As every year passes, more and more reunions start to happen and lately there has been more reunions by bands that we thought would never happen again. No one thought Mineral would ever play again, and it seemed almost impossible that American Nightmare could ever make a return. Another one that people have been dying to see is Long Island, NY punk band The Movielife, and at the end of last year, the band announced their return to the live circuit. After breaking up in 2003, and having only a brief reunion in 2011 for a couple of shows it was thought that The Movielife would be nothing more than a distant memory. Now the band are back, and it seems the most appropriate time to take a look back at their highly influential and beloved album, âThis Time Next Yearâ which was released 15 years ago and cemented their place in the punk rock scene forever.
In the late 90âs the pop punk era began, long before the scene became absolutely saturated and commercialised, and The Movielife had already been making a name for themselves playing basements on the back of their raw debut âItâs Go Timeâ. This attracted the attention of iconic hardcore label Revelation Records which had spawned seminal releases by Judge, Youth Of Today, and countless other influential hardcore bands. The band teamed up with producer Brian McTernan who had worked with everyone from Texas Is The Reason to Converge to record their second album âThis Time Next Yearâ, and would ultimately garner them a worldwide fan base by combining the structuring and playing of hardcore with pop punk melodies by way of the heart-on-sleeve lyrics of frontman Vinnie Caruana.
The band made the bold choice of kicking the album off with 30-seconds of punk rock fury in the sadistic âI Hope You Die Soonâ, but this pays off as it grabs your attention instantly and is the only song of its nature on the album. What follows is some of the most timeless melodic punk that has ever been written. â10 Seconds Too lateâ and the title track are perfectly crafted for the live arena, and anyone who bore witness to one of their shows back in the day will know that Caruana didnât even need to sing half the words as the crowd could drown out his vocals on these anthems. The self-deprecating cry of âI know I donât deserve youâ still makes for a goosebump-inducing moment, which is testament to the power of these songs. Given that most of the people who listened to them back then are probably in their early thirties now, they still find the songs resonate with them.
Mcternanâs production on âThis Time Next Yearâ is as faultless as ever, capturing every one of drummer Evan Bakenâs rattling snare hits and the overtly catchy guitar leads of Brandon Reilly with precision. In keeping with their roots in New York hardcore, they add gang vocals to âOnce In Rowâ before it gives way to the breakdown at its cadence. âSelf Destructâ and âDeal With Itâ expand on the blueprint that was laid down across the bay in New Jersey by Saves The Day and Lifetime, but if those bands started the amalgamation of pop punk and hardcore then The Movielife took the reigns when they moved on and drove it into a new generation.
The main appeal of The Movielife, as briefly touched on before, is the honesty in Vinnie Caruanaâs lyrics. Borrowing heavily from the 90âs emo movement but without the need for metaphor, and plainly baring his heart to anyone who will listen. You can cherry pick lines all the way through âThis Time Next Yearâ that sum up that time in your life of moving from being a lovelorn teenager and becoming and adult. Any guy with a sensitive side at some-point had their MSN screen name as something like âCanât compete, got you beat, sheâs my queen sheâs my everythingâ from âSingle White Femaleâ, or perhaps they fell in love with a girl on the internet and lifted a line from âPinky Swearâ for a Myspace comment saying âYouâre in my heart 3000 miles awayâ. Nowadays lyrical content like that would probably appear abhorrent, but 15 years ago they instantly connected with the listener and are the reason why the scene fell in love with âThis Time Next Yearâ.
However it’s not all sweetness across the course of the record, as an appearance by Jason Mazolla of Richmond, VA hardcore legends Count Me Out adds a certain grit to âHow Can You Even Face Me?â, and the numbingly frustrated rhetoric of âAnother Friendâ sums up the strains that friendships suffer so often. The brooding closer of â Itâs Monday and Rainingâ bookends the album in a similar way to âI Hope You Die Soonâ did at the start, but not in the intense manner of the opener, more in its darker narrative akin to the way the album began.
The rest, as they say, is history. Upon the albums release it would become an instant classic that can be heralded alongside Saves The Days âThrough Being Coolâ, and Lifetimeâs âJerseys Best Dancersâ as one of the genre defining punk records of our time. The band carried on for a few years after âThis Time Next Yearâ by finding home on the dominating label of the scene at the time, Drive-Thru Records, but an unfortunate van accident, that while not fatal in terms of physical injury would begin to sever the relationships between members in its wake, and The Movielife eventually disbanded in 2003 following the release of their final album âForty Hour Train Back To Pennâ.
Fast-forward to 2015, and the band are new rejuvenated and back to playing shows again. They have played their first show back in New York, and eventually in June the band will make their way to the UK to play two shows, in London and Manchester. The main point is that through all of this, the highs, the lows, and the years gone by in which a vacant hole was left unfilled while the band members pursued other musical ventures (I Am The Avalanche, Nightmare Of You), âThis Time Next Yearâ still engages with its listeners in a way that most of todayâs punk rock bands could only dream of. Its influence knows no bounds, and will forever be seen as an important document in the history of not just the Long Island punk scene, but in the entire punk rock community for years to come.
The Movielife will play the following UK shows in June, with tickets available now:
18 LONDON The Electric Ballroom
20 MANCHESTER Academy 2