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New LP "Let's Try This Again"
released: Sept 2023
label: top drawer records
running time: 28:55
genre: Old School 90's Pop Punk
personnel: Ean Sicko (Sicko, Tales from the Birdbath, Date Night with Brian), Tahoe Jeff (Four Lights), Wendell WW Howell (Desolate Coast)
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The Subjunctives - Let's Try This Again LP 2023
Bio
Hailing from Seattle, pop punk veterans The Subjunctives blast through thoughts on everything from decades old punk discourse to workplace feuds on their sophomore record Let's Try This Again. Following up on their 2019 debut Sunshine and Rainbows guitarist Ean Hernandez (Sicko, Tales from the Birdbath, Date Night with Brian) and bassist Jeff Mangalin (Four Lights) along with the band's new drummer Wendell Howell (Desolate Coast) pick up where they left off four years and a life-halting pandemic ago. Sharing vocal duties, the three form a singular unit through 29 minutes of brash but bouncy pop-punk. The band are heading to the midwest to support the release on a mini-tour with Milwaukee's own Bad Year this September: Chicago, Grand Rapids, Louisville, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Fort Wayne.
In a genre largely associated with adolescence, some members of the Subjunctives have been at it for decades, amassing experience and musical maturity. Guitarist Ean Hernandez had his first brushes with pop-punk in 90s Seattle trio Sicko, whose lighthearted geek-core was an appreciated contrast to the city's growing reputation for self serious grunge acts. Growing as a human and a songwriter, his riffs are simpler and clearer, his lyrics more carefully selected, and the immaturity of the young musician has mostly shaken off. Hernandez describes his growth as a songwriter as not just a development of talent but a shift in purpose. "When I wrote songs for Sicko, I mostly wrote songs with the idea of impressing girls. Today, I'm in a 25 year relationship and have 2 children, so that aspect is long out of the picture!" Relieved of romantic aspirations and the pressure to take off to a larger audience, The Subjunctives are free to exist as an end unto themselves. For Ean, Jeff and Wendell, the band exists because it brings them joy.
Lest anyone think the band had gotten too mature, the record features tracks like "Goodbye I Will Not Miss You, You Dicks" and "What's Up Fuckers", sing-a-long songs for people who "like to cuss gratuitously". The Subjunctives get silly with it because it feels good to laugh. Let's Try This Again ends on a minute long recording of bassist Jeff Mangalin and engineer Matt Allison (Atlas Studios) pranking Hernandez by running his guitar through a "fart pedal".
The silliness is balanced with earnest emotional expression, best exemplified in "Thanks for Driving Me Home, Old Friend" and "It's a Shame We Didn't Get More Time, Lance". Both are direct translations of real emotional experiences into songs, the former telling the story of being driven home from a bar by a sober friend and finding the friendship equally intoxicating as the alcohol, the latter a heartfelt personal tribute to the late Lance Hahn of seminal San Francisco pop-punk group J Church. Hahn's legacy leaves its mark throughout the album. Directly following "It's a Shame We Didn't Get More Time, Lance" is "Don't Want to Be a Leader, Don't Want to be Led", a track that pulls its name and central thesis from a song released by Hahn's earlier band, Cringer. Hahn is also mentioned by name in "Smart Punks" along with Doctor Frank, Greg Graffin, Milo Aukerman, and Larry Livermore, as examples of the titular Smart Punks.
Hahn is not the only noteworthy name to impact Let's Try This Again. Amateur pop-punk historians may notice the record is peppered with scene history, whether it's retooling an old Sicko song on "Believe (Rehashed)" or namedropping Henry Rollins as a figurehead for a very specific kind of tough guy punk on "The Henry Rollins School of Menacing". After decades in punk music, the scene has become an inexorable part of the Subjunctives perspective as songwriters. On "Smart Punks", the band dig into age-old discourse. In this particular debate, which was debated in the pages of MRR long before the internet gave it new life, the Subjunctives declare themselves against the macho brand of anti-intellectualism that thrives in some punk circles. "Punk rock doesn't have to be dumb," the chorus rails, making a case for intellectual complexity using only seven words and a simple melody.
The ability to engage with ideas and emotions that are serious without ever being self-serious is a tightrope walk that Let's Try This Again executes neatly. On the one hand it is loudly pro-intellectual, emotionally blunt, and documentarian in its coverage of scene life. On the other hand the music is joyful and buoyant, the lyrics are tongue in cheek, and the whole thing ends with a fart. Somewhere in between those two hands, you find the Subjunctives.
