#but yeah this is a somewhat chronological history of the band :)

[rat-boots]

Hi I'm brand new to bob hund could u please infodump information to me about them bc I'm loving the music but know nothing about them

ohhohoho let's freaking go!

all right, so bob hund was formed in 1991 in stockholm by Thomas Öberg (vocals), Jonas Jonasson (synth) and Mats Hellquist (bass). A bit after that Conny Nimmersjö (guitar) joined the band because he had a rehearsal space (they even made him audition in that rehearsal space). Their other guitarist Johnny Essing joined the band because he owed Mats Hellquist 100 kr (which is like $10). They had a bit of difficulty finding a drummer at first but eventually found a guy named Mats Andersson

Thomas and Jonas went to school toghether in helsingborg before they moved to stockholm

They got the name bob hund from an animated short film called get a job (1985)

Their logo was drawn by Martin Kann, who is also the guy who designs all of their album covers

Blur's guitarist Graham Coxon is (or at least was) a huge fan of bob hund and he did a cover of the song min trampolin

In 2003 they released a self titled album in english under the name bergman rock. That album took several years to make and flopped commercially. In 2005 they released a second album as bergman rock called Bonjour Baberia pt II (both albums are very good i highly recommend them)

In 2009 bob hund gets a new drummer, Christian Gabel, to replace Mats Andersson who is now a passive member of the band

in 2013 they sold their instruments and played shows by borrowing instruments from their fans which somehow resultet in them performing at the malmö opera with the opera orchestra in 2014 (the recording of that performance can be found on their youtube channel under the name 'och bob hund dör i slutet')

in 2021 they did a musical where they are ghosts trying to stop a band called bob katt from breaking up (it's really good but there's unfortunately no recordings of it online) and from late 2022 to about mid 2023 they did some more theater with the show Den overkliga sanningen om bob hund, which is kind of an on stage argument about the band's history (no full recording of this either but there are a few short clips of it on youtube)

[fuckyeahvanhalen86-95]

Van Halen had more than their share of contradictions.

They began life as a party band but were also home to one of rock's most inventive musicians in guitarist Eddie Van Halen, who spent countless hours toiling in isolation perfecting both his craft and instruments. Their fun-loving music, videos, fashion sense and personalities served as the template for a generation of bands, yet they were also at the center of two of the nastiest breakups in rock history.

So, yeah, things could get weird around Van Halen sometimes. They had an unparalleled gift for blending hard-rock chops and pop smarts and a knack for staying creatively ahead of their peers. Bold and sometimes strange musical experimentation played a role in that success, as you'll note in the below chronological look at the 10 Weirdest Van Halen Songs.

"IN A SIMPLE RHYME/GROWTH" (1980 - WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST)

Van Halen's first two albums were comprised of songs written during their club-performance days. On 1980's Women and Children First, they took advantage of their chance to write new material, expanding their palette and exploring more complex arrangements. One of the clearest and most distinctive examples is the LP's closing track, "In a Simple Rhyme." It's a poppy, progressive and somewhat weird rock song that sounds like Rush attempting to write a romantic ballad. After the song's gentle fade-out comes another surprise: a 30-second instrumental featuring a brontosaurus-sized guitar riff. According to The Van Halen Encyclopedia, the plan was for "Growth" to be expanded into a full song that would kick off the band's next album. That didn't happen, but they would occasionally play the song at their concerts, including a 1986 version featuring both Eddie Van Halen and Sammy Hagar on guitar.

"SUNDAY AFTERNOON IN THE PARK/ONE FOOT OUT THE DOOR" (1981 - FAIR WARNING)

After sneakily replacing his guitar with an electric piano on Women and Children First's "And the Cradle Will Rock...," Eddie Van Halen dove deeper into synthesizers with the following year's Fair Warning, using an inexpensive Electro-Harmonix micro-synthesizer to come up with "Sunday Afternoon in the Park." It's a funky and creepy two-minute instrumental that sounds like George Clinton's idea of a John Carpenter film score. The tempo switches to a hyperactive electro-boogie for the conjoined "One Foot Out the Door," as David Lee Roth tries not to get caught with somebody else's wife. It's all topped with one of Van Halen's fiercest guitar solos, which fades out too quickly.

