any level. He single-handedly dominated against Chain, and he played well against Doublewide while Thorne and Degirolamo were non-factors. (Degirolamo didn't even touch the disc that game until the last few points, while being a part of about four turnovers prior to that.)

Mickle's play at last year's College Championships proved that he can carry his team when they need it most, as he did during Colorado's comeback against Oregon in pool play. Freechild is close, but other than him, Mickle is by far the best player in the college game, and if he plays anywhere close to his ability, there is no way he should not win the Callahan.

7. There should be a Callahan equivalent for D-III ultimate.

Full disclosure: I'm currently in my fifth year playing for a D-III program.

Come on, USAU! There are more players in D-III ultimate than in D-I, and there is clearly support for a similar award, considering Callahan and NexGen nomination videos from D-III players have emerged in each of the last few years (Tommy Li, Spencer Sheridan, Greg Wakeman), even though those players didn't have a chance of winning. And these are great players in their own right who deserve recognition.

People know the names of the big players in D-III now that coverage has increased and the D-III Championships have become more established. Everyone knew who Rhys Lindmark was when he was tearing it up in 2012. People saw Ultiworld going nuts about Nick Mathison last year. Jordan Rhyne could definitely have started on any D-I roster in the country. Marques Brownlee, Charlie Enders, Scott Graber, Tim Kreutzfeldt, Nihal Bhakta, Jonas Cole, Tim Fergus, Zach Purdy, and others have made a name for themselves in recent years.

I believe D-III coverage still needs to expand more before we can get truly unbiased votes that aren't based on hype or hearsay, but I think it's time to start thinking about it.

SONG OF THE DAY: "What If" by Rx Bandits

Now that I'm living in a big city, I have a real commute for the first time in my life. That means I have 45 minutes at least twice a day where I have nothing to do. I find reading on the train too difficult, especially when you're standing with approximately zero feet of personal space. There is also an automated voice interrupting your thoughts every 30 seconds to tell you where you are and where you're going, even though those things are very easy to determine just by looking out the window. Doing nothing is incredibly boring and invites strange people to talk to you, so my solution thus far has been to listen to my iPod.

Because I refuse to adapt to modern technology, I still use my 30 GB iPod Video that I purchased in 2006. Yes, it still works, and yes, the battery lasts for about two hours as long as I don't change the song or volume too often and I keep it pressed against my skin for warmth, which requires me to tuck it into my waistband like some weirdo. I didn't use my iPod much in college, which means most of the music on there is what I listened to in high school. This very long story about nothing has led to me telling you that lately, I've been listening to a lot of the music I listened to in high school and didn't listen to for years.

One of those bands that will permanently exist in my high school years is Rx Bandits. Even though they consistently released albums through 2009, each successive album got weirder, more experimental, and, ultimately, less fun and less listenable. So I mainly listened to their 1999 album Halfway Between Here and There, along with occasional listens to 2001's Progress, which was the album upon which they began systematically removing their ska sound and influence in favor of a weird prog-rock, psychedelic, jam band-ish sound that I never got into. While their albums following Progress contain undeniably better music from a purely artistic perspective, Halfway is where it's at when it comes to creating exciting, upbeat music that doesn't bore you with its extended intros and obnoxious distortion.

In relation to most ska/punk, Halfway was a unique record. The horns didn't blast out obnoxious lines in a formulaic order (before each verse and during the chorus, with maybe a horn bridge thrown in there) like every other ska/punk band was doing. Instead, the compositions were well thought-out and the horns were utilized in a very specific, intentional manner. The guitars didn't just play fast ska chords in fast ska rhythms during the verses and fast power chords during the chorus. The bass didn't just do an uninspired impression of a reggae bassline at a faster tempo. The drummer didn't just pretend he was in a punk band, regardless of what everyone around him was doing.

Instead, the band recognized that they had different influences outside of ska, and they embraced this side of their musical interests. The band was very talented and created some very inspired music in the midst of a very uninspired genre. I'm not surprised they ended up abandoning the sound altogether, because it was actually a very gradual, logical progression from one album to the next. And besides, what's a band worth if they don't evolve and challenge themselves? Rx Bandits did that, and I respect them for it. However, I always preferred and missed the sound they had on Halfway. Check out the opening track from that album for a taste of what more ska/punk bands should have been doing back in the day!

