Social Distancing Soundtrack 2020 (Alternative / Hardcore)
What can I say. Life has been pretty, pretty, pretty wild.
for the first time have experienced something I never thought to be possible. I have a version of depression that “Will” be in some medical journals.
“Cøncert Depressiøn”. i know it sounds stupid, but I have been going to concerts since I was 12 years old, and that is my drug. the energy, the love, and about all “the unity”, which seems to be unheard of these days. its in my blood. this detøx fucking sucks.
I was recently put on an SNRI for minor depression, anxiety, and neuropathy pain. Mainly for the shooting pain that happens down my legs because of my Kidney Transplant. the other two were the perks that i didn’t know that i needed.
so to this earthquake in utah …
it sounded like a freight train coming down, like hella loud. i thought it was the tracks. i have to take ambien to sleep so i woke up like will smith in independence day, and just went back to sleep, but then i soon woke up for work. i was like oh, holy shit, there “was” an earthquake! i then was speeding back from guitar center off i-215, and there are so many damn high rise interchanges, i was like im going to out run this “seconD” tremor like in the movies, and its going to be crumbling, as long as i get down to i-15 600S exit i can be on “flat fault line land”. still not the best situation, but the second tremor, turned out to be a rumor. i drove around, and saw some of the damage to the buildings, pretty surreal.
then quarantine, lockdown, protests, riots, anarchy, the most sociological hate i have ever seen, and deserving movement all happening at the same time. so i had my first panic attack mixed with depression at the same time. nothing i have ever felt, even with all the health trials i have endured.
sadly, also for the first time in my life …I have become more apathetic towards almost everything, because everything I love and know how to do, has been taken away and replaced with a “Hope" of Nothing”. What is going to happen with my world of restaurants, hospitality, brand/promo work, events, concerts. entertainment?
The Uncertainty of it all. everyone is either escaping to Familiarity of bad habits. picking up new ones, all while feeling trapped … with that said my outlet of music even though not in person is still a nice lil ray of light in this darkness.
*PS I Will Try & Update This List As The Year Continues. #AugTwentyFifthTwentyTwenty.
These albums “made it” so every song adds to making this rank. I tried to only choose 3
: alternative /// hardcore :
|:|:|: Sick Joke :|:|:|
This is my apathetic søng of the summer. plain & simple. i think a lot of people in the hospitality industry had to “switch up their rhythm.” i know i had to think more than twice about my profession, and brand /// promotion side hustles.
i have some ideas that i want to turn into goals, but i am weighing the market & seeing what will happen. everything is an abyss of who knows.
|:|:|: Fall :|:|:|
The thing about neck deep and pop/punk is the story telling and the catchy “concert energy” that you can imagine, the whole song takes me back to highschool as an adult because i didn’t really get too fucked up on anything as much as i have as an adult. i have had one of those night though were you got obliterated with an “s.o.” and just connect on a way that you would not have if you weren’t, but then when you sober up and you still like to do ordinary shit with each other thats whats awesøme about this song.
*pS - The slow down break shows how they are planning ahead, thinking about preforming live, and how fucking fun that is going to be. they do that break a few times then explodes. god damn i miss concerts.
|:|:|: I Revolve (Around You) :|:|:|
just a fun 2000’s pop/punk song. i feel like the world being so uncertain that their is still love and but we are all just floating around in space not knowing wtf to do, but his life is revolving around her and he just wants some action, no talking just “a lil more touch”, lets forget about everything and just be here for each other.
|:|:|: Good to be alive :|:|:|
so i don’t know if you are getting the revolving theme of most of these artists with these albums. a lot of these songs are about uncertainty and how life is in a state of chaøs, things have been taken away that we “all” took for granted. we are all telling ourselves we are “fine” but we are all having our own out of body experiences and its fucking wild.
|:|:|: Gimme A Minute :|:|:|
this is DEFINITELY on my spliff, top down, canyon middle of the night playlists. it has that eerie feeling, wondering whats going to happen, and then that drop comes in, and its even more intense with the latter half of the song.
