New Music Crush: Midtown

Growing up in the middle of nowhere in Ireland, you tend to miss out on bands that a lot of people know, while often loving bands that never really got that big. My punk rock family tree had it’s roots in Epitaph/Fat Records, P-Rock TV and Tony Hawk’s skate games. To me, Alkaline Trio were the cool but slightly emotionally fucked up cousin of the family. I didn't discover other bands like Bayside until much later, or my new music crush Midtown until this year. More than a decade after the band split up...

Not sure what they're going for here

Simply because Drive Thru Records didn't have the same gravitas where I was from as some other punk labels, I missed out on great songs like Just Rock and Roll


Look how zany this videos is, totally unfair that it was kept from me, I would have loved it as a teenager! They're playing a bar mitzvah...but the people there don't understand rock music! It's just noise to them! What a hilarious concept! Who could possibly have made such a booking mixup?

Seriously though, I love this mix of pop punk and punk rock. Despite trying to look more bad-ass with the all black stage outfit, the nerdy, stupid fun side ultimately wins out through all the 'comedy' elements of the video, the drummer's DGAF attitude while wearing his glasses and the mandatory girl with big boobs.Also, dat 'jump' riff at 1.20 is delicious.

On the same album is depressingly-titled We Bring Us Down



This is a more PUNX song! Well, it's short and kinda fast, at least. Not sure if the lyrics are about an ex-girlfriend or some guy having sex but either way, it's a good song.

Like more pop in your pop punk? Try Like A Movie


This is a song they released after the last two, when I guess they signed to a bigger label. They act and dress kinda like douchebags in the the video but I guess they were hoping that would make them more popular or something. Still a pretty good pop punk song now that summer has hit.

The band broke up after this and one of the guys joined Senses Fail, while another made a synth pop band called Cobra Starship. This is obviously a very divisive issue amongst fans of these various projects, which is pretty funny because it's all music made by awkward dudes with the aim of trying to get girls to like them, whatever way you slice it. Makes no difference to me, I just get more albums to check out!