SONG OF THE DAY: "Learn to Live Without" by The Sidekicks

Well, today I went to Reckless Records in Chicago after learning that it's about three blocks from my place. Huge mistake. I'm going to be there every day. While there, I was able to hold back from maxing out my bank account, and I walked out with only Signals Midwest's fantastic Light On the Lake on a nice deep blue/black mix that looks amazing. In honor of that event, I wanted to post a Signals song, but I'll save it for a date not so close to their singer, Max Stern, getting his own SotD. However, it made me realize that I should promote my awesome hometown scene of Cleveland, Ohio a little more. There are some amazing bands there that deserve more recognition.

The Sidekicks are one of those bands. Although they have since moved down to Columbus, I still like to think of them as Cleveland boys. They've been putting out records since 2007's very debut-like 2007 debut So Long, Soggy Dog. After ditching the gruff-punk of that record, they really stepped their game up for the following year's Sam EP. They then went full-on pop/punk for their 2009 album Weight of Air, which ended up getting voted Punknews.org's Album of the Year! Crazy, right?! They must be super famous by now!

Well, unfortunately, not exactly. For all the acclaim that record received, they are still relatively unheard of, even in the punk scene. Even after the release of 2012's Awkward Breeds, their best record yet, they remained on the down-low. That doesn't make that album any less amazing though. They went back to the music they grew up with and were first inspired by, namely Weezer's Pinkerton and other similar '90s alt-rock bands. They blend these influences in a refreshing way with unique melodies, incredible harmonies, inventive guitar playing, fantastic musicianship, and creative song structures to establish themselves as one of the more progressive pop/punk bands going today. Their songs also frequently feature the sweetest falsetto vocals you'll hear this side of Justin Timberlake courtesy of lead singer Steven Smith.

They've started playing new songs live, so there may be a new album in the works. Be on the lookout for that. In the meantime, get a load of one of my favorite songs "Learn to Live Without," the sound of someone coming to terms with the end of a relationship. Once all the emotions are gone, all you can do is accept it and figure out how to live without. Oh, but don't worry, the song rocks, too, especially during that rager of an outro. Check it out!

SONG OF THE DAY: "TL;DR" by Milhouse

So, to keep the theme of Aussie bands going (I could probably do a whole week of them...interesting idea...), I bring you the recently-dissolved band Milhouse, who are self-described as "three dudes playing positive, nerdy pop-punk." Astute observers will catch the obvious Simpsons reference that is the band's name. I have watched maaaybe two episodes of The Simpsons in my entire life, so I only caught the reference due to the first 10 or so results on a YouTube search for "Milhouse" coming up as Simpsons clips.

Milhouse (the band) played a throwback kind of pop/punk that was derived from groups like The Promise Ring, Saves the Day, The Get Up Kids, Superchunk, and others in that vein, although they did so with a decidedly more upbeat sound than some of those bands. Nerdy and poppy are also very appropriate adjectives for them. Beyond the Internet-speech title of "TL;DR," their discography, which consists solely of three EPs and one b-side, also has songs named "Internet," "Metaphysics," "Dinosaurs," "Eggs," "Cereal," "Laundry," "Holiday," and "Monday," which gives you a glimpse of the subject matter that inspires their writing. In fact, they only ever released one other song, "Uncanny Valley," which carries the distinction of being their only song with more than one word in the title (the b-side "To Hell With Disbelief" notwithstanding).

It's a shame these dudes broke up before they had a chance to do more with their talent. At least a full-length album would have been nice. Instead, we are left with only 11 songs, only two of which barely crack the three-minute mark. But that length is only appropriate for their style. It's short, snappy, catchy rock music that's not meant to be thought about too deeply. There is not much more to these songs besides the melodies and chords. This isn't life-changing music, like many of these SotDs and bands are. This is life-enjoying music. This is music that they had fun making, and music that you should have fun listening to. And all their music is free to download at milhouse.bandcamp.com, so go get yourself some good tunes!