PS* It was a toss up between this and dead weight. they both have that awesøme canyon night drive feel
|:|:|: HALLUCINATIØNS :|:|:|
“Hallucinations,” lyrically… I mean, the very face value aspect is hallucinations, and type of hallucinations you can experience, and personifying that—or turning that into a context relating to a relationship or whatever. But that song encapsulates a perspective I have about the supernatural versus reality versus the physical world, I guess. There’s a lot of different perspectives on how those things exist together or whether they do exist together.
- Lynn Gunn (Lead Singer) via #AlternativePress
:::
i remember that i had watched the music video before listening to the audio. the music video is mos def a hallucination, it gets a lil wild, but i loved it. i knew that this album was going to be something that i would løve.
|:|: Øld wØunds :|:|
I love how pvris opens up this song … the eerie fade in, then the lyrics, “they say don’t open old wounds.” then when when lynn says shes going to, and then “i think i could love you til the day that you die”, with that small subtle lead-in … oof, it gave me goosebumps. this whole song is just so sadly awesøme, showing us our true human nature.
|:|:|: wish yøu well :|:|:|
lead singer lynn gunn has mentioned in numerous articles about her EXPERIENCES & draw to the supernatural, PARALLEL universes, paranormal, reincarnation ect.
i will have a dreams so real, that it makes me question “this reality”. I have been having them since i was 16. maybe my trauma unlocked something … anyways
i have a high rate of deja vu for someone that can “break through” just dreaming. as i take the ambien, gabapentin & melatonin just to help with my insØmnia.
this past year, has been pretty, pretty weird, because in this dream, we had never met, and i saw her face which if you know anything about dreams that’s pretty uncommon & rare.
ended up becoming pretty good friends with her, as we worked together, and then i had another few dreams that threw me through a wierd, alternate timeline-loop , where i felt i had a different life with her. it made me start questioning this life more. this song perfectly summed up what i was feeling.
|:|:|: thank you (feat. raye) :|:|:|
i had no idea that pvris was going to release a deluxe album and goddamn this first song of the extension was oof. aka soo . . . good for all you a-d-u-l-t-s out there :)
when that chorus dropped. i was insanely hooked on the hook. it was perfect timing for everything that was going on in my life. i love that the music gods have always had my back in my never ending emo relationships and their lyrics for that perfect moment in my timeline.
And my heart still beats without your touch
And so I can't thank you enough
|:|:|: things are better (alt. versiøn) :|:|:|
wow. just wow. i am so glad pvris released this version. it has a totally different tone and experience than the original version that is slower and impactful in a totally different way.
i would have to say that i love this version the most. it is upbeat and like a bad ass fucking summer song, that makes me want to make a music video or something. it’s slightly buzzing different in my creative head space. the lyrics amazing. the alt version, uniquely gorgeous in its own right.
|:|:|: tØkyØ drifting :|:|:|
This track sucks you in right as you hear it. Its got like a “new modern dirty twist”, almost sorta signature with Glass Animals. This one though, is a little more dirty.
Then it fades into like okay, is this a break, a bridge … then those trumpets come in with that deep kick, ooh baby. Then Denzel Takes Off. It definitely makes me want another fast car. If I get the opportunity to break 257kmh / 165mph … it will be to this song.
*** Disclaimer: I DO NOT, Condone Going This Fast ***
|:|:|: waterfalls coming out of your mØuth:|:|:|
So this song will have lyrics that you will be like “umm … okay, what is hell is he talking about” “all of these lyrics are references to Millennials things"
Yes and Yes, once you see it written out, Dave Bayley (Singer/Mostly All Things) is talking about how the first few months or even dates people are trying to be something they aren’t, when they are better off just being themselves.
I 100% Agree. I have seen it before, I am usually just myself, I do get shy though, not super apparent because, I am pretty social for the most part. Dating summed up “What The Hell Are We Doing Now?”
|:|:|: Heat waves :|:|:|
This song just gives me all the right feelz. Starting off going up and down the scale and then throwing some “Blurryface” type voice distortion, then right into one of the most killer little verses.
The Chorus personally took me to a time where you had a hardcore crush and its just so awesome. I can’t lie if I didn’t have one myself and was thinking about her.
However this song is about something a little different.
