1. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis - The Heist
2. The Menzingers - On the Impossible Past (Philly/Scranton, PA)
3. Motion City Soundtrack - Go
4. Modern Baseball - Sports (Philly)
5. Say Anything - Anarchy, My Dear
6. Vacationer - Gone (Philly)
7. Heyward Howkins - Hale and Hearty (Philly/NJ)
8. Motionless in White - Infamous (Scranton, PA)
9. Chiddy Bang - Breakfast (Philly)
10. The Lumineers - The Lumineers
11. Pierce the Veil - Collide With The Sky
12. Eve 6 (yes, that Eve 6) - Speak in Code
13. Dr. Dog - Be The Void (Philly)
14. Heartless Bastards - Arrow
15. Imagine Dragons - Night Visions
1. Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball
2. Jack White - Blunderbuss
3. The Gaslight Anthem - Handwritten
4. Mumford & Sons - Babel
5. Foxy Shazam - The Church of Rock and Roll
6. Jason Aldean - Night Train
7. Green Day - Uno, Dos, Tres
8. The Lumineers - The Lumineers
9. Led Zeppelin - Celebration Day (Live)
10. Aerosmith - Music From Another Dimension
1. Mumford & Sons - "Babel"
2. Regina Spektor - "What We Saw from the Cheap Seats"
3. Yellowcard - "Southern Air"
4. Graces Downfall - "Resplendent Indignity"
5. Green Day - "Uno! Dos! Tres!"
6. Gary Clark Jr. - "Blak and Blu"
7. Blink 182 - "Dogs Eating Dogs"
8. Title Fight - "Floral Green"
9. Enter Shikari - "A Flash Flood of Colour"
10. The Swellers - "Running Out of Places to Go"
1. MISSER - Every Day I Tell Myself I'm Going to Be A Better Person
2. THE MENZINGERS - On the Impossible Past
3. TITLE FIGHT - Floral Green
4. THE EARLY NOVEMBER - In Currents
5. PENTIMENTO - Pentimento
6. FLATSOUND - Sleep
7. NOW, NOW - Threads
I hadn't thought about making a top ten list, but when I tried, I was met by an interesting realization: for me, this year was more about incredible ten year anniversaries than new releases. I rang in the 2012 screaming "you're just jealous 'cause we're young and in love" at Brand New's anniversary show for "Your Favorite Weapon." Since then, I've seen and picked up a repress for Taking Back Sunday's "Tell All Your Friends" and New Found Glory's "Sticks and Stones," will be seeing The Starting Line's "Say It Like You Mean It," and even snagged a repress of Something Corporate's "Leaving Through the Window." When I sat down to make a list of my top ten new releases of the year, I came up a bit blank.
Long Island Pop-Punk Outfit Calls Poconos, Sherman Theater Adopted Second Home
Patent Pending, a Long Island pop-punk outfit with roots in the Poconos, had a wild 2012. But let's back up. The band who's "Second Family" of fans and friends lovingly refer to as P-Unit were coming off of a year in 2011 where they shot three music videos, one of which-- 'One Less Heart To Break'-- reached the number one spot of every category on MTV.com, they had released their latest album, "Second Family", which was financially backed by a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign that raised $12,661 on incentive-based donations, and they were on the road as part of the Van's Warped Tour as well of club tours with acts like Bowling For Soup and Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. How do you follow up a year like that?
2012 was going just as planned for Patent Pending. Ready to make their annual stop to Asbury Park, NJ for the Bamboozle-- a festival in which the band had become a staple-- they had all of the sudden encountered a drastic change in those plans. No, sadly the band would have to forfeit their spot on the Bamboozle. You see, the 2012 Billboard Music Awards recently had a vacant spot and earning that spot was what Patent Pending. Recently the band had been shooting promos for Chevrolet as they drove across the country to compete in a battle of the bands which they were crowned "Dreamseeker Artist of the Year" after outperforming a handful of other groups representing the other regions of the United States.
Now after coming off of a whirlwind of emotions and experiences-- including a stint throughout the United Kingdom with their pals in Bowling For Soup and the Dollyrats that was part of a split release in which each band covered each of the others songs as well as releasing new tracks-- the "rag-tag group of kids from Long Island", as frontman Joe Ragosta had referred to the band at their BMA appearance, find their way back to perform for their "Second Family" as part of their annual 'She's a Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas Tour' at the Sherman Theater in Stroudsburg; the group's "Second Home" in many ways. I got together with Joe and guitarist-- and assault victim of Kris Roe of the Atari's-- Rob Felicetti to have them answer a few questions.
RestoreIt: What has 2012 meant to the band?
Joe: This year has been life affirming to Patent Pending. We always believed in what we were doing, but this year reminded us that other people world-wide are believing in it as well. This year was a dream come true.
RestoreIt: You guys have a very unique dedication to your fans, or Second Family. Tell me a little bit about what having such a different relationship with your fans means to you guys.
Rob: It means everything! It really is a comforting feeling showing up to the places we tour to and seeing the same people we've built such awesome relationships with. I mean, to put it simply, any awesome thing we did this year was because of them. They literally put us in all of those insane and amazing situations!
Joe: Our relationship with our Second Family-- fans and friends-- is everything to us. It's much different than anything else I've seen. We are there for each other all the time. It makes this band what it is, and that's a community of people from every different walk of life who come together to create this weird utopia of love.
RestoreIt: Obviously, the majority of Patent Pending calls Long Island home. But just like you have a Second Family, would it be safe to say that you have a Second Home in the Poconos-- namely Stroudsburg, PA?
