This Album Changed My Life

Glenn and Bret interview Travis Davis about Relient K’s The Anatomy of the Tongue in Cheek, the album that sent 10/11 year old Trav down a lifelong path of music. We talk Sadie Hawkins Dance taking over fifth grade, the glory of CD-ROM bonus music videos, watching Dave Douglas play Pressing On with chopsticks in hand, and how both Bret and Trav got drum sets as a gift, which eventually let to two lifetimes of playing, and a whole spiderweb of bands from Switchfoot to Blink, Foo Fighters, New Found Glory, and beyond.

We revisit the beautiful silliness of early Relient K, praise Matt Thiessen’s sneaky songwriting genius, dig into how this album balances goofy youth group energy with real depth, and discuss favorite tracks like Failure to Excommunicate, Pressing On, Sadie Hawkins Dance, and Maybe It’s Maybelline. Along the way we talk nostalgia, hearing old songs differently as adults, sharing favorite music with our kids, why joy doesn’t have to stay trapped in “the good old days,” and what Travis would go back and tell his younger self: hang on, keep playing drums, and remember that this album matters.

Travis' YouTube can be found here, and you can see Glenn get Given Hell (literally) by Tyson from All-American Rejects here.

It's story time with Bret as he discusses the exact time and place he first heard Thursday's Understanding In A Car Crash off, and how although he normally didn't like things like that, he liked it...a lot. Thursday was his gateway into post-hardcore, which led him all the way to Furnace Fest. Then, Dennis Martinez from the Flamingo Friends crew hops on to talk about his journey to Thursday, starting years ago in Corpus Christi, up to seeing them last week.

Dennis' YouTube archive of concert footage can be found at https://www.youtube.com/coca8485, where he's uploading videos of the concerts you couldn't go to.

Glenn interviews Bret about MxPx's monumental 1996 album Life in General, which set him on a musical journey he didn't see coming. From pop punk to ska, to playing it, to emo and on to heavier stuff, to music festivals, friends, the vinyl community, and more, we go deep on why Bret owes it all to this album.

We praise Yuri "The Machine" Ruley, discuss growing up in youth groups, reminisce about singing GSF at the top of our lungs at Furnace Fest '23, revisit the themes of Life in General (restlessness, growing pains, faith, independence, feeling rebellious, even if you're not sure what it is you're rebelling against), and consider how those ideas land differently with time and perspective.

As mentioned, here's links to the Kwik-E-Mart Bandits:‎

The Kwik-E-Mart Bandits - Apple Music

The Kwik-E-Mart Bandits | Spotify

Here's the Reissues episode with Jason Zeimet of Unoriginal Vinyl - great listening in advance of next week's episode!

Reissues - For the Love of Vinyl - Apple Podcasts

Bret interviews Glenn for our first episode, discussing ADTR's landmark album Homesick, which blended pop-punk with metalcore and was possibly the first time a lot of the pop punk kids ever heard a breakdown. We learn how and why 13 year old Glenn was feeling so Homesick and how this album was there for him in some tough times.