Dave Bayley /// From Youtube:
“This Video Is A Love Letter To Live Music And The Culture And Togetherness Surrounding It. It Was Filmed At The Peak Of The Lockdown In My Neighbourhood In East London By The Lovely People Who Live Around Me, Just Using Their Phones. These Are People Who Are Usually Out At Shows, In Galleries, Going To Cinemas Etc. These Venues Are Left Empty Now, And Many Of Them Will Not Survive. The Song Is About Loss And Longing, And Ultimately Realizing You Are Unable To Save Something…and This Video Is About That But For Art, Being Together, And Human Contact. Huge Love And Thank You’s To Everyone Who Got Involved And Helped Out. When Everyone Was Leaning Out Of Their Windows Filming, I Felt That Same Sense Of Togetherness And Spine-tingling Energy That Happened At Live Shows. It Made The Coldness Of Performing To An Empty Room With The Band Stuck On Screens Feel Even More Heart-Breaking”
|:|:|: bad habits (feat. Intervals) :|:|:|
Pfft Pppffttt. Wait. Silverstein Blew My Mind Again?! Yes, Yes they did. Not only did they do hella throw backs in their lyrics. It’s just a classic. amazing, upbeat song that shows you this is Silverstein, get ready bitches. This is for all you OG MFs Out There! I mean that’s what I’d say if I was Shane Todd.
“I'm Running Back To A Burning House”
A Shipwreck in The Sand Album
“Left No Short Song Unsung”
Short Songs Album
“Laid Down Where The Train Should Be”
Arrivals & Departures Album
“Rescued By A Hand In The Ocean Now I'm Alive In The Wind's Reflection”
Referring To Rescue, Discovering The Waterfront’s Hand In The Water, I Am Alive In Everything I Touch, This Is How The Wind Shifts, And Dead Reflection
“The Broken Record's Still Spinning”
When Broken Is Easily Fixed Album
|:|:|: where are yøu :|:|:|
Oh god damn, why? silverstein do you get me with your lyrics so hard on this song. lets just say that 2020 has been the year for some crazy dreams, like deja vu dreams. that first verse was like whøa and then the chorus came in and just personally slayed me. lets just say i was “flat-lining” the whole song.
|:|:|: madness :|:|:|
that beginning Bass Line gave me a 2000s feeling, and then the screaming comes in with amazing lyrics, I was pretty hooked once it got to the chorus
Then the rapping by princess nokia, and screaming breakdown made me eargasm for sure. “I’m A Romantic Ambulance Chaser … Oof … explains my love life to a ‘T’ ;)... then “i hear your voice, the comfort in sadness”, the fading voice coder is superb on “in-ear-monitor” headphones. this whole song is really underlying tons of effects its awesome. its probably why its my favorite song on the album.
|:|:|: infinite (feat. aaron gillespie) :|:|:|
Little did silverstein know that these lyrics would be perfect for the massive lock-down that would happen globally. it feels like its infinite and it is most DEFINITELY hard to feel optimistic through all of this.
however, they got their shit together as a band, and did an awesome “quaranstein” web documentary & concert. i enjoyed it alot. there’s even a special vocal guest on it :)
Because of the collaborations of each song,
***ADD Blackbear Insta of it :)
i took some or all of the lyrics from each featuring artists.
|:|:|: Ringtone (Charli XCX, Rico Nasty,
Kero Kero Bonito) :|:|:|
i’m such a sucker for girl pop music. I think mainly because, i always have some type of hardcore version running through my head. every pop song, perfectly sets up the base for it. its mainly a mix to pop hardcore.
anyways, in typical charli xcx fashiøn her catchy voice elevates the song. this mix to me, is awesome because, it now introduced me to more girl pop, which i said i am a sucker for. this song will get stuck in your head “for days”!
|:|:|: Hand Crushed by a Mallet (Remix)
(Fall Out Boy, Craig Owens, Nicole Dollanganger) :|:|:|
i don’t even know where to start with this song.
for real. besides the amazing blend of genres that imo made the list, and it rightfully should have.
i do admit i have a bias for patrick stump and craig owews, new to nicole dollanganger. i am going to check her out now though.
it was one of those things that you were like “what did my ears just hear? the dirtiest fucking breakdown, thats what”. @2:13- And really to the end of the song.
now everyone in the 2020 quarantine, hardcore scene. just fucking imagine. how insane that pit would be.
