Alan P

All drama aside, the current line-up is the best they have ever had IMO and I find Illusory Walls to be SO MUCH BETTER than their other albums (which I do also like). I agree doing shows for the 10th anniversary of Whenever, If Ever is silly.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. 

Having attended the last two Furnace Fests, let me assure you, you are most definitely NOT too old. 😅

I'd suggest adding prices to sell fast. That Nada Surf should fly if it's priced right. Good luck!

i think he's pretty far from being religious now, if you google 'dustin kensrue christianity' there some interesting stuff out there

one thing i noticed on that new revisited album, on Stare at the Sun, the lyric used to be:

"I tear into the HISTORY, show me what it means to me in this world"
now it's...
"I tear into the MYSTERY, show me what it means to me in this world"

which to me says he was originally singing about possibly christianity or the bible, he now doesn't see it as historical...

Eisley - Combinations available for the first time on vinyl via Music On Vinyl:
180 gram audiophile vinyl Includes insert Limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on gold colored vinyl https://www.musiconvinyl.com/catalog/eisley/combinations
https://www.amazon.com/Combinations-Limited-180-Gram-Color-Vinyl/dp/B0BP295RJM
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Eisley-Combinations-Limited-180-Gram-Gold-Color-Vinyl/1158288778

Not a big fan of the live recording sound. Stare At The Sun sounds way less memorable than the OG recording because you can't hear the super melodic guitar effect as much. Either way, these are selling fast, and I'll definitely grab one.

Edit: Just under $29 with their email signup coupon code. E-Z Buy. Snagged an ultra clear

I'll definitely pick this up as I love Thrice and the price point seems good for 2023. However, I just did a full listen and I was underwhelmed. Pretty much sounds like a really good live album. Drums and bass sound great, but then just simply combined with two guitar parts. The only overdubs I noticed were vocals.
The guest vocalists are kinda pointless, as they are never featured, they are just bgvs. I was especially hoping for more from Andy Hull. Also, the loss of strings is significant--"The Melting Point of Wax" is really subpar without them. Thrice has always been super creative and used interesting recording and production techniques, but not here. Maybe that's the point.

Nah.
Definitely not a sequel or one-up, yeah.  TAITA 2: Reloaded (Retirement Edition) just doesn’t have the same ring to it.  The mixing is maybe one of the bigger appeals here.  I think the big test is seeing how many Thrice fiends actually reach for this record on their shelf if both versions reside there.
The surprise factor is probably my favorite aspect of this release, I agree.  They had no obligations to do something like this.  Typically if one jumps through the hoops to fully retread a previous album, though - especially if they pull in features - I would say there’s generally a purpose for the time, energy, and funds being spent to make that happen.  99% of the time, anyway.  Maybe this is within the 1% that is strictly “for funsies”… and if so, that’s great.  I personally haven’t been able to get into anything Thrice has done post-hiatus, so this is probably as close as I’ll get to hearing the band in their current state output something I can at least kind of resonate with.  But again, even if the production isn’t to your preference, I still think 2003 TAITA and its nuances (flaws) make it untouchable, like Matt said.  Not as a flawless album, but as a pillar of nostalgia.
That being said, do not misinterpret this dialogue as me posting “this shit sucks 😂 why would our guys buy this?  Just track down an OG ffs”.  Because that’s not what I’m saying.  The band is moving a lot of units on this thing so the interest is clearly there.  I’m definitely seeing some comments on various platforms that do insist this feels more like a live album – some going as far as to call it “soulless” – with others questioning, too, the entire point of re-recording just this album in their discography.  If anything I’m not entirely alone with this old-man rant.

Maybe a little debatable.
I’m with Alan in admitting that I don’t exactly get the purpose of doing this.  You’re 100% right; re-recording an album note for note, it would be goofy to expect something that stretched way outside the box.  I wouldn’t want to hear this album remixed by 12 different artists on 12 different tracks.  Nor would I want a full acoustic / demo version of it.
I guess for me, TAITA was sort of “the” album that opened my youthful eyes to modern genres and bands that became a cornerstone to my tastes today.  I don’t listen to much Thrice in 2023.  I do still have their pre-hiatus stuff on the shelf, even if I seldom reach for it, but I cannot deny that everything about TAITA is etched into my brain from an absurd amount of listens over the last two decades.
I think the OG TAITA was on Island, right?  They seem like a weird black hole for select artists and albums.  (Thinking of Thursday’s WATT, another teen staple of mine.)  Part of me thought that this re-recording was Thrice taking a page from Taylor Swift and trying to do their own “version” of the record that they’d have full rights to.  But I’m also thrown off from that theory a bit, since TAITA has seen several repressed over the years – compared to WATT, again, which feels under lock & chain.
So, again; I’m just confused about the purpose of this thing.  It proves that the band members still have their technical chops even if they’re all older and more tired than they were in 2003.  Dustin’s vocals sound like they’ve held up well, but… I’m still going to be a buzzkill and say that the nuances and production of 2003 TAITA make it its own special record and snapshot of its time.  This new recording doesn’t take me back 20 years.  It feels like a live capture of the record without the audience, with some questionable features (Architects 🤢) and I just don’t know what to make of that.
At the end of the day, it’s neater than a lot of the anniversary approaches discussed above, so I should probably just back off and let it be.  Still think it’s weird though.  Sort of like updated interior inside of a vintage muscle car, or something.  Rides the same.  Still satisfying to drive.  Maybe even has a few new bells and whistles to ooh and aah.  But still kind of misses the mark when it comes to the experience of enjoying something from days gone.

