Off With Their Heads - From the Bottom

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I wrote this a year and a half ago when I first wanted to make a music blog.

The site Go sleeveless! has a good review that uses the words misery/miserable in reference to this album 3 times in 4 sentences, which seems about right. It reminds me of Blake Schwarzenbach talking here about his new band Thorns of Life:

You mentioned the other night at the Hemlock that all of your songs are about suicide and unrelenting misery. Is that actually true?

Kind of! It’s surprising, yeah. I mean, they’re pretty joyous tunes, but they’re pretty dark lyrically.

Actually, anyone familiar with Blake's work should not be surprised. (Expect posts about Jawbreaker and Jets to Brazil eventually.) But while Blake's bands have often approached misery obliquely, artfully, and yes, joyously, Off With Their Heads is about as direct as you can get. For proof, read this comic strip about their Hospitals EP.

From track one of From the Bottom, vocalist Ryan Young's anguish is openly autobiographical. That first song, "I Am You", includes the lines: "I'll tell you why I fucking hate my life and I'll tell you why I can't seem to get it right. I'll tell you why I entertain the thought of dying all the time." Simple, straightforward, no frills: fuck everything. Though the album concerns a failed relationship, it is more broadly about a failed life.

But what elevates the lyrics above empty griping is Young's crooning and the bouncy basslines. By making these songs catchy, inclusive singalongs, Off With Their Heads invites the listener to a funeral for hope in his/her own life, and constructs a public monument to boundless misery. It loves company, after all.