"TL;DR" was covered by Wil Wagner for some random acoustic session, and is one of only two songs of theirs that has a music video. The other, "Cereal," features a man with a large beard trying to eat an entire box of Special K with a gallon of milk and a giant bowl before the song ends. The song is only 2:11 long, so his table manners are not exactly the best. I've watched it twice, and as good as the song is, that's more than enough views for this lifetime. I don't want to put you guys through what I've been through, so, "TL;DR" it is! Luckily, the song is one of their best as well. Watch it!

SONG OF THE DAY: "Don't Fuck With Our Dreams" by The Smith Street Band

The Smith Street Band is a group of Aussie punks who have steadily been releasing fantastic music over the past few years. I first discovered them in 2011 after their album, No One Gets Lost Anymore, got voted the best album of the year on some random blog, beating out Frank Turner's incredible England Keep My Bones by one spot. I had never heard of them, but this distinction definitely made them worth checking out. The opening track on that album, "I Ain't Safe," was all I needed to hear to get me hooked. Now, with two albums and two EPs under their belt, along with relentless touring and an increased presence in the U.S., they are finally starting to get the recognition they deserve.

The group is led by singer/songwriter/guitarist Wil Wagner, who specializes in brutally honest lyrics and screaming his voice hoarse on a song-by-song basis. They play a unique blend of folky indie-punk that is at once catchy and emotional, heartfelt and heartbreaking. Many of their songs are have extended bridges that break from the song's original structure but end up blending right back in by the end. All told, there's really no one else out there who sounds quite like them, and there are few bands producing music of such quality with the same frequency.

The best word I can use to describe The Smith Street Band is exhilarating. Their songs sound like the moments that make life so great, the moments that make life worth living. I hear a song like "I Want Friends" and I realize that I've been living my life all wrong, but since I'm listening to The Smith Street Band, at least I'm doing something right. This is life-changing music. These are stories about seemingly unremarkable people, but upon learning more about them, you realize that each and every person on the planet is incredibly remarkable, yourself included. The band has a way of making the mundane seem astonishing, and that's what life is really about: finding the beauty in the ordinary.

I'm still kicking myself for missing The Smith Street Band when they rolled through town opening for Frank Turner last October (we thought we would get there right on time to see them, but ended up completely missing their set). Luckily, this band isn't going anywhere anytime soon, and they'll probably be headlining their next U.S. tour. "Don't Fuck With Our Dreams" comes off their 5-song EP of the same name released last year that combined some of their best songs with their best production yet, and it features one of their signature breakdowns in the bridge before erupting in an loud, boisterous finish. The energy and hooks are enough to make you listen, but the lyrics are what will keep you coming back. Just listen to those first few lines. It just doesn't get any better than that. Check the song out below!

SONG OF THE DAY: "Summer Homes" by Max Stern

Well, with the end of RAP WEEK, we now return to our regularly scheduled programming. Because I've convinced myself that the temperature has to begin rising rapidly and consistently soon, I'm bringing you a somewhat summery song.

Max Stern is currently the singer and lead guitarist of Signals Midwest, a brilliant emo/post-hardcore/post-emo/post-punk/post-other-things band from the beautiful city of Cleveland, Ohio which is somehow still not incredibly famous. He also fronts/is the only consistent member of a group called Meridian, and he releases solo music from time to time as well.

There is no doubt in my mind that Stern is a musical genius. He is easily one of the most prolific songwriters in recent memory, he has always been an excellent guitar player, and his voice has steadily improved over the years. It seems like he is always releasing something. I first discovered him around 2007 through his high school ska band The Skatastrophes, whose music is much better and more serious than their name. I loved that band so much, partially due to my obsession with ska/punk at the time, but also because it sounded like the songs were sung from my perspective. I was also a high school kid in the Cleveland area, alternately loving and hating where I was from and getting very ready to grow up. Unfortunately, the group broke up after releasing only one album.

