Good Future Club

A few days ago, I got to see two of my favorite bands. They've been huge influences and helped shape the direction of my career path. This is a long one so buckle up. Way back in high school, I was discovering countless bands in the pop punk, punk, emo, whatever you want to call it genre. I have a collection of stars tattooed on my arm that I took from The Movielife's 'This Time Next Year' record. I remember hearing them on an old Initial Records cd compilation and loving them. They actually opened me up to the amazing Long Island scene that was going on at that point. It was a ridiculous scene with Brand New, Taking Back Sunday, Glassjaw, Bayside, As Tall As Lions, etc.

When I turned 18, I started a record label called Little League Records (which quickly became LLR Recordings after Little League Baseball threatened to sue me). I reached out to Richard and Stefanie from Drive Thru Records which was by far my favorite label with non stop incredible releases from (A) New Found Glory, Midtown, Allister, Dashboard Confessional, Rx Bandits, Finch, The Starting Line, Something Corporate and somehow even more. They were cool enough to have me and a few friends helping with the label out to California to hang in the office, learn from them and give a bunch of advice on getting the label off the ground. Incredible experiences and I can't thank them enough for the advice but beyond that, I remember the first time stepping foot in their office and it all clicked for me. I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. It was crazy inspiring to watch a label, not to mention my favorite label, operate and work on upcoming releases from my favorite bands. I hope everyone gets to experience a moment like that.

They played me the finished Movielife 'Has A Gambling' problem record and it was incredible (and still is.) I got to see all the photos the photographer just sent in of the band in Vegas that would be narrowed down and make up the artwork for the EP. I continued to be a huge fan of the band throughout the remaining years to follow. I lived in the Movielife switchblade shirt throughout high school. Fast forward to me working at Equal Vision Records over a decade later. We had heard that Vinnie Caruana was working on a solo record and got sent a few early demos. The songs were killer. Dan at EVR and I bonded over the history of The Movielife and both jumped at the chance to get involved. It was so rad to get to work with Vinnie on the songs and the record and was such a great full circle moment. I'm so proud of that record and you should check it out if you haven't. Anyways, it was so rad to see The Movielife come back and their new record rules. Some of their best songwriting quite honestly. Their setlist was a great mix of all eras, including opening with I Hope You Die Soon and I can't wait to see what they have in-store. They sound just as good as they ever did so get out there and see it.

On that same visit to Drive Thru Records, I got to hear a new band they had just signed from NJ called The Early November. It was songs that would make up the For All Of This EP and it started out with so much energy and combined everything I loved in the scene at the time. It was another great signing and I feel like I told every person I saw how good it was once it came out. I worked at a record store so it was amazing to recommend a young band no one had heard of and people would listen and buy it consistently. I remember when they got to play the main stage at Skate and Surf to thousands of people at such a young part of their career and completely killing it. They toured a ton so I was fortunate to see them all the time as they passed through Chicago. A few years later, a few friends and I drove out to California again and we got the Acoustic EP. I think we listened to it the entire 40 hours home to Chicago. That's probably the most emo thing I've ever written but we listened to it a lot. I was a huge fan of the Room's Too Cold and then the wild triple disc (who does that?). Over the years I would always hear insane tour stories about them like how they got 2 vans stolen (lost?).

Fast forward to about a decade later when I started Self Titled Management and began managing producers and song writers. I got a call from my buddy Mike Marquis who booked The Early November and he asked me if I was a fan and if I'd be interested in working with Ace on his production/writing. I played it cool and didn't fan boy and of course was stoked. Got on the phone with Ace the next day and I was going to say yes regardless but I was really stoked on how good of a producer he was on top of the song writing which I had already been a huge fan of obviously. He started a killer studio in NJ called The Lumberyard w/ Nik from Man Overboard. Go work with them: The Lumberyard. It was incredible to get to know Ace and watch him pour himself into his projects. He's truly one of the nicest people I've ever met. I've been trying to convince him to move to California so we could hang out more and so our kids could be best friends.

It's always a great time seeing an Early November show and equally a great time catching up on life, songs, tour and Hallmark Christmas movies. While joking around before the show, he was wearing a red flannel as was another member of the band and I said "You should put both flannels on and take one off after a song and say 'the room's not so cold after all'." The room had a good laugh and he quickly put on the 2nd flannel and said he was doing it. (Side note: The jury is still out on the initial double up the flannel part of who suggested it between Jono Diener (from the Swellers who's playing drums for Early November on this tour) or me. Let's just say we're a great comedy writing duo that you'll be hearing more from). After the 3rd song, sure enough, he nailed it. Here's the video:

As I said, always an incredible time. This was the Room Is Too Cold album tour which was rad to see all those songs front to back that I've heard in that order so many times. The coolest part is watching Ace continue to become an even better performer every time I'm able to see a show. They played some bonus songs after the record play and the best part was after the encore, we walked to the dressing room and there was still a sizable chant for one more song going. The band had unplugged, Ace pulled his in ear monitors out already, the house lights and music already playing which everyone knows the shows over at that point but the band all looked at each other, ran down the hall to stage to do another. There was an awkward moment where the sound guy had already walked away but he came back and the fans got to hear the band rip Decoration. Again, Ace is the nicest dude ever. I for one hope he never stops writing and releasing music cause he continues to deliver and surprise. Thanks for all the inspiration.

Awkward friend photo but I needed to get the double flannel documented.