i would risked it for like 10 seconds, in, 10 out. then would slightly steer clear aka move at that insane robotic breakdown, then i’d jump back in screaming my little indian hardcore heart out. good god i loved it.
|:|:|: Stupid horse
(remix)(count baldor, gtfoty) :|:|:|
this particular song reminds me of like a modern ‘barbie’ “aqua” song, and its catchy af.
the song is originally about capitalism and how it is affecting our human pysche.
alternately, its a song about running out of heroin and mugging your dealer to re-up from how strung out you are, then passing out in your car.
this particular remix changed some of the lyrics, to the intentionally bizarre lyrics that gtfoty delivers.
|:|:|: masøchist :|:|:|
this song sorta has a special weird awesome place in my heart. so my homie andrew was in town for the holidays and his b-day. he works at 64 audio and anyone who is anyone has a pair of them. click on that link and be blown away, then save up and buy a fucking pair.
well i was lucky and blessed because he had his entire line of demos, and i got to hear a $12,000 piece of audio equipment, and he showed me this song. it changed my life. literally. not only because the song blow me away. it took me to a different world again. a familiar one with a sense of hardcore nostalgia. that opening guitar, with a serenading voice into that catchy af chorus, then you top that with phenomenal lyrics that slayed so hard . . .
because of those headphones blew my fucking audiophile’s ears off!!! that i almost cried. it was a super surreal experience and if you’re an “audi audi” you’d know, and i just made that up. its a person thats had an audi and also an audiophile.
if you were a singular “audi” you would have been more than blown away. its like when you upgrade your airpods to sony | bose | shure headphones and you think damn this is so good. nope, its not. audio technology is so fucking awesome. right now im sporting shure 215 white edition. i can’t put into words how beautiful it was to hear this song on such a life changing piece of audio equipment.
There’s a strong pop-punk influence to this song blended in with the metalcore and post-hardcore elements—something that’s been there a lot in the past but is a bit more obvious here. I wanted to try taking advantage of simplicity a little more [by] just letting the chords and the vocals and lyrics do the talking instead of overcomplicating things. Lyrically, this is probably one of the most upfront songs we’ve ever written. It’s a song about blaming yourself for your mental health, asking: “Am I responsible for my own miserable state of mind, my own depression? Why do I keep doing this to myself, ruminating over things that bring me down?” I have a bad habit of dwelling on negatives, running over them again and again and really punishing myself over my mistakes, and that can happen even when things are going really well in my life. I started to wonder if there’s a weird little masochistic part of me that feels more comfortable being unhappy, mistrusting happiness when it comes along and doubling down on negativity instead.This song is me looking in the mirror and begging myself to be honest and asking what the consequences of that would be if I keep going like this. When those lyrics started coming together, it was quite confronting for me to read back. I didn’t know at first if I was ready to put all of that out in the open in such a direct way, but I know I’m not the only person who has felt that way, so it seemed like something I had to keep writing about.
- drummer Daniel Furnari :::
::: via alternative presS
|:|:|: creatures of a habit :|:|:|
Already, i am addicted within the first 3 seconds. then, it hit the pre-chorus, it really hit all my nostalgia metalgasm NOTES.
I LOVE THE GUITAR THAT COMES IN THAT CHORUS, IT STEALS THE SHOWS AND TAKES YOU SOMEWHERE THAT I HAVEN’T BEEN TO FOR IN AWHILE.
ps- umm . . . these lyrics are phenomenal and i just wanna give the writers a hug. that 2nd pre=chorus was super deep, and hauntingly beautiful. it gave me the music dna goosebumps.
:::
personally, slayed me, because of my health history (30+ chemo treatments, 2 kidney transplant, 4 L-hip replacements for starters. i know none of this has to do with the song or what they were writing down, but thats the beauty of lyrics & phenomenal music.
[This was] the final song that we finished for the record and a very difficult one to wrangle, which led to the lyrics taking on a meta-meaning reflecting the strain that writing the record was putting on the band. We remained great friends through the whole thing, but there were times where the pressure we were putting on each other to step up and produce material, and our inability to see eye to eye on certain things, was driving a wedge between us. It was like we were always building each other up just to break each other down in hopes that the new version would be better. I was able to channel the frustration of that into this song, and there are a lot of points where I was writing from the perspective of the other guys in the band, trying to get inside their heads and imagining what they really wanted to say to me, or to each other, but were maybe too afraid to say. That was therapeutic and allowed me to self-examine my faults and my role in it.