Liners
The Subjunctives - Let's Try This Again LP 2023
Liners
Thank You
You. Thanks for sticking with us, and being willing to take a look at what we've been working on. Music is our life's work, and your patient ears and attention are a gift we can never repay. Also... Reba, Marina, Sonya. Isa and Annie, Denny and Josh, JulieD and LindaRu. Matt Coleman, Josephine Room 4, Toby Jeg, Matt Allison, Justin Perkins, Tom Lowell, Kurt Bloch, Tony Archer, Mopsey, Riff Brokers, Dan and Kat, Will Skyler and Drew, Doug and Lizzie, Chris Mirabueno, Alan the Cat RIP, and Orange Kitty. Dan Gardner, Kii Kay, MJ Gordon and The Kraken Bar and Lounge Seattle's #1 Pirate Theme Punk Rock Dive Bar, Darrell's Tavern, The Victory RIP, Miller's Tap Room, Jeff Sifferman, Chuck Coffey, The Heroes of Ashuran, The Licton Springs squirrel army, Wendell's friends and family. Matt Mckenna sorry about that pic dude fyi this record was almost called "I regret reconnecting on text".
Bands You Should Check Out
Ean other bands: Sicko, Date Night with Brian, Tales From the Birdbath
Jeff's other band: Four Lights
Wendell's other band: The Desolate Coast
The Disorderlies, Rat Paws, The Riffbrokers, Mopsey, Foxhole Norman, Head Honcho, Dusty Cubby, Living With A Bear, BUGS, Hutchie, Midnight Movie, Alfredo Ghosts, Kids On Fire, Zeke, Rat Queen, Mangy, Magnitudes, The Stuntmen, The Cripples, Big Time, Mable's Marbles, The Unemployables, 48 Thrills, Ol Doris, Skates!, The Drolls, Good Touch, Skelator, Loud Sleepers, Jeff and His Army of No One, FCON, Cheap Cassettes, Cosgrove, Passiflora, Bad Year, Jet///Lag, Some Rules, Three Fingers, Crasher, Trash Sound Conglomerate, The Replicators, Night Court (BC), Clean Lines, College Radio, Tim McBride and the Divide, Goodbye Viking, Dreadful Children, Who Is She? Hilltop Rats, The Tranzmitors, The Stand Gt, The Smugglers, The Fallouts, HEAD, Low Culture, Thrash Armstrong, and The Fastbacks. You can get records by many of these bands, including other Subjunctives releases, from Top Drawer Records at www.tdrecs.com.
AND NOW THAT I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION
Sitting in the Top Drawer Records office (my basement) on a rainy Saturday in March 2023, I am writing liners once again.
First, Lance Hahn is all over this record and deserves a moment of your time. He was a prolific songwriter, and released something like 18 albums and 50 7"s through his band J-Church. Before that he had a band called Cringer, which put out an album and a few 7"s. He was a bit of an east bay pop punk scene luminary in the early 90's, involved in one way or another with all the key institutions: MRR, Epicenter Zone, Gilman, Lookout. He was also a really nice guy who was kind and welcoming to newcomers like me. He had a casual way of saying hello when you hadn't seen one another for a long time, like it had only been a few days and everything was cool. He was wickedly smart, and very funny, but above all kind. I always had the sense that we had plenty of time to become better friends, that we'd see each other again. The many shows our bands played together in the Bay Area and the PNW over a period of years, coupled with his easy style of reunion, seemed to reinforce this view. As you may guess, or you may know, this wasn't the case and a casual check on "what is Lance up to these days" left me in tears at the top of the subway escalators on a cold London morning in December 2008.
In sunnier times, I first came across Lance and his band Cringer when Denny recommended them to me in early 1991. I remember listening to the Karin 7" over and over on the thrift store record player in my little room. These guys seemed so cool to me... catchy, shambolic, fun, and so smart! I stared for hours at the winding Chris Applegrin artwork on the inner sleeve, and marveled at the brainy lyrics, imagining the kind of punk rockers that would make something so joyful and goofy and intellectual. I wanted into this world of intellectual punks, homemade records, and great burritos, yet had no idea how to get there. Little did I know that my band would take me there very soon. I really was at Epicenter with Josh, looking at the first J-Church record, when I remarked "I liked Cringer Better". I didn't know that the Epicenter worker standing next to me was Lance Hahn himself! He remained silent in the moment, but as soon as we were formally introduced he brought it up. Of course I was mortified. He then proceeded to tease me mercilessly about this interlude every time we met from that point on... "here comes Ean ‘I liked Cringer Better' Hernandez"!!! He was indeed always kind, but he never let me forget about my faux pas. Over time, J-Church became one of my favorite bands and my go-to American security blanket when I was feeling homesick in my self imposed overseas isolation. These days, I like to imagine Lance in some cosmic version of the Seneca Hotel, sitting at the bar and talking with the old men, sipping a gin and tonic and laughing. When I walk in, I know exactly what he'll say when he sees me.
