Thrice is nice, well they used to be.

It's no secret that Thrice has been on the decline in the past 4 years. The HUGE anticipation of the release of Artist definitely had them reach their pinnacle of success with the sale of that album even though the disappointment of their core market started with that very release (It was their best selling record, but that doesn't mean everyone loved it! We were expecting another "Illusion of Safety" since it was the follow up). I still remember the day I picked it up... scrolling through track after track just WAITING for that one "To Awake" style epic only to come closest at "Paper Tigers" which was still a bummer. That doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy certain songs, I really enjoyed the title track but Island totally fucked itself by choosing to release "Stare at the Sun" as the follow-up single to "All That's Left"(refer to my last post to see why I think labels STILL have their head so far up their asses that the music industry is actually dead and just awaiting decay) when everyone was saying "The Artist in the Ambulance" was the next hit. I found out later that the b-sides, "Eclipse" and "Motion Without Meaning" were the best tracks recorded for that release, but somehow didn't make the cut! Let's face it, 30-60 year olds really are out of touch with the current times and the A&R people I see around town seem more interested in their Blackberrys and the show they are at "discovering new talent" at so what do you expect. If only Geffen could see the wallflower they send out!

Vhessiu, let's not even go there. We all hated that shit. It problably sold 100 copies and most of the songs sold were off the "Red Sky EP" and that's why they released it. They had what, one tour supporting it and half of the dates were before the fucker was released! I remember Dustin saying at the show the week before it was release "We have a record coming out next week... and I can see a lot of you already have it... that's cool I guess." Yes, D we did have it and we told ALL of our friends about it and they were horrified! We were let down in '03 and expected it to be made up to us in '05. Now it's been five years since our favorite album came out. We have been patient sumbitches. It's now 2007 our anticipated release year of what? Some bull-shit experimental album? Ok, you've burned me twice but you HAVE also blown my mind 2 fuckin' times. I'll give you another shot. Crossing my fingies! October 16th, 2007: DIS-A-FUCKIN-POINTMENT! iTunes wouldn't give me my money back. But I wouldn't ask anyway. Now I know what the split with Island really was, it was them holding your masters and saying "What the fuck? We can't sell this! Your last record sold 100 copies and cost us nearly $1 million (just a guess, but it was a major label record) and made us $1000 and it was soft as a memory-foam mattress. This is like air (no pun intended on their album). We won't sell any! Get out of here and take this garbage with you." And them exercising their escape clause. I am probably the only sucker that bought it and they are probably sitting in their homes in Irvine hoarding my $9.99 like a bunch of fucking rats in the corner with cheese.

And guess what Vagrant decided to release as the single!? Fucking "Digital Sea!" The soft shit. Screw "Firebreather" which actually has some legs in the market they helped define, release the soft shit so someone can curl up next to a fire on a snowy day and drift off to memory lane of when Thrice was actually LEGIT!

My friend expressed his dissapointment on their MySpace page and recieved hateful messages from 15 year olds saying how dumb he was and that album was "da bestest eva."

Hey kid, I've been listening to them since you were 9. Shut the fuck up. I bought tickets to shows in 2001 and told everyone about their albums and made them who the fuck they are today so you can go eat a dick. I CAN tell them how pissed I am because I helped define them. I spun Illusion and Identity in my retail stores when those were their only two releases that were good enough recordings to play in a commercial environment. I am Thrice. I have lyrics from them inked on my back forever. You can't even get a tattoo yet and when I was listening to them you didn't even know what the hell a tattoo was. Thrice is MY band, not yours. You just listen to them. I live and breathe them.

The most popular comeback for the kids is; "Do you want them to just keep coming out with the same album every time?" and the answer is: YES! I want them to write Illusion of Safety over and over cause that shit was fucking great! They carved that sound out of stone and forged that frontier with bands like Refused (look it up kids cause I know you don't know who the fuck that is) and made my head spin with the shear awesome-ness! They could use the same tracks and just change the lyrics and I'd buy that shit again and again! I know they extended the end of To Awake so re-record that shit and pump it out! Bands like Anti-Flag and Bad Religion record the same album and it sells great every time cause they know that's who they are and what their fans L-O-V-E! So the answer is YES! Over and over and over again!

Best show of my life: October 31st (halloween), 2002 - Thrice, Hot Water Music, Coheed and Cambria with Curlupanddie at the B Complex in Portland, OR. No gate at the front of the stage or anything. Surf right up ONTO the stage and run across behind Dustin and Eddie to go back out to the crowd. Miss those days. That was the first time I met them too. When they were cool.