- drummer Daniel Furnari :::
::: via alternative presS
|:|:|: the descent :|:|:|
This ending track is probably one of the best ones I have heard in quite awhile within this particular blended scene of progressive metalcore.
the outro of this song, wow. just amazing, it gives me that REMINISCENT of feeling of underøath, and thats a beautiful thing.
I told all my hardcore friends, this was going to be album of the year. It’s the end of November, and stand by that statement. What a FUCKING Phenomenal album … jfc.
Much like “Pray For Rain,” “The Descent” takes the time to tell a more detailed story. In the same way that “Pray For Rain” felt like it was meant to be an album opener, this track naturally found its place at the end of the record, with Rick writing these really dark harmonic minor riffs. That place was cemented when he put together the ominous, heavily layered ending of the song, which sounded to the rest of us like some kind of rapture. In writing these lyrics, I ended up taking on a different voice to how I normally write. I was drawing from some conversations we’d shared within the band about real-life experiences that certain members had in their darkest moments. I extrapolated on the imagery and experiences we’d spoken about and ended up with this story told through the eyes of a fictional narrator who wakes up from an apocalyptic nightmare to find himself in a hospital in the aftermath of a traumatic event. As he struggles to come to terms with what brought him there, questioning his purpose and whether the universe ever really had a plan for him, the narrator fights for control over his own mind as he feels himself being pulled in different directions by forces of good and evil, life and death. This song doesn’t leave a lot of room for hope or silver linings. It’s a bleak place to leave the album, but it felt fitting musically and lyrically that this would be where the record leads to. We’d rather be left rattled by the end of a record than finish with a comfortable resolution that doesn’t feel justified.
- drummer Daniel Furnari :::
::: via alternative press
|:|:|: hypermaniA :|:|:|
this søng is a beautiful chaotic disaster. you can really feel the hypermania. i love it.
“Hypermania” is a song about the fear of losing your mind—a paranoia about being paranoid, so to speak. There have been a lot of times in the last couple of years where some of us have felt like we were honestly on the verge of mental collapse. Instrumentally, this track is very much a Rick [Schneider, guitarist] creation. It was the first thing he had dived into since we put out The Mortal Coil, so it served as a bit of a palate cleanser, as it stood quite far apart from that record. I think for him, the dissonant, chaotic riffing was influenced by bands such as Stray From The Path and END, but when I came into the song, I was getting a really big Southern-hardcore vibe, which played heavily into the way we approached writing vocals. We had a lot of fun exploring and bringing out new characteristics in Jamie’s [Hails, vocalist] voice, channeling some vibes from Maylene & The Sons of Disaster, Every Time I Die and Underoath. It seemed natural to us for this song to have only screamed vocals, but I feel that the almost sing-songy style of the chorus hook is what allowed us to keep it catchy. Jake [Steinhauser, bassist/vocalist has always been able to scream as well as sing, but this was our first time working that into a recorded track, and we then started incorporated his screams into some other songs.
- drummer Daniel Furnari :::
::: via alternative press
|:|:|: Locked In My Head :|:|:|
my friend tim wright from high school showed me this song, well the music video blew me the fuck away
it really pulled me in with the pre-chorus/chorus. it was a beautiful combination of lyrics and instruments. then that double bass comes in, and you are like . . . umm gtfo of here!
the music video was beautifully shot. being in a glass box, being shot with a blend of mortar shells, and roman candles was the genius of the whole production team. that above shot coming in from each edge of the box was whoooooo! fucking awesome.
|:|:|: Prophet :|:|:|
when i first heard this song, i was very intrigued. one because, outside of mormon religion, not many people refer to “prophets”, and boy was i in for a wild ride.
the way they accentuated the word “prophet & savior” was in a way semi comforting. you can feel the pain and the questions and answers they were searching for, but their “god” or “higher power” let them down.
the chorus/alt lyrics really make you think, if you are so powerful and can create the cosmo’s why the fuck can’t you come down and show yourself and fix our EXISTENCE? very powerful.
|:|:|: the face of hate :|:|:|
This song just grabs you at the beginning, with the screaming and then the awesome riff. then they come in with a dual guitar and that tone makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. however, this song is explained below by . . .
