They got their name from The Brave Little Toaster, they all loved watching that show, they changed toaster to Abacus because an abacus is the first thing they thought of when trying to think of an arbitrary inanimate object (just like a toaster)
As I entered my teenage years and expanded my musical pallet I heard about BLA from time to time in forums but put off listening to them for awhile. I eventually started listening to them in 2018 when I was 18 and fell in love instantly. Over the years I even learned that the guys grew up 15 minutes away from my hometown and that I pass by the venue of their last show ever almost every day on my way to work, it's really surreal.
the brave little abacus is my favorite band ever. i met adam at a laura stevenson (one of my very favorite artists) show bc he was doing merch for her. dude is so incredibly friendly and genuine. in between sets he would scout me out in the sea of people and share a cigarette with me and we would shoot the shit. one of the best experiences of my life.
Sometimes I forget I have a home and place in music, full of people who talk about, and sing and scream about the things i'm thinking about and experiencing rn, and every once in awhile I discover it again and remember and I cry, listening to someone sing about running backwards and wishing he was the person he was when he was younger, and whether this idealized image of himself was true. Weird timing, it's christmas eve and i'm sobbing now lol. I'm 25 now. Merry Christmas
we gonna ignore that matt aspinwalls half of the split is just shel silversteins the giving tree, not original idea. not shitting on it its one of my favorite things ever
Yea someone else pointed that out too and I knew it sounded familiar, I just forgot about it when I was writing the vid. I should’ve acknowledged that tho so my b. Still well executed for what it is tho
MySpace doesn't work bc MySpace was so incredibly careless about their music archival they "accidentally" lost most of music that existed on myspace. incredibly sad case of not giving a shit about internet history preservation, and noone else even started dealing with that prior to this incident. It's just lost to time basically
upd apparently some of them were restored, but that is drop in the water of how much myspace had www.theverge.com/2019/4/4/18295014/myspace-lost-songs-dragon-project-tracks-web-archive-internet-archive-450000-recovery
finally someone did a vid on this amazing band, ur the best dude. keep making vids n i would totally look further into the midwest emo scene and maybe even other sounds, like duster for example.
the lyrics from bandcamp are still embedded in the album's metadata from the band's mediafire folder. the lyric is "hat of greens". i always personally imagined it as a poetic way of describing a christmas tree :) in general i read the lyrics in Discomfort relating to multiple selves to be a way of exploring the nature of choice, especially on Please Stop Crying.
I met adam and played a few shows with him when he was filling in for other bands (interrobang?! was one) Dude was SUPER nice and friendly. he would compliment your set after and would talk to you and each bandmember and try to connect with you (more than "hey, good set") and was very supportive for bands like mine at the time that were just starting out playing shows.. I'm very glad this band is starting to get more notice even after everything. its crazy to think that Demo? was a home recording considering how dense and busy the mix is with the super nintendo samples and stuff (El Capitano RIPS) Very talented musicians that were also good solid dudes. Man this brings back memories Also Eggplant Danceoff! was really good as well look up the song "Prelude to the adventure"..
I remember first time I heard BLA. I was with my friend after trying out to be the Fill in drummer for their band (not as lame as it sounds if named the band), and they were playing it in their car and started perfectly reciting BLA passages and asking me what they could mean.
I‘ll have to say: thank you. Since I‘ve seen this Video and the Top Albums Video one or two months Ago. i cant stop listening to just got back. TBH when i started listening to them they sounded like Noise. But the more i listend to them the better they became. I can really feel their emotions. The Last time i was that hoocked by an Artist was with Lil peep 3 years ago. So, thank you. Keep going
I’m a bit late here but thank you so much for this video. Discomfort is my favorite album ever and it’s so great to see a video about these guys and their history. I appreciate it immensely.
hey dude loved the video! not to nitpick but i just wanted to point out that that screamed part in the blah blah blahs wasn't sung by adam, but by his friend rory nolan. he even re-did it in the vic geary center show!
I've been listening to Masked Dancers nonstop for the last few weeks so im excited to check this video out. I always like to hear peoples thoughts on this amazing band.
Oh wow, that's incredible. Acouple of years ago I could have sworn only about a hundred people had ever heard of this album, let alone heard it. Had no idea it blew up this big. Glad it's getting the love that it deserves!
He is saying hat of green. On Orange, Blue With Stripes he says "What I said about Christmas Trees", which is connected to when he says "What I said about Hat of Green". Hat of green is a christmas tree.