A lot has happened since I last wrote Subjunctives liner notes in 2019. We had a great record release party in November 2019, started to play shows out of town, got a little bit of recognition for all our efforts, and I turned 50. My idea was to get right back to working on new songs and a new album while playing through the shows we had booked out to June... but then in March of 2020 the Covid pandemic hit and put us out of playing for a year. When we started talking about getting back together in the Spring of 2021, drummer Matt Coleman decided to move on, leaving us with two rudders and no propeller.
Things looked bleak for a bit, but somehow the Craigslist gods smiled and brought the amazing Wendell Howell to us. He was up and running in no time, and our first show that summer at the Kraken was killer. Pandemic levels rose and fell over the following months, but by Spring 2022 we were gigging regularly again, and set our sights on a recording project. Following a woodshed weekend and several months of practice, we flew to Chicago where we rented a Roscoe Village apartment for a week, and set up with engineer Matt Allison in studio B at Steve Albini's Electrical Audio. It was pretty neat to work on the very same board through whose circuits had flowed the music of our 80's and 90's punk and alt heroes. It also didn't hurt that we got to record with Matt, one of the greats of our genre. The periodic numbness in my left hand reminds me that we worked hard to prepare and play as well as we could in the studio, I hope that goes away! In the manner typical of the 2020s, mixes were sent via email and endlessly discussed and dissected. Fixes were made, songs were polished. One totally wrecked guitar solo was re-recorded by me in my basement with the cheapest version of pro-tools and a freeware Amplitube amp. Hopefully nobody notices.
As always, picking a name for our project was tough, and some funny ones got cut from the list... "3" (for our 2nd album, get it?), "Stupid inside jokes are the basis of all my friendships", "YOUR MOM", "Which Part is the Chorus?", "Ean and Jeffunkel", "Smoothjunctives", "Pop Punk *Tonight*" and "Ean's new band" were all discussed, laughed over and discarded. We wanted to reference the Covid imposed break and our return to this work without being too on-the-nose about it, settling on Jeff's less jokey but apropos contribution: "Let's Try This Again". Artist Tom Lowell from Listen Lady was recruited to draw a cover, and has done a fine job.
It occurs to me that the Subjunctives have a gig tonight at the Kraken Bar & Lounge, Seattle's number 1 Pirate Theme Punk Rock Dive Bar. It also occurs to me that this is the last night for the Kraken, they are closing their doors after a decade due to the usual Seattle BS: developers have bought the building, and will level it for new buildings with room for punk rock dives neither in their walls nor their hearts. It's sad because this gem of a bar has been the nursery within which the Subjs and many other local punk acts have honed their craft, not to mention a Seattle punk rock Mecca, and comfortable home base for us three. My return to pop punk to a certain extent stems from watching a Four Lights video, Whiskey Whoas, which seemed to take place at a mythical punk rock bar... it was full of punk rock people, the whiskey flowing, all friends singing along, a goofy pirate theme, and the soundtrack was perfect pure pop punk. It was all too good to be true, and I assumed it had to be a soundstage somewhere in LA. It turned out to be an actual bar in Seattle called the Kraken, and a lightbulb went on in my head. Before long I would start a pop punk band, play at the bar, write a song for the bar, and film a video there as well, not to mention see about 1,000 shows there. A few short years later, and the bar will close for good tonight. If there are no little venues, where will little bands learn to play? Moreover, where will Wendell and Jeff and I hang our hats? I guess we will find out, because the next order of business after these liner notes is booking some shows.
Reflecting on this project, I'm really proud of Jeff and Wendell and the Subjunctives. They are wonderful guys, great players, and together we have made 15 songs that are honest and true to our lives and experiences. That makes me wonder when we will make another record, I hope soon! My intention is to do this until I can't do it anymore. If departed muses, doomed Meccas, global pandemics, retiring drummers, and numb hands have anything in common at all, it is that in spite of them all, we keep playing this music we love. So, let's try this again.