Stern quickly formed Signals Midwest, toward whom I was somewhat ambivalent at first. They started out as a progressive pop/punk band, which was a huge departure from the sound of The Skatastrophes and was also a style with which I was largely unfamiliar. Luckily, the songs were good, so I kept listening. After releasing their third and best album thus far, last year's Light On the Lake, I can say I'm thoroughly convinced. In addition to Signals, Stern has released one official solo EP, another collection of mostly-completed solo demos, a full-length album with Meridian, and a 30-song album as Meridian titled The Harvest Month, for which Stern wrote one song a day for the entire month of September 2013.

"Summer Homes" comes off a surprise four-song EP Stern released just two days ago called Summering. The EP precedes a solo tour Stern is about to begin in Australia with the supremely talented Wil Wagner of The Smith Street Band. This set of songs sounds absolutely nothing like what I expected. The idea of a "solo EP" often leads to the assumption that it will be a singer and his acoustic guitar, nothing more. Those can often be great, but are also frequently underwhelming and too minimalistic.

Summering is none of those things. The songs are complex, drawn-out, beautiful compositions upon which Stern makes the most out of just his voice, an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar, and a bass. The songs sound surprisingly full and are some of his best work to date, which is a considerable achievement. All four songs are very good, especially the opener ("Only Good") and "Summer Homes," the closing track. And even better, he released the whole thing free! No YouTube link for this one, but check out "Summer Homes" and then help yourself to the rest of the EP. I promise you it'll be well worth the hard drive space.

Click to listen!

SONG OF THE DAY: "The Best Day" by Atmosphere

From time to time, I will set a theme for a series of SotDs that can last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, depending on how much material I wish to cover. This week's theme will be rap songs!

RAP WEEK SONG #7!

Atmosphere is one of the better-known groups going in the alternative hip-hop game, which is only fair since they've been doing their thing since 1997. The group has released seven albums and sixteen EPs in that time, including several highly-regarded classics of the genre. So, with a group as prolific and of such high quality as Atmosphere, I could have easily dug up a heavy deep cut like "The Woman With Tattooed Hands" or "Scapegoat." I'm not going to do that though. It's Saturday night, so to conclude RAP WEEK, I feel it's only appropriate to pick a party song, as well as one of my favorite Atmosphere songs.

Ant and Slug (the two current members of Atmosphere) are founders of the Rhymesayers Entertainment record label and rap collective, which features many heavyweights in the scene, such as Aesop Rock, P.O.S., Musab, and Brother Ali. Atmosphere first began gaining widespread notoriety following the release of 2003's Seven's Travels, released on Epitaph Records, the legendary punk label. Their association with the punk scene led to their appearance on the 2004 Warped Tour, which they returned to the following year. The music video for "Trying to Find a Balance" was played on MTV2 and other various channels, and "The Keys to Life vs. 15 Minutes of Fame" was included on the 2004 Warped Tour Compilation. From there, the group took off. "Say Hey There" from 2005's You Can't Imagine How Much Fun We're Having and "You" from 2008's When Live Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold were also very successful, establishing the group as a major player in rap and proving that alternative rap can find mainstream success.

One thing I love about Atmosphere is their versatility. One minute, they're writing songs about extremely heavy subjects, like domestic abuse ("The Last to Say") and working poverty ("Guarantees"). The next they're singing about beautiful weather ("Sunshine") and beautiful women ("She's Enough"). They also excel at blending heavy subjects with upbeat music, as they do on "Yesterday" (the death of a parent) and "The Waitress" (homelessness). They have songs to party to, songs to bob your head to while doing homework, songs to drive to, songs to make you think, and songs to entrance you in the music. Slug is an incredibly visual storyteller, writing funny, sad, heartbreaking, clever, angry, motivational lyrics that are both intensely personal and easily relatable. Their success is no accident.

What I love most about "The Best Day" is how optimistic the song is, serving as a reminder not to let the crappy days bum you out too much. Just grit your teeth, accept it, and move on. The lyrics are smart and sneaky, describing scenes that can sound tired and overplayed in a way that gives them life again. I especially love the section about school. Give it a listen and brighten up your day to get pumped for the night!

