Modern Baseball Exhales

I wrote about A Goofy Movie, life at 23, and Modern Baseball’s new EP

Modern Baseball recently cancelled a string of Austrialian tour dates. “It’s time to put everything else aside to focus on making steps towards positive mental health,” lead singer Brendan Lukens wrote on Facebook. Speaking from experience, it’s never easy to admit you need help, especially with something like mental health. I’m willing to bet it’s even more difficult if you’re the face of a band on the rise, doing what you love, and touring the world. For that reason, Brendan’s honesty and his decision to take a step back is admirable.

“I was relying on alcohol and weed to get through any day of the week,” he told Noisey. “The only time I was getting out was when we were touring, which was a lot, but everyone else could notice a change because if we weren’t on the road or practicing, no one was going to see me. It was kind of like that for two years.”

Like any proper musician, Lukens channeled everything into music, compiling six songs into Modern Baseball’s The Perfect Cast EP and releasing it for free. It’s still very recognizable as a Modern Baseball project, but there seems to be a lot more candidness here. It’s a well worn narrative with bands of this age, but the maturity is coming.

Lukens criticizes himself, his actions, and his way of thinking. We hear his inner dialogue on the opening track, “The Waterboy Returns”:

“Hey you, that’s no way out
You can’t find help in a bottle or a cut”

He pushes for maturity from himself, acknowledging there’s more to write about than sad songs about jilted love:

“That’s so typical, Bren 
all you sing about is girls
Take a stand, man, you can find a voice 
that’s not haunted by old flings”

These guys seem world-weary but relieved. Lyrics acknowledge simply being tired on multiple songs, but I get the sense that it’s the kind of tired you get when you finish a marathon or finally hit the pillow after a long day. It’s a big, deep exhale.

“But everything is changing even faster than it was back then
You hold me
It feels like I am finally closing my eyes after a year and a half long day
And I am tired as hell”

Being a 23-year-old myself, I can sympathize with a lot of what Modern Baseball sings about. The transition from youth to adulthood and college to the real world feels like life is whipping past you at warp speed, and everything around you is constantly slipping through your fingers. I can picture the football player who just dropped an easy pass, staring at his palms wondering how he missed it. Life lately has me feeling like that pretty frequently, and so does this EP. Whether it’s the exhausting journey, change, self-improvement, or growing pains in relationships, this all feels extremely… 23.

The band’s next album, titled Holy Ghost, seems on track for release in the next few months or so. By that point, the guys of Modern Baseball (along with myself) will have graduated college and will be expected to contribute to the real world.

It’s an exhilarating and terrifying phase of life.

Complete with a title that’s a flawless Goofy Movie reference, The Perfect Cast is a pretty perfect EP in that it will hold fans over for a few months and set the table for what’s to come. This feels like the preamble for what should be an big album.

Modern Baseball — The Thrash Particle

Modern Baseball basically makes its living on being hyper-relatable. Whether it’s something broad like anxiety, regret, or depression, or something more specific like tales of life after graduation or unrequited love, the guys of Modern Baseball succeed in part because they turn the human experience into something we can all appreciate and identify with.

“The Thrash Particle” tackles jealousy, stupidity, and immaturity in relationships. As someone with the propensity to ruin a good thing, I can identify with Brendan Lukens when he says, “Too jealous to understand how dumb I was being, I did and said things to put my relationships to the test. In time, my paranoia grew and I began to hurt those I wanted to be with the most.”

Yup.

So Brendan dives into his self-made mess, describing a girl he likes, the little things he likes about her, and the way she left him hanging, which evidently set off this chain of events.

His crush, seemingly interested in the fact he’s in a band, but not in the fact that he wants to be with her, suggests he write a song about her. This doesn’t rub Brendan the right way.

You suggested I write a song about the first time we met
But I can’t seem to remember where or when

Unlike Kanye, who probably genuinely doesn’t know, Brendan seeks petty revenge by lying and saying he doesn’t even remember when he met her.

So, is this the hook you wanted?
Is it stuck inside your head?
Can you sing it with your friends, or alone?

This basically translates as “Are you happy now?”

But she’s not. And he’s not. And nobody is. And sometimes that’s how these things go.

As much as I love songs that instantly make me fall in love, there’s something to be said about a song that slowly sucks you in. That’s what “The Thrash Particle” did to me. I first heard it in an empty terminal at O’Hare and thought it was cool. By the time I got back home, I was really feeling it. Since then, it’s become one of my favorite Modern Baseball songs. Even the artwork by Beau Brynes is oddly captivating and perfect.

The band has remained coy about a new album, so who knows if this will end up on a full-length project. Internet rumors seem to indicate an album coming sooner than later. I sure hope so, and I sure hope it sounds like this.

— Spencer Tuckerman

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Originally published at fromloveland.com, October 19, 2015.

Modern Baseball’s Relatable Mess

I wrote about relationships, O’Hare International Airport, and “The Thrash Particle”

Modern Baseball basically makes its living on being hyper-relatable. Whether it’s something broad like anxiety, regret, or depression, or something more specific like tales of life after graduation or unrequited love, the guys of Modern Baseball succeed in part because they turn the human experience into something we can all appreciate and identify with.

“The Thrash Particle” tackles jealousy, stupidity, and immaturity in relationships. As someone with the propensity to ruin a good thing, I can identify with Brendan Lukens when he says, “Too jealous to understand how dumb I was being, I did and said things to put my relationships to the test. In time, my paranoia grew and I began to hurt those I wanted to be with the most.”

Yup.

So Brendan dives into his self-made mess, describing a girl he likes, the little things he likes about her, and the way she left him hanging, which evidently set off this chain of events.

His crush, seemingly interested in the fact he’s in a band, but not in the fact that he wants to be with her, suggests he write a song about her. This doesn’t rub Brendan the right way.

“You suggested I write a song about the first time we met
But I can’t seem to remember where or when”

Unlike Kanye, who probably genuinely doesn’t know, Brendan seeks petty revenge by lying and saying he doesn’t even remember when he met her.

“So, is this the hook you wanted?
Is it stuck inside your head?
Can you sing it with your friends, or alone?”

This basically translates as “Are you happy now?”

But she’s not. And he’s not. And nobody is. And sometimes that’s how these things go.

As much as I love songs that instantly make me fall in love, there’s something to be said about a song that slowly sucks you in. That’s what “The Thrash Particle” did to me. I first heard it in an empty terminal at O’Hare and thought it was cool. By the time I got back home, I was really feeling it. Since then, it’s become one of my favorite Modern Baseball songs. Even the artwork by Beau Brynes is oddly captivating and perfect.

The band has remained coy about a new album, so who knows if this will end up on a full-length project. Internet rumors seem to indicate an album coming sooner than later. I sure hope so, and I sure hope it sounds like this.