"BIG BAD BILL (IS SWEET WILLIAM NOW)" (1982 - DIVER DOWN)

One of the main sources of friction between David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen was over the latter's use of keyboards. Roth feared it would upset the band's fans, who wanted only to see Van Halen in "guitar god" mode. (As "Jump" and the band's string of keyboard-based '80s hits proved, Roth was wrong.) But it was Roth who suggested that Van Halen's father, Jan, play jazz clarinet on the band's cover of the 1924 Milton Anger and Jack Yellen song "Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)" on 1982's covers-heavy Diver Down. "He was nervous as shit," said Van Halen, recalling his dad at the recording session. "We're just telling him, 'Jan, just fuckin' have a good time. We make mistakes! That's what makes it real.' I love what he did."

"HOT FOR TEACHER" (1984 - 1984)

The final single of David Lee Roth's first tenure with Van Halen was the sorta weird "Hot for Teacher." How many hit songs can you think of that start with a 30-second drum solo, followed by an extended guitar solo? Roth doesn't appear until more than a minute into the song, speaking to his "classmates," rather than singing, as Eddie Van Halen suddenly shifts to chicken-pickin' rhythms. A traditional verse-and-chorus structure finally appears, but the band never stays in one place for long, blending speed-metal riffs with high school humor and a big Broadway-worthy chorus. It was all too perfect to last: Soon after the song's release, everything went to hell.

"INSIDE" (1986 - 5150)

"Man, what kind of crap is this?" That's the opening question Sammy Hagar asks on the closing track of his first album as Van Halen's new singer. After using the first eight songs on 5150 to establish the new lineup as a commercial and artistic force, Van Halen cracks open the fourth wall and directly if obliquely addresses the controversy that ensued after Hagar was hired to replace Roth. Over a thumping synth-rock groove, Hagar gets meta about what he's learned from his new bandmates: "Now me, look, I got this job not just being myself," he says. "I went out I brought some brand new shoes, now I walk like something else." He gets more serious as the song goes on, hitting some wild vocal heights while singing about feeling the need for "something special, someone new, some brand new group to sink my teeth into."

"MINE ALL MINE" (1988 - OU812)

After proving they could use keyboards to craft hit pop singles and ballads, Van Halen took a more serious step with the opening track of 1988's OU812. Clocking in at over five minutes, the complex "Mine All Mine" treads near jazz-fusion territory and showcases a new lyrical depth that almost drove Hagar past the breaking point. "It was the first time in my life I ever beat myself up, hurt myself, punished myself, practically threw things through windows, trying to write the lyrics," he told writer Martin Popoff in 2010.

"PLEASURE DOME" (1991 - FOR UNLAWFUL CARNAL KNOWLEDGE)

For the most part, 1991's For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge marked a return to straightforward guitar rock for Van Halen. The hit single "Right Now" was the only song to feature keyboards; almost everything else follows a Standing Hampton-on-steroids formula. But the seven-minute "Pleasure Dome" takes a weird turn into progressive rock, with the Van Halen brothers and Michael Anthony daring each other to go deeper into King Crimson-style madness. Hagar's cosmically themed vocals are fine but seem almost beside the point. When the band performed the song live, it was usually instrumental.

"STRUNG OUT" (1995 - BALANCE)

Ever wanted to hear Eddie Van Halen destroy a piano? According to the Van Halen Encyclopedia, while renting composer Marvin Hamlisch's beach home in 1983, Van Halen "threw everything he could find into the piano and raked various items across the strings, including ping-pong balls, D-cell batteries and even silverware." Supposedly, there are hours of tapes documenting this, but Eddie Van Halen mercifully selected the best 90 seconds for inclusion on the band's final album with Hagar.

"CROSSING OVER" (1995 - BALANCE [JAPAN IMPORT])

Van Halen released only one non-album B-side, and it was a pretty strange one. In 1983 Eddie Van Halen composed "David's Tune," a tribute to a friend who died by suicide, handling all the instruments and vocals. After joining Van Halen in 1985, Sammy Hagar was eager to flesh out the track, but Van Halen kept "Crossing Over" in the vaults for nearly a decade, until the death of the band's manager, Ed Leffler. A full-band take was recorded and then blended with the guitarist's original version, which can be heard in the left channel of the released recording. The sonic effect is otherworldly, a perfect match for the song's subject matter.

"HOW MANY SAY I" (1998 - Van Halen III)

Van Halen III is the most criticized album of Van Halen's career, and much of the scorn is directed at the closing "How Many Say I," which features Eddie Van Halen on his only lead-vocal performance. The piano-based track is reminiscent of a late-era Roger Waters ballad and is an odd creative choice for the band, which was in the process of introducing its third singer, Gary Cherone. "They forced me," Van Halen told Billboard at the time. "Don't be shocked when you hear the vocal." "Maybe we were being too artsy-fartsy," Cherone later admitted to Rolling Stone. "But I thought it was great."