Love,
Ean Sicko
Lyrics
The Subjunctives - Let's Try This Again LP 2023 Lyrics
*** we're not friends anymore ***
no more suffering your latest wit and no more pretending that I give a shit and
no more sitting through your gloomy weather no more pretending that I can't do better
we're not friends anymore
i hope you realize our best days have passed up by
no more cringing while I look away and no more alibis for what you say and
no more nodding through your latest intrigue no more tacitly endorsing your hate
we're not friends anymore
i hope you realize our best days have passed up by
*** goodbye I will not miss you you dicks ***
gonna quit gonna quit gonna quit gonna quit this job
getting tired getting tired getting tired getting tired a you all
this time you've gone too far I can't give you a pass
on your way out don't let the door hit you in the ass
goodbye I will not miss you you dicks
you're a dick and you're a dick and you're a dick and you're a dick as well
you can all go go go go go go to hell
this time you've gone too far I can't give you a pass
on my way out don't let the door hit me in the ass
*** I don't have the time ***
I don't have the time I don't have the time the time in the day
and I don't have the words I don't have the words the words to say
hey what planet are you from is everyone there this dumb
I don't have the time I don't have the time the time in the day
and I don't have the words I don't have the words the words to say
opposite of intellect your assertation I reject the shit you say is asinine and I just don't have the time
ba ba ba ba ba
*** smart punks ***
I don't wanna be a dumb ass I don't wanna be the guy that doesn't know
I would rather be a well read man a knowledge stan a thinkin joe
you remember when punk was young?
I remember when pop punk wasn't dumb
dr frank lance hahn greg graffin and milo auckerman
smart punks go back to school / and read camus
ergo sum punk rock doesn't have to be dumb
larry wrote that punk rockers were hesitant to display intelligence
or put their minds to full use because the wisdom was that punk was ignorant
jeff bale said that it's classist david hayes said a smart punk was neither one
in the pages of mrr the battle raged but I know which side i'm on
smart punks reading books / writing hooks
ergo sum punk rock doesn't have to be dumb
Thanks Larry Livermore for all the Smart Punk quotes and historical information that went into this song. Also thank you for coming up with Smart Punk among many other things, it meant a lot to me and a fair few other bookish nerds.
*** a ghost across my bow ***
I see you standing there all fine in the morning glowing
like a ghost across my bow
you hang on to this old romantic notion somehow
though I dare not ask you how
hope that I can measure up to the man you wanna see
when you look across at me
am I a good man?
in the noonday garden sun like a shepherd walking
with her charges all around
I'll pour a drink at the risk that you don't need me
to lift you up so I won't drown
hope that I can measure up to the man you wanna see
when you look across at me
am I a good man?
in the evening when the light and our strength is fading
and quiet's on our house
I'll lay a blanket across your lap so you won't shiver
as the darkness gathers round
hope that I can measure up to the man you wanna see
when you look across at me
*** it's a shame we didn't get more time Lance ***
91 in my room with the karin seven inch I was so taken by your lyrical intelligence
I could picture you kickin' past pancho villa's surplus combat boots and a worn out cccp tee
97 tour I took your sg to the shop we said goodbye never would have thought
it's a shame we didn't get more time
94 me and josh at the epicenter bins I said I liked cringer better than this j-church band
you were right there but how was I supposed to know? you were always kind but you never seemed to let it go
08 abroad and my lifeline home your songs I read the news that you had gone
it's a shame we didn't get more time Lance
the joke is that we always think we've got more time (but the joke's on us as time goes by)
*** don't want to be a leader don't want to be led ***
payment on this car I cannot miss so each day I get up at six
drive to my job where i'll get paid so that the payment is not late
they asked me where I saw myself in five years
I told them I don't know but i'm sure it's not here
don't wanna be a leader don't wanna be led
my boss says I must take on more so I can get a higher score
then i'll get a promotion so I can take on more again
they asked me where I saw myself in five years
I told them I don't know but i'm sure it's not here
don't wanna be a leader don't wanna be led
This song's title and chorus courtesy Lance Hahn.
