"The Official" Say Anything Thread

[Soot and Stars]

Say Anything is a band that was propelled by brilliant writing that makes the bright shiny witty pop punk with oftentimes dark manic subject matter. If this style seems a little bipolar well it may have to do with singer and writer of the band Max Bemis who is actually bipolar. Max writes about a lot of his anxieties and issues through this band and it makes for a very personal experience for the listener but played out in a way that is still enjoyable. The band was propelled into a bidding war after a couple self released EPs received a huge buzz!

The EPs were:

Junior Varsity (below), Menorah\Majora, and In Your Dreams


They also had a self released full album:

Baseball


Here's a sampling of the early tracks that were done when the band were still in high school. It's rough but it's cool to know that the band started with a spark and really grew musically as they got older! The confessional personal songwriting started here though:

High School Low and Sappy (off of Junior Varsity/In Your Dreams)


Colorblind and Into The Night (off of Baseball)


Walk Through Hell and Transylvanian (off of Menorah/Majora)


Of these tracks there is a mix of peppy and dark tracks! The major label debut "Is A Real Boy" is around the point where they learned to meld these together to form the style they would be loved for!

 

[METALPRIEST]

ANYTHING.....


oh...I thought this was the "Say Anything" thread....ummm....my bad....



Kidding man...really cool! Listening now.

 

[Soot and Stars]

That's cool man! Don't let this material scare you off from later material! This is the group in MT that you heard through this track:

Do Better


The material starting out is very amateurish and rough! I like to show ALL of a band to show how they progress though!

 

[METALPRIEST]

Cool, I'm back in here and listening to the first post.

 

[METALPRIEST]

Pretty wild...the acoustic stuff was a bit rough in spots but Walk Through Hell is a cool tune.

Do Better is my favorite in the thread at this point.

 

[Soot and Stars]

Mine too and funny enough Walk Through Hell is the one that signifies where they were heading in style!

 

[METALPRIEST]

It's sounds like...." hey we got the sound..."

 

[METALPRIEST]

They look like nice kids!

 

[Soot and Stars]

They look like nice kids!

Yeah, it's cool they never lost that youthful sound even as adults! It makes their later combine a real adult cynicism and grit with their youthful pop melodies! BTW I noticed I ****ed up and double posted and mixed up songs! Whoops! Fixed now!

The band really took off when they released their first major label album:

Is A Real Boy


After getting the record deal with Drive Thru Records he put his A-game on and added a lot more musical depth to his bands music. The songwriting was already in place but even that would be stepped up. Max wrote songs using personal experiences at age 20. he wrote stuff that hit so close to the bone of his personal experiences that his girlfriend at the time broke up with him over it! Love wasn't all he wrote about or writes about in general! He writes about in this album and has carried on the themes of his questioning faith (he's Jewish), the hometown he hates (a lot of us have a love/hate relationship with ours), looking for and using drugs (legal and illegal) and even when he writes about love it's not generic. He uses quotes, phrases and real situations in his lyrics. The music became more complex being inspired by elements of math rock and this complemented the more theatrical music and vocal approach of the songs!



Max Bemis was so obsessed with what he wanted the album to be that he had two breakdowns and one had him put in a mental hospital by a police officer. After being put through rehab by band members and family he's never had another incident since!

Here are the two singles from the album:

Alive With The Glory of Love and Wow, I Can Get Sexual too


Here are the other tracks I enjoy:

The Writhing South, Woe, Every Man Has A Molly and An **** of Critics

 

[METALPRIEST]

Yeah it sounds like they were maturing at this point. The one I like from this batch is Every Man Has A Molly