I'll definitely pick this up as I love Thrice and the price point seems good for 2023. However, I just did a full listen and I was underwhelmed. Pretty much sounds like a really good live album. Drums and bass sound great, but then just simply combined with two guitar parts. The only overdubs I noticed were vocals.
The guest vocalists are kinda pointless, as they are never featured, they are just bgvs. I was especially hoping for more from Andy Hull. Also, the loss of strings is significant--"The Melting Point of Wax" is really subpar without them. Thrice has always been super creative and used interesting recording and production techniques, but not here. Maybe that's the point.

I'll definitely pick this up as I love Thrice and the price point seems good for 2023. However, I just did a full listen and I was underwhelmed. Pretty much sounds like a really good live album. Drums and bass sound great, but then just simply combined with two guitar parts. The only overdubs I noticed were vocals.
The guest vocalists are kinda pointless, as they are never featured, they are just bgvs. I was especially hoping for more from Andy Hull. Also, the loss of strings is significant--"The Melting Point of Wax" is really subpar without them. Thrice has always been super creative and used interesting recording and production techniques, but not here. Maybe that's the point.

1. Once Upon A Poolside (feat. Sufjan Stevens)
2. Eucalyptus
3. New Order T-Shirt
4. This Isn’t Helping (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)
5. Tropic Morning News
6. Alien
7. The Alcott (feat. Taylor Swift)
8. Grease In Your Hair
9. Ice Machines
10. Your Mind Is Not Your Friend (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)
11. Send For Me
 
White Vinyl w/ Flexi Disc (Cherry Tree Exclusive) https://shop.americanmary.com/collections/f2pof
White Vinyl (National and 4AD Webstores) https://shop.americanmary.com/collections/f2pof
Eco-Black Vinyl https://shop.americanmary.com/collections/f2pof
Red Vinyl (Indie Exclusive) https://www.roughtrade.com/us/product/the-national/first-two-pages-of-frankenstein-2 - buy locally if you can!
Green Vinyl (Spotify Exclusive; Sold Out)

I guess this is going live sometime later today:
https://boygenius.store/

Got my Embodyment and looks and sounds great. I've only spun disc 1, so haven't yet discovered if there is distortion on disc 2--but happy that they are 45 rpm. Kind of surprised and disappointed it's not a gatefold, the art is fine, but kind of basic considering the price point and the level of detail in the original CD artwork (that is not found here). I wish they had done something like that unique LIYW jacket.
 
Also, so much for Unoriginal vinyl's plan to stop scalpers. There is someone on Discogs who got three Obi strips for Embodyment and purchased three copies of the album--they have one in their Discogs collection and then two for sale for $105 each. And the descriptions give the Obi strip numbers. 😡 😫 

Some folks found a pre-order for the debut LP in the boygenius Instagram shop. It's been taken down since. 
Album drops March 31st.
Assuming proper announcement/PO drop is coming soon. 
Screenshots below. Photos of the back of the jacket show that it's apparently being released by Interscope. 
 

This sucks. Mine hasn’t come yet, but will do. Worried honestly because my Idle Threat record (also T&N) is distorted the last two tracks on side A.

I also ordered the gold. I am one of the lucky few who got the FF variant, but I really want a copy with the original art. And yes it seems they are in hand and will ship now/soon!

Goddamnit, just watched the video for Pitiful - that song gives me fuckin chills. 

https://blindside.manheadmerch.com/
 
Holy fuck. 

I love Oceania. I even like it a bit more than Machina because it has such a well-constructed flow. The band was in a good creative groove for a moment there, too bad it fizzled out so quickly. I like most of Monuments (Tiberius is classic SP in my book), but being so short it really suffers from the weaker tracks (Run 2 Me? Oof…).
The whole artistic evolution thing is so tough, and as an artistic person myself, I can totally sympathize with musicians trying to navigate that. If I ever made anything half as successful as MCIS, I know it would seriously disrupt my ability to continue producing art that is genuine to myself and my interests, but also speak to whomever loved what I did before. As a listener, I welcome bands trying to move their sound forward, even if doesn’t always work, I find that to be more interesting than repeating what already works. With ATUM, Corgan seems to be digging into the more flamboyant side of his musical tastes, and he’s not pandering to his older fans (with the music itself at least, trying to tack this album on to his previous work by declaring it a sequel is questionable at best), which I can appreciate. What I struggle with is that he’s steering head-first into a musical aesthetic that I just don’t connect with at all. I’m not mad about that. I’m not about to rejoin Netphoria and make a hobby out of hating Billy, that’s pretty soulless. But I also think it’s good to thoughtfully critique things, and I agree that the way Jimmy is seemingly being constrained in these newer albums is hard to reconcile.

Absolutely agree.  Oceania is a very solid album.  It actually sounds like the Pumpkins that made all their 90s material so good.  While I understand the desire for artists to "evolve", to me this seems like there's just nothing in it for me to connect with.  And for crying out loud... why in the world is Jimmy's amazing drum talent being wasted album after album if he's back in the band?  Unless I'm missing something, has there even been a classic Jimmy drum track in any of the new material?  The kid in Oceania did about as good of a Jimmy impression with his drum work on that album than I think anyone could ever do.

Went to my local store at 630 in the morning for Appleseed Cast. I knew there would be left overs online but I'm into supporting locally.
However, my shop had it for a price of $47.99 and while I knew it was over priced I didn't think it was by much until I saw the prices on discogs. $25!!! Bought a copy online and retuned my local. As much as I want to support local I can't support price gouging or ignore the opportunity to save that much money.
Unless it's for something really rare I'm buying everything online next year.

I’ve been tracking two releases on Discogs, both Fountains of Wayne and Appleseed Cast, since yesterday morning. Copies began popping up at retail prices around 11:00 am ET on Friday. Now on Saturday there are nearly 50 copies of each for sale, with the price now below $25 each. I don’t always pay attention like this, but it seems way less people are heading to RSD in person, and it is far easier to grab what you want online than in the past.