SONG OF THE DAY: "The Best of Times" by Sage Francis

From time to time, I will set a theme for a series of SotDs that can last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, depending on how much material I wish to cover. This week's theme will be rap songs!

RAP WEEK SONG #6!

Sage Francis is another rapper I found by way of punk music. He was one of the non-punk artists signed by the legendary Epitaph Records when the label began diversifying in the early- to mid-2000s. Francis has always been a very political rapper, especially so during the early years of his career. In fact, he first began gaining notoriety after releasing the song "Makeshift Patriot" a month after 9/11/2001. I did not hear of him until years later, when he lent a verse to the Bad Religion song "Let Them Eat War" on 2004's The Empire Strikes First (Bad Religion is a similarly political punk band whose guitarist, Brett Gurewitz, founded Epitaph).

After being extremely prolific from 2002 to 2007, Francis has since only released one album and two mixtapes, though he has another album due out this year. Prior to experimenting with rap, Francis was primarily a spoken word artist, well-known in the poetry slam community. This experience has given a distinct style to his rapping, one that is less based on beats and flow, choosing to highlight the mood of the song and the weight of each word instead. This decidedly anti-mainstream approach has earned him a lot of respect and acclaim in the alternative rap, indie, and punk scenes (this also is likely due in part to his association with Epitaph Records).

"The Best of Times" closes out his most recent album, "Li(f)e," and serves as a nice, personal end-piece to the record, showing off his more introspective side as well as his spoken word style. There was a point in time during which I listened almost exclusively to this song and P.O.S.'s "Optimist." The song is a long, drawn-out examination of his life thus far, beginning in grade school. He examines each stage of his life, what the world looked like at that point, and how he regards that time of his life now that his perspective has changed. It is chock-full of solid, heartfelt lyrics without going so far as to be overly sentimental, and the general crescendo of the song is golden. Check it out below!

SONG OF THE DAY: "I Stand Alone" by Theophilus London

From time to time, I will set a theme for a series of SotDs that can last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, depending on how much material I wish to cover. This week's theme will be rap songs!

RAP WEEK SONG #5!

Theophilus London is a Trinidadian rapper by way of Brooklyn who has been deservedly getting a lot of attention in recent years. He released a number of mixtapes that were largely overwrought and unnecessarily expansive, although each contained a few true gems that kept me paying attention to his next move. By the time his debut album, Timez Are Weird These Days dropped in 2011, he was poised to absolutely explode. That didn't exactly happen, although the album turned a few heads and fared reasonably well on the Rap and R&B/Hip-Hop charts.

I would attribute this chart performance not to a lack of talent, but largely to the manner in which he presents his music. Most of his songs are undoubtedly pretty weird by mainstream standards. Timez had only one true pop song on it ("One Last Time"), and "I Stand Alone" only got any attention simply because of how awesome the song is, not to mention how original it sounds. But most of the album's beats were heavy, funky, and strange, the sounds multicultural and multi-epochal. The songs were atypically structured, loud and noisy at one moment, slow and brooding the next, but not very radio-friendly. His brand of hip-hop is nearly impossible to categorize, as each individual song has its own identity and style.

Speaking of style, Theophilus London has his own signature style that he probably couldn't pull off unless his music and occupation were such as they are. As he opines in "I Stand Alone," "The clothes don't make the man / It's the man that makes the clothes." Theo can get away with wearing anything he wants because his music gets away with anything it wants. As far as his public persona suggests, London is whatever and whomever he feels like being, and his music supports this idea.

"I Stand Alone" is the closing track from Timez, and is one of the biggest indicators of the level of talent that Theo has. The song starts out simply, with low energy, just a vocal and some sort of drum that you would never hear in most rap songs. Then other sounds start rising up, a trumpet blasts shortly, almost imperceptibly, and a synthesizer starts winding its way around his words. When London lets loose, half-singing, half-yelling, the drums come racing in, driving the song forward as the other instruments do their own thing. The song stays high energy for another verse, then eventually dips back down to almost nothing, before one last burst of chorus. The song is original, fun, exciting, and catchy, and yet not many have heard it. Let's change that, starting now!