[oneweekoneband]

“You ever heard of emo? Yeah...we started that.”

--Chris Conley (Saves the Day), “Where’s the Band?” Tour 2016

Why has “emo” become such a dirty word? There’s honestly quite a few explanations -- some valid, some less-than -- but as far as I’m concerned, the primary reason has to do with the disgust our culture-at-large has with emotions, especially when expressed by men. Men aren’t “supposed” to talk about their feelings, they’re supposed to bottle them up, so when a group of young men gets on stage (with or without tight jeans, long hair, and/or make-up) and start singing about heartbreak, it becomes a punchline. And that’s a crying shame, because acknowledging our emotions is such a vital part of life -- and not doing so only leads to more pain.

Saves the Day aren’t the first emo band, but they are one of the earliest bands to legitimize the genre and help bring it into the mainstream (for better for worse)*. If you like any bands associated with the modern emo, pop-punk, or alternative music scene, they’re almost definitely inspired by Saves the Day. Yellowcard name-drops them in one of their songs; The Wonder Years’ Dan Campbell tells stories of camping out to see them at the Electric Factory at his shows; Fall Out Boy famously began as a Saves the Day cover band; Say Anything’s Max Bemis started out as (and still is) the band’s biggest fan, and is now one of their closest friends and collaborators. Their influence looms large over the scene.

More importantly, though, Saves the Day are one of the greatest examples of everything the genre does best. Frontman Chris Conley (the only musician to stick with the band throughout the entirety of its nearly two decade career) imbues their music with honest, genuine, and emotionally urgent lyrics that manage to feel universal while also being intensely personal. Vivid metaphors, symbolism, and (often violent) hyperbole wring every last drop of emotion and meaning from their words. Vitally, Saves the Day’s songwriting has grown and evolved along with the members -- not just the music itself, which has become more confident and experimental over time, but the subjects of Conley’s laments. They’ve grown from exploring teenage heartbreak to trying to understand mankind’s suffering to appreciating the wonder of life, even as “boring” married adults. Saves the Day is the kind of band that grows up with the listener, that has something to offer no matter what stage of life you’re in.

One of the criticisms often lobbed at pop-punk or emo is that it’s ridiculous or played-out to listen to young white men whine about their problems. This is a somewhat simplistic description of the genre that mostly focuses on its lowest common denominator of bands, but there is some validity to it -- unfortunately, this scene is one that’s always struggled with inclusivity, although it should be noted that Saves has had multiple non-white members in recent line-ups. Still, I think that ignores how cathartic it can be for young people from all walks of life to hear their pain reflected back at them, to know that others have gone through what they’re going through, have felt what they feel. Moreover, there’s a lot to be gained from examining the different struggles others face as well. This builds empathy, and that may just be what the world needs now more than anything. Building communities via shared suffering has always been what emo is all about, and I don’t think there’s a band that exemplifies those qualities better than Saves the Day.

Hi, I’m Spencer, and there’s very little in this world I love more than Saves the Day. I’ll be your host this week as we more closely examine the ideas I outlined above and really dive into what makes this band so special. Because their music is so closely intertwined with Conley’s life and the band’s growth over the years, I’ll of course examine the band’s history as well, and will mostly be tackling things in chronological order. If you’ve got any questions or comments, I’d love to hear from you; feel free to send me an ask, or @ me on twitter (I’m @ThatSpenceGuy).

Meanwhile, if you’ll indulge me for just a moment, I’m going to use my next post to tell you all why Saves the Day means so much to me personally. I’m hoping I can provide you all with some insights into why this band has forged such deep connections with their fans and their rest of their scene, because Saves’ approachability and lack of pretension just may be their most important qualities of all.

*One of the more valid criticisms of the word “emo” is that it really isn’t a genre, but more of an aesthetic. The actual sound of bands considered emo varies greatly, both over time and even within a single generation of bands, with Saves the Day’s catalogue consisting of an especially eclectic and evolving mix of pop-punk, hardcore, indie, and other forms of alternative rock. Moreover, many of the bands most closely associated with emo reject the label entirely, either because of its weaknesses as a descriptor or simply because they don’t want to be associated with some of more mainstream (or “embarrassing”) emo bands. I use “emo” to describe Saves the Day partially because Conley seems to have embraced the term in recent years, and partially because it aptly sums up the band’s themes, lyrics, and community of fans, even as their actual sound defies easy definition.