Honestly if I never found Okumay on quoteunquote like a week before their last show I'd never have found out about these guys. I do wish there was a good single place where their discography was.
I have this crazy theory that without the band knowing they made an album for&about Matt aspinwall being dead even before he died this is the opening lyrics to the first track of masked dancers "Treetops, canopy Branches caress three clouds, make it easy To never leave home, it's an animal kingdom And this here's your throne" maybe referencing his tree from their split&the album being about death& having him be reborn could just be him missing him& wanting him to be here with him. The album cover also being a reference to a ghost &T posing to resemble a tree. I know this is all impossible but watching your video&the fact that that's how your video played out with mentioning his death&then going into masked dancers that's the first thing that came to mind. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
One more cool connection with Laura Stevenson/BtMI!: I flew to New York to see Bomb's last show ever with AJJ, Cheap Girls, and Laura Stevenson as openers, and I was stoked to see Adam was playing drums in Laura's band!
As far as hat vs hannah goes, i think its “hat” because later in the song adam talks about how the posters on his wall are his only company, and j think he could be referring to the hat as another object keeping him company while hes alon
So the day before this video went up (and after it was all p much finished) Adam was actually on another podcast where he speaks about Discomfort pretty thoroughly. It’s pretty cool and worth checking out (thx to a couple commenters for making me aware of it) th-cam.com/video/eEZj8SXNvcQ/w-d-xo.html
I think they’re doing a lot to push forward the whole PC music wave. Their one album is a little inconsistent but I look forward to hearing what they do next
I'm new to this channel but the second you said TBLA was your favoret band I had click on your top 10 albums of 2019 video to make sure Come In by Weatherday was there. Sure enough, it was.
ive had people tell me about this band before and i watched part of this video before but i just dismissed the band because i was swamped with new music to listen to. but i discovered that they were on spotify today and i went thru their two albums and im very impressed. track 1 on masked dancers is INSANE and im still making my opinion on discomfort (its a positive one tho). im not a midwest emo fan at all but i really like this band. thanks for the video :)
People really sleep on Masked Dancers. I honestly think it’s better than Just Got Back. I listened to Just Got Back first, and while I liked it, Masked Dancers was what really made me love the band.
You make a video about my favourite band AND my second favourite band clouddead AND your name is a reference to my favourite song from the Tony hawk's underground soundtrack!
Regarding the "hat of greens" line off of 'Can't Run Away'. I think the lyric is about a hat, but it says saying "Hat of Green's", as in "Hannah Green's hat".
I felt I should let the comment section know that RYM has to give less popular projects a larger edge than other reviewing websites would, as similarly niche projects that gained a cult following are what takes up the majority of online music critique and discussion. Masked Dancers currently ranks higher on RYM than Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective, with Masked Dancers currently ranking 509 overall (3.9/5) and Merriweather Post Pavilion currently ranking 895 overall (3.8/5), but Merriweather Post Pavilion's feat is much more impressive, as it is a MUCH more popular album, which has been listened to 142 times as often, and has 4 times the ratings on RYM. However, if they changed this to be more fair, it would likely cause an uproar, as there are far too many well-beloved projects that are important to online music discussion that would drop a large amount because of their lack of ratings.
RYM updated their algorithm since I made this, it’s now much more heavily weighted towards the average than it was a couple years ago (I do agree tho they should weigh it less) Also damn I just checked and that update was in November 2020, time flies 😭😭
Amazing video, thank you so much for creating this. One question, where could I find some of the live clips you're using? I have not been able to find them on TH-cam. For example, the one where Matt is singing and Adam is jumping around. I would be so thankful if you can let me know. I love this band so, so much.
love the video! i think you should check out a artist by the name of Dave Wenger, he was a bit of an underground legend in toronto and has some really fantastic releases under his belt. check out Ache Hour Credo and Breakwater, i think his discography is up your alley
Evan Newell It’s taken from Iron Galaxy by Cannibal Ox (which is also where I got the channel name from) but it is a sample from Mexican Radio so yea that’s correct
I think the "two of me and only one of them", and "two of them and only one of me", are a play on each other while having separate meaning. The "two me's" can be what you said, two versions of himself, one in a relationship and one not. Like one being in the band and one not, while the "two of them" could be his two band mates and friends.
they really do fit into emo tbh, intentional or not the vocal is as emo as they come and the lyrics double down on that. the other instruments aren't as emo as AF of Capn Jazz by any means but that's always hard with a dedicated synth player
I forgor ab the giving tree lol my b
They got their name from The Brave Little Toaster, they all loved watching that show, they changed toaster to Abacus because an abacus is the first thing they thought of when trying to think of an arbitrary inanimate object (just like a toaster)
I had a feeling it was a Brave little toaster reference. Thank u!