Ryan Kirby (lead vocals) said this song is about the current state of the world. There have always been disagreements, but nowadays, there is genuine hatred towards each other; towards those with differing opinions. It’s not a healthy place to be, and this song is a call to end this hatred. Rise above the flames.
|:|:|: ohms :|:|:|
The song that brought them back into my 9th grade nu-metal heart. i must have listened to this song on repeat ten times. its always so interesting when a band can take you back to memories that you may have forgot. thats pretty much what this song did for me. around the fur was my first burned cd. it took 28 mins to do, then when i got enough money i went out and bought it.
“Some songs are demoed. For instance, ‘Ohms‘. Stephen sent me that demo three years ago. I love when I open up my email and he’s sending me something, that to me is one of the biggest highs that I can ever get. He doesn’t do it often, so it means that he’s hyped about it, it’s something he wants me to hear. It must be special.
The tempo that is on the record, it’s WAY sped up from when he sent it to me. It was like this really kind of stonery, sludgy kind of thing. But the riffs were there. The ideas were there. But a lot of the stuff kind of comes from jamming.
Maybe a third of the stuff will come from just us being in the room and jamming. Those are probably the most Deftones tunes I think because obviously its everybody just sort of reacting to each other.”
- lead vocalists ::: chino moreno
via ::: the prp
|:|:|: error :|:|:|
the beginning of this song game me all the feelz. the interesting lyrics about “floating, and gliding, above the grid, while we all chase honey. were just outstanding lyrics. are there errors now that we have all been in this grid for entirely too long? very possible.
…I’m able to approach [the songwriting] right at the beginning, so where I can initially spark an idea, or I can come at the end when Chino’s just finished lyrics, which is usually the last and then I’m able to enhance that with the lyrics… And sometimes it takes towards the end for me to find something that works or what he’s talking about or it eventually makes itself known. But for me it’s really cool because I’m able to attack it in different ways.
- turntable | keyboards ::: frank delgado
via ::: the prp
|:|:|: urantia :|:|:|
this song was an awesome feeling of when deftones were a more nu-metal genre. i love the signature sound this track has, and it does feel very trippy and a familiar feeling of the deftones i grew up on. i can see myself just chillin’, vibing, and smoking a nice fat topedo joint at a concert.
“The song itself was a trip, because it’s probably one of the most—especially the way it starts out—I mean musically it’s like reminiscent of thrash metal. [Imitates opening riff] that reminds me of Death Angel or straight up Bay Area thrash from when we were growing up.
When Stephen [Carpenter, guitars] was playing that, when he came up with that, right away I was just like ‘Yes!’ this is so like something that we all love but we’ve never really done.
And then the song kind of drops into this swoony kind of verses, whatever. But the lyrics are pretty interesting because I’m really, really kind of painting a picture of a scenario. I live on a lake, or right by this big lake. I ride my bike around it a couple times a week [or] walk around it. It’s like a seven mile kind of loop.
But I talk about circling around the lake, this is all like literal things that I was seeing from like digging into the ashtray and pulling out someone’s cigarette and lighting it and taking a drag—very descriptive kind of things.
Although it’s all made up, it’s kind of fun sometimes when you can do that as far as be very, very descriptive. I don’t do that all the time. That’s kind of something that I really don’t do that much. Sometimes my lyrics all look too camouflaged. So sometimes to be very descriptive is kind of outside of my comfort zone in a way.”
- lead vocalists ::: chino moreno
via ::: the prp
|:|:|: this link is dead :|:|:|
Phew . . . I don’t even know where to start with this song except … at the start. they say a really great song pulls you within seconds if not by thirty seconds, it also typically starts within the frame of tracks five to seven.
so it leaked. i went right to seven, it sorta fucked me, like the hot ass girl you’re chasing. i auditory climaxed too early.
at second one, i was speaking to myself, like okay . . . where are we going with this, by second 20 i was all in. then that beautifully crafted, signature deftones flow went into effect, with chino’s lil’ screams & voice after all these years, it was deadly.