Before we start, if you're company has a hard time explaining what it does you can hire me to do that in 60-90 seconds with an explainer animation. Go to drive80.com or email me at [email protected] to learn more.

AbsolutePunk was a website, online community, and alternative music news source founded by Jason Tate. It mainly focused on artists who were relatively unknown to mainstream audiences, but it was known to feature artists who have eventually achieved crossover success, including Blink-182, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, New Found Glory, Taking Back Sunday, The Gaslight Anthem, Anberlin, Thrice, All Time Low, and a shit ton more. The primary musical genres of focus were emo and pop-punk, but other genres were included. On March 31, 2016, it was announced that founder Jason Tate would be re-acquiring AbsolutePunk from SpinMedia (the parent company of Buzznet) and the website would be shuttered and folded into Tate's new music and social platform, Chorus.fm.

I reached out to Mr. Tate on Instagram, asked him to be interviewed and he was delighted. So I got him on the Skype and this is what we chatted about:

• When We Were Young festival
• Starting Absolute Punk
• How honest was he with reviews
• Spin buying the website
• The toxicity of the internet
• Becoming the place that released new songs or streaming albums
• Rob Dobi
• Emogame
• Panic at the Disco
• Blender's article including him
• Andrew McMahon's diagnosis
• His relationship with Victory Records
• Downloading music
• Brand New's leaked demo
• And a ton more

Go sign up for his newsletter at www.chorus.fm/newsletter

Check out the band Anxious and their new album Little Green House that he likes and talks about at the end of the podcast.

This week's sponsor is Mint 400 Records.

Mint 400 Records is an indie record label from NJ with bands across the United States, Canada, and Europe. The label features everything from Indie Rock & Folk to Post-Punk and Soul. Over 400 exciting releases.

You can find Mint 400 Records' releases streaming at Spotify, Pandora, Tidal, Apple Music, Amazon Music, Deezer, and more or at all mp3 outlets worldwide. Visit www.mint400records.com for links and more info.

Here's a clip from their band Reese Van Riper's song "Well Runs Dry" from the album The Swamps Are Burning.

Check out my new book The Couples' Checklist for my webcomic dailyBred. It's a great gift for Valentine's Day. I also have an Instagram for it.

If you market aggressively on Instagram Stories and want custom stickers then go here to get custom stickers or just email [email protected] and I can send you samples. These are great for B2C companies and Realtors.

Feel free to support the podcast for as little as $1 a month through Patreon

Or go to thiswasthescene.com to possibly buy some merch.