Joe: The Poconos is the first place we ever went on tour. We played a garage show in Stroudsburg and just fell in love with the unique scene there. We then graduated from garages and basements to the Sherman Theater. The Sherman Theater has been paramount in the growth of our band as musicians and performers. The support system that the fans in the Poconos give to us is unparalleled anywhere else in the country. The Poconos and Long Island are the shows we look forward to the most because those people ARE JUST AS CRAZY AS US! It's a hidden gem in the touring world. A best kept secret that everyone else on the planet is missing out on!
RestoreIt: What is on the horizon for Patent Pending: What do you have in the works for the near future and what are the ultimate goals that you continue to hammer away at?
Joe: We just released a brand new cover album called "Spring Break '99" With all cover songs from 1999. We'll be pushing that and finishing up this annual holiday tour until the end of the year and then in January and February we get down to business on a brand new album. I'm so excited to make this one. I'm finally in a place personally and musically where I think I can finally let the world hear the songs the way I hear them in my head. (Which is crazy with a side of insanity!)
Rob: I'm going to try and hang out with Kanye West all the time.
RestoreIt: What are the most difficult struggles that Patent Pending faces?
Joe: This band is our life. Like most people in life, there are just not enough hours in the day!
Rob: The very real danger of the extinction of bubble tape gum. I haven't seen that stuff since the 90s!
RestoreIt: Was Superstorm Sandy something that had an impact on the band?
Rob: We were all watching it happen on TV in London. It was a weird feeling. Once we got back to NY, Joe's house had no power, Anthony's house had some serious downed trees, Corey and I couldn't find an open gas station to get back home to PA for like 3 days, and Marc wasn't happy.
Joe: Personally, we were all incredibly fortunate to not have had any extreme damage to our homes. We did get "stuck" in London for an extra day because we were flying home from our UK Tour the day that it hit. I say "stuck" loosely because that extra day in London was a great time. Our hearts go out to anyone who was hit hard.
RestoreIt: What you will most miss about playing intimate, rock show WHEN you guys become wildly successful and are playing arenas on the reg.
Joe: I think the thing I'll miss the most is hearing you say things like "on the reg."
Rob: PUNK STUFF!
RestoreIt: When that becomes a reality, how will you keep that Second Family mentality and intimacy alive in five-figure capacity arenas. Essentially, how will you keep the charm of a Sherman Theater performance when it translates to Madison Square Garden?
Joe: We love being right in the face of the crowd. As the venues get bigger, we have had to be creative in finding ways to make them feel smaller by leaving the stages to get to the center of the crowd. We'll have to figure something out! Hopefully, that's something we're going to have to worry about someday, but for now we're just enjoying every second of this.
Rob: We're just gonna do what we always do: make sure every last person in the room is having just as much fun as we are!
RestoreIt: Recently, you rewarded your Second Family for their incredibly generous showing on Kickstarter by giving them a Spring Break '99 EP-- which is now for sale to everybody else. Tell me a little bit about the recording of that; specifically the motivation behind turning 'Break Stuff' into a piano ballad.
Rob: It was the most confusing, but fun, recording experience ever. We literally did it while recording "Second Family", so Joe would be singing vocal tracks for that album in the studio while Anthony and I would be in another room watching youtube videos and figuring out how to play these songs from 1999. I'm pretty positive the "Break Stuff" cover is what started this whole thing. Joe sat down at a piano and started singing "Break Stuff" like John Mayer or something and was laughing like a 5 year old. We knew it had to be done!
Joe: IT WAS A BLAST! There was NO TIME! Most of the takes on that album were first take tracks because there wasn't enough time to spend on each song. We picked 10 of our favorite songs from that year and just went to town. There were some arguments about which songs we ended up recording. Let's just say it wouldn't be crazy to expect a part 2 where we cover Mambo #5, Livin' La Vida Loca, and I Feel Like A Woman!
Patent Pending is performing tonight at the Sherman Theater in Stroudsburg, PA alongside Survey Says, This Good Robot, Stereotypical, Refuse The Conformity, FM Waves, Bad Answers, Rewriting Tomorrow, and The Watch Children from 6:00pm until 10:00pm. Tickets can be purchased in advance or at the box office. Their latest release, Spring Break '99, can be purchased along with all of their other efforts on iTunes or any online media provider as well as at their website PatentPendingMusic.com. Their latest music video-- the first off of "Second Family"-- can be found below:
The first ever Steamtown Music Awards is being held in Scranton on January 27th.
The 1st Annual Steamtown Music Awards
--- A portion of the proceeds will be used to establish a Music Scholarship for highschool students in NEPA.
+ 6:00 pm - Red Carpet Begins
+ 6:10 pm - Open Bar and Dinner
+ 7:10pm - Awards and Music
In the mix all night: DJ Hersh
Performances by: Graces Downfall, Nowhere Slow, Gino Lispi, A Fire with Friends, Endless Mike and the Beagle Club, and Melissa Krahnke.
Preferred Admission: $50 (21+ includes Food & Drinks)
General Admission: $10 (All Ages)
Graces Downfall
http://www.facebook.com/gracesdownfallmusic
Nowhere Slow
http://www.facebook.com/NowhereSlow
Gino Lispi
http://ginolispi.com/
A Fire With Friends
http://www.facebook.com/afwfmusic
Endless Mike and the Beagle Club
http://www.facebook.com/endlessmikeandthebeagleclub
Melissa Krahnke
http://www.facebook.com/melissakrahnkerocks
blakekathryn
yousharknotpass
izzy806