*** the henry rollins school of menacing ***
I got my hair cut short I got my sleeves rolled up
Catch me in the pit I'm gonna fuck you up
My girlfriend tells me that I need to stop
But I just gotta rise above
Hey buddy don't look at me
I went to the henry rollins school of menacing
I look across the bar I give you a glance
You look back at me so I take my chance
Said if you wanna be my lover girl
You gotta get with my war
Hey buddy don't look at me
I went to the henry rollins school of menacing
*** believe (rehashed) ***
could you believe anything was wrong in the world on a night like tonight?
keep the beat up fast and everythings fine and the crowd reflects a shining light
telling me that i've done something right for once
and telling me that I mean something to someone
and I wish there was a way to say how much this means to me
this is the way that I had dreamed I can't believe that this is me
me and 10 years gone and this scene will not be replayed
your patient ears and all the shows we've played in the past (thirty)4 years leave a debt unpaid
telling me that i've done something right for once
and telling me that I mean something to someone
and I wish there was a way to say how much this means to me
this is the way that I had dreamed I can't believe that this is me
*** thanks for driving me home ***
as the car rolls through the streets still wet from an early evening rain.
street lights to my eyes go blurred like stars so far away.
each car that passes us reveals a tiny world unto itself.
sharing space and time and hints at stories we can never know.
thanks for driving me home old friend
in this state each tiny thing puts my mind to running wheeling
scraps of paper in the wind set an empty mind alight
turning off of the main road we slip into the darkened neighborhood
though i'm fading fast I say goodnight and I know that it's all good
thanks for driving me home old friend
if I was drunk at the bar it was only half from the booze
friendship conversation fills me up the other half was you
*** if we ever get out of this mess ***
(aka subjunctive moods for a post covid era)
maybe I should start to recognize maybe I should learn to empathize
maybe I should find a compromise maybe get my life together
wanna get my life together
maybe I can see a new north star maybe I can set a higher bar
maybe I can spark a way to start maybe get my life together...
maybe I could be a better man maybe I could show a kinder hand
maybe I could prove a better friend maybe get my life together
wanna get my life together
if we ever get out of this mess wanna do something with my life
maybe I can try to build your trust maybe I can demonstrate my love
maybe I can un-dertake enough maybe get my life together...
maybe I will pause before I shout maybe I will stop and think it out
maybe I will end on a high note maybe get my life together
i wanna get my life together
if we ever get out of this mess wanna do something with my life
*** up and down ***
Elevator number 1 when the day has just begun
To my car to the bridge i sit and wait
It goes up and down It goes up and down
Up and down it goes up and down
Up and down it goes up and down
Down down down
Elevator number 3 in the halls of industry
Stare straight ahead don't say a word
I sit and wait
It goes up and down It goes up and down
Up and down it goes up and down
Up and down it goes up and down
Down down down
Elevator number 3 take it back up to the street
To the car to the bridge I sit and wait
It goes up and down It goes up and down
Up and down it goes up and down
Up and down it goes up and down
Down down down
Elevator 1 is in repair i guess I'll have to take the stairs
walk through the door and you're not there
I feel down down down down down down
*** so glad you're here ***
in 1989 I played in my first show I was psyched to play but my fear didn't want to go
were my parts gonna fit and was my hand gonna stretch?
was I gonna get a panic attack from playing like this?
I look like hell and I feel like crap i've got nowhere better to be
I come outta my shell to find i'm on my back but i'm so glad you're here with me.
in 2021 we stayed inside all year I returned to shows and so did all my fear
were my pants gonna fit and was this shirt gonna stretch?
was I gonna get a panic attack from wearing this mask?
I look like hell and I feel like crap i've got nowhere better to be
I come outta my shell to find i'm on my back but i'm so glad you're here with me.
*** what's up fuckers? ***
I don't wanna be alone again I don't wanna be without my friends
I don't wanna be the lonely man sat at home remembering
you oughta know by now you are my very best pals and...
I don't wanna be a basket case I don't wanna drive you away
I don't wanna be old and grey looking back on the mess I made
you oughta know by now you are my very best pals and...
what's up fuckers you're my mother fucker
I don't wanna be the angry guy I don't wanna sit home and hide
I don't wanna be the one to cry
you oughta know know by now you oughta know you are my very best pals and...
what's up fuckers you're my mother fucker
*** bus stop ***
out the door down the walk onto the street gotta make the bus by 8:15
laptop backpack headphone flatcap i'm thinking that I may have forgotten my bus pass
bus stop
hop onto the bus and moving to my seat we all sit apart because we all seattle freeze
crazy guy eying seats don't pick mine next stop murder stop 3rd and pine
bus stop