by Noa Samson
The bleak forecast for the immediate future of in-person live music is starting to hit me. Last night I listened to a pop punk album and cried. I wasn’t planning on it when I put on All of Something by Remember Sports, which is an all-time favorite that I hadn’t revisited recently.
I remembered walking to a show a few years ago, somewhere in Bushwick, listening to this album. I was stopping into bodegas looking for earplugs, the irony of running this errand with music blasting through my headphones escaping me. It must have been spring or summer, and I was taking in breaths of warm air while I lip synced to the opening lines of “Getting On in Spite of You”.
I tried to picture who I saw play that night, or what venue I was going to, but I couldn’t. I just knew I missed it, and that I’ll be missing it for a long time. And then I started crying, and then “Clean Socks” came on, a well-timed timed ballad for me to wallow in. The album ends on “The Washing Machine”, with the title lyric “I think that it’s okay to feel all of something” – how apropos.
All of Something, in spite of its emotion, usually doesn’t inspire tears. It’s a perfect punch of ten short and sweet songs that are a joy to dance to at a show but nearly as fun to dance to alone in your room. If you’re in need of some lo-fi pop punk to sing-shout along to, buy it on Bandcamp!