Recently in A-Z Challenge April 2011 Category

I received a comment yesterday on my blog from Deirdra Eden Coppel saying:

Love your site and as I browsed your blog I decided to award you the Creative Blog Award.

Go to http://astorybookworld.blogspot.com/p/awards.html and pick up your award.

~Deirdra

Not exactly sure what this is, but it makes me happy.  Go check out her site. 

I'm going to be unavailable for the next few days for a small trip back home for a funeral.  I'm only taking the iPad with me (and iPhone and iPod, but not MacBook), so I probably will be getting off schedule for the challenge.

I already know what my subjects will be for Letter "G" & "H", but unsure if I'll find time to get them done when they're supposed to be due. 

I actually feel bad about this because as a past straight A student who likes to follow the rules, I feel like I'm cheating or failing at the task a hand.  But, I'll have to cut myself some slack because family comes first and I can't very well disrespect them to get out a blog post. 

Sorry.

~mrsoshimbo

As one of my Twitter friends replied to me today, he said, music is cyclical.  It never really goes away and comes back again.  This is very true, except it's always a little bit different in its reincarnation.  So what does that have to do with today's post?  Well, today's band is Face to Face.  One of the leaders in the pop-punk world that took over in the 1990s to early 2000s.  It was like the punk scene of the late 70s right before New Wave took over, but not British, and not as angry.  And once again, the New New Wave movement followed quickly behind the punk guys in the early 2000s.

Face to Face was my favorite band for a long time.  They were a SoCal band from Victorville and played a lot in the area.  They had a really big hit on KROQ called Disconnected.  I still love that song today.  

I didn't actually see them live until maybe 1999 or 2000.  My excuse?  Let's just say when you're young and dumb, you sometimes find yourself involved with questionable people who will try to strip you of everything you love so you end up just a shell.  It wasn't until I made the decision to move away from Cali that I regained my identity and started doing things I loved again.  Maybe that's why I loved Face to Face so much.  It spoke to where I was in my life at the time. They had the speed, anger, and power of punk music, but lyrics and melodies like New Wave bands.  Makes sense when you consider they grew up being influenced by the likes of The Cure, Joy Division, or New Order. (They even did some covers for some compilation albums called, "Before You Were Punk" where they covered New Wave artists).  

Someone had bought me tickets to see them for the first time for my birthday.  They played at the House of Blues on Sunset.  It was the first time I had been to a concert where it wasn't assigned seating and mayhem ruled.  It was my first experience seeing a mosh pit, which I was too scared to go in.  Alkaline Trio opened for Face to Face and people were amped.  If you want to see a lot of sweaty young guys go shirtless, go to a concert where moshing is the only form of acceptable dancing. 

After that, I bought every CD and tried to see them as often as they played.  We even ventured to the Glass House in Pomona before it was a reputable establishment.  When we went, it was a scary place in "please don't shoot me" Pomona, where it looked like a nasty room with carpet that had never been cleaned.  I didn't care though as long as I could get swept up in the energy of my favorite band.

Face to Face had an album called, Ignorance is Bliss.  Fans of the hardcore HATED it.  It was slower, more melodic, and beautiful.  It was still angsty, but more in an emo way than an angry way.  They came back after that with a hard fast paced album, but I secretly loved Ignorance is Bliss because it captured everything I loved about New Wave music.

When I think about Face to Face, I think about what they say and their energy.  I remember when Mr. O and I first started dating and I'd make him go see Face to Face with me.  He didn't love them, but he would go because I wanted to go.  But once the band came on and the pit started swaying, I'd practically force him to go play in the center because while it meant an elbow in my face if I went in, he could hold his own, and enjoyed it.  He enjoyed it so much that one time he lost my glasses (which were in his pocket), and we waited for the house lights to come back on to find them cracked and broken in the trash on the ground.  That was a pricey show. 

The last time I saw the band before they broke up in 2004, was one of the most fun experiences at a show.  We ended up in the front row and I had to fight to keep my spot for their whole set.  I gave some good elbow jabs back to those gross sweaty shirtless teens.  That whole time I was singing along to every song and jumping up and down.  By the end we were all slick with sweat and had probably lost a few pounds.  That's the best kind of exercise when you don't even know you're doing it. 

Even though my heart will always truly belong to 80's New Wave (and 2000's New New Wave), I have missed the band since their break up. Trevor Keith, lead singer, released a solo album, but it wasn't the same.  I have read they've reunited, and I am very happy to see a new studio album will be released in May 2011.  I'm very curious to see how they've evolved since their last album 9-yrs ago.  The music scene has changed, so I hope they have progressed, but retain what I loved about them 15-yrs ago. 

Click to see some of my favorite Face to Face songs..