Album Review: The Menzingers - On The Impossible Past
Time for Jared to stay up on the soapbox from last week and rant about one of his favorite all-time albums: On The Impossible Past by the Menzingers.
Listen to the album, give us your thoughts!
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(upbeat rock music) - Anyway, wouldn't throw out another album for everyone to check out. I think if you're in a paw-punk or emo community, this is like mandatory listening in my mind. And I should go on for hours about this, but I'm gonna live myself to five to 10 minutes here. But this is the Men's Endures on the Impossible Past. Hard to believe this is their third album that was released in 2012 too. So we're at about the 12 to 13 year anniversary of it. And this album has aged truly like a fine wine. I didn't get into the Men's Endures until about 2021, actually, in the way of some stuff that had happened at that time I listened to after the party, fell in love with it after I'd just seen them at four-chord, 'cause I had always known about, I don't wanna be an asshole anymore, heard it multiple times, really liked it, listened to after the party, like fall, enter of 2021, and then went back to on the Impossible Past. And I can't stop listening to this album. It's constantly on repeat for me, and actually part of the reason why I wanted to start the show, so I could stop listening to it. But this is, to me, like the quintessential emo album, pop-punk album, and the Men's Endures are from Stratton, Pennsylvania. These guys clearly have a love of reading and literature. The title comes from the Nabokov book Lolita. If you don't know what it's about, Google it. Stanley Cooper did the movie back in the '60s. But the title comes from a line called, "I Was Weeping Again, Drunk on the Impossible Past." The subject matter, that novel is very dicey. It's purposefully dicey to get readers thinking and the challenge readers. But that line in particular, sits out purposely that they chose that for this album, because this whole album is about reliving memories and nostalgia and just basically digging through your memories throughout whatever point you are in your life. I got to see them at RiotFest in 2022. And they're part of the reason I wanted to go to this, that year's festival, because this was the tour they were playing all of on the Impossible Past for. And that crowd was one of the most fun crowds I'd ever been in, literally seconds before they went on stage. This girl next to me goes, "Man, I'm only 22 years old." And every time I listen to the men's and yours, I feel like I'm a 40 year old going through a midlife crisis. And that's when they came walking out and I'm like, yeah, that sums it up pretty well. That's the definition right there. Every time I listen to this album or even any other albums, I feel like I'm going through a midlife crisis of some sort. But on the Impossible Past in particular, this is where the band really honed in on their craft of storytelling, that they carried on through the rest of their discography up to their latest release in 2023. From beginning to end, the album is littered with references to telling stories. ♪ I'm on the screen and paying my bucks ♪ ♪ And sanctioning all the sides ♪ ♪ For the truck who's a drunk son ♪ ♪ And some will make me alive ♪ Burn after writing is literally about writing the characters that the story will be about. They're asking others, like, am I boring you? Am I telling you too much? Am I putting red ink everywhere? ♪ But I will fuck this up ♪ ♪ I fucking know it ♪ The obituaries live when the whole crowd is singing, I will fuck this up. I fucking know it. The energy in the room just fills up and there's just a sense of catharsis amongst everyone around. ♪ I'm pretty sure this corner of the world ♪ ♪ Is the loneliest corner in the whole world ♪ ♪ Maybe it's me, the bartender ♪ ♪ There's Budweiser, the other customers ♪ - The Sun Hotel has probably one of my favorite lyrics on the album, which is this corner of the world is the loneliest corner in the whole world. Maybe it's me, the bartender, the Budweiser, the other customers. Like, this is somebody who's sitting in thought and memory and just kind of relapsing through all of their, everything that's happened. Another one of the lines I forget specifically on which song it is and talks about, you sit down at the diner as lovers and you get to check as friends for the better. Like, relationships come and fade all, pretty much all collapse onto themselves at one point when you're reliving them and like, this album gives me such nostalgia for events that I've never lived and I can clearly picture everything they're talking about. Taking rides in muscle cars, feeling the most American for once in my life. I could go on for hours and hours just rambling about this album. I kind of want to cut myself off to let you go listen to it and give your own experience of listening to it. If you like Jawbreaker, these guys are clearly influenced by them. If you like any of the melodic hardcore stuff, check this album out. It's been out for over a decade. If you haven't listened to it, please don't do so and send us in your thoughts too while you're at it. - It's funny, you're so right about, like that girl said that it makes you feel like you're going through a midlife crisis. The only song somebody has shown me and I'm pretty sure Vinny played it on a couple of our radio shows was I don't want to be an asshole anymore. Or no, sorry, no, that would not have been played. You showed me that song though. - Was Irish could buy us probably. - It might have been Irish could buy us. - Yeah, saying that out loud, I was like, wait, no, he wouldn't have played that. And I could help, yeah, when I get home, I'm going to get high alone. - Yeah, and after that, when a bunch of their songs started showing up for me on like lots of different playlists, and I realized now that whenever I'm feeling bad, whatever playlist I'm listening to, usually ends up putting their songs into it. - Yep. - And it's always my like emotional support playlist and they're almost always on them. - They've been an emotional support band for me for the past three years or so. And I've actually met some great people because of them too, that we've made like very personable connections because like we've both realized how much we love this band. And again, I just kind of stumbled into them and it's just carried with me for the past couple of years. - The men's thinkers have always kind of eluded me. There's like a handful of these bands that have very similar styles that for some reason or another just haven't made it on the rotation. But since we've been doing the show, since we've been talking about them more and like specifically you, Jared, 'cause you've always been kind of pushing them too. I've been listening to them a lot more and I've been getting into them and I can see them. They're not on the rotation now, but they're definitely coming up where they're gonna get added to a playlist and I'll be getting into them. I can see it coming. It's like a train that's coming and I'm not gonna get out of the way. Irish could buy this was the one that really hit me in the beginning. And for some reason, nothing became of it. But like recently, hearing all their lyrics, hearing all their vocals and stuff like that, I'm just kind of like, wow, I'm gonna, I gotta do a little bit of a dive into them. See what's going on. What are these guys talking about? What are they saying? - Yeah, and I know you're a bit fan of Jawbreaker. So like the Jawbreaker to men's interest pipeline should be almost a straight line. - Yeah, it's pretty straight on. It's pretty straight on. - Those guys were English majors. So it just feels like the most natural progression in that. I mean, there are other bands in between obviously, but it feels like they should be right nuts to each other. Or if it's like, if you like Jawbreaker, we're gonna recommend the men's interest for you. - For sure. I think right now, if I look at what Menziger's fans, also like Red City Radio, Iron Chic, Lawrence Arms. - Iron Chic, Lawrence Arms. - Iron Chic, Lawrence Arms. And off with their heads. Flat line is a banner pilot. - Yep, that'll make sense. - No brainer. - So give us your thoughts on the men's interest on the impossible past. I really wanna know your thoughts. Please, I wanna talk to more people about this album. ♪ Me and Casey ♪ ♪ Will she get drunk before we're dead ♪ ♪ That is shame ♪ ♪ I will breathe ♪