@@108Mics gotchu man, Adam said it in a live a month or so ago!
i always assumed they chose abacus because they liked math rock and you use an abacus to do math
@@johnfahey8590 oh wow yeh that sounds like itd make sense too haha
If they were called Brave Little Toaster, then it could be abbreviated to BLT. Missed opportunity.
As I entered my teenage years and expanded my musical pallet I heard about BLA from time to time in forums but put off listening to them for awhile. I eventually started listening to them in 2018 when I was 18 and fell in love instantly. Over the years I even learned that the guys grew up 15 minutes away from my hometown and that I pass by the venue of their last show ever almost every day on my way to work, it's really surreal.
That’s crazy
the brave little abacus is my favorite band ever. i met adam at a laura stevenson (one of my very favorite artists) show bc he was doing merch for her. dude is so incredibly friendly and genuine. in between sets he would scout me out in the sea of people and share a cigarette with me and we would shoot the shit. one of the best experiences of my life.
Sometimes I forget I have a home and place in music, full of people who talk about, and sing and scream about the things i'm thinking about and experiencing rn, and every once in awhile I discover it again and remember and I cry, listening to someone sing about running backwards and wishing he was the person he was when he was younger, and whether this idealized image of himself was true. Weird timing, it's christmas eve and i'm sobbing now lol. I'm 25 now. Merry Christmas
I have no idea how you haven’t blown up yet, definitely keep it up.
we gonna ignore that matt aspinwalls half of the split is just shel silversteins the giving tree, not original idea. not shitting on it its one of my favorite things ever
Yea someone else pointed that out too and I knew it sounded familiar, I just forgot about it when I was writing the vid. I should’ve acknowledged that tho so my b. Still well executed for what it is tho
4:52 I am not a horse, I’m a 𝑆𝑡𝑢𝑝𝑖𝑑 𝐻𝑜𝑟𝑠𝑒.
i just fell out of the porsche
@@SolaFideSolusChristus Did you lose the money in your bank account? Oh no
bet my money on a stupid horse i lost that
MySpace doesn't work bc MySpace was so incredibly careless about their music archival they "accidentally" lost most of music that existed on myspace. incredibly sad case of not giving a shit about internet history preservation, and noone else even started dealing with that prior to this incident. It's just lost to time basically
😢
upd apparently some of them were restored, but that is drop in the water of how much myspace had
www.theverge.com/2019/4/4/18295014/myspace-lost-songs-dragon-project-tracks-web-archive-internet-archive-450000-recovery
finally someone did a vid on this amazing band, ur the best dude. keep making vids n i would totally look further into the midwest emo scene and maybe even other sounds, like duster for example.
ari 💞
duster Is sooo underrated
Hi
After their last show in Boston the lead singer remembered me from a show years prior and gave me a hug. I miss those years fondly.
kinda gives me the same appeal as Spiderland. Revolutionary music with such a mysterious background to the music that it just kinda pulls you in.
the lyrics from bandcamp are still embedded in the album's metadata from the band's mediafire folder. the lyric is "hat of greens". i always personally imagined it as a poetic way of describing a christmas tree :) in general i read the lyrics in Discomfort relating to multiple selves to be a way of exploring the nature of choice, especially on Please Stop Crying.
I met adam and played a few shows with him when he was filling in for other bands (interrobang?! was one) Dude was SUPER nice and friendly. he would compliment your set after and would talk to you and each bandmember and try to connect with you (more than "hey, good set") and was very supportive for bands like mine at the time that were just starting out playing shows.. I'm very glad this band is starting to get more notice even after everything. its crazy to think that Demo? was a home recording considering how dense and busy the mix is with the super nintendo samples and stuff (El Capitano RIPS) Very talented musicians that were also good solid dudes. Man this brings back memories
Also Eggplant Danceoff! was really good as well look up the song "Prelude to the adventure"..
dude not even yesterday i was about to comment "you should make a video about The Brave Little Abacus"
just my personal opinion. adam demirjian and will toledo are easily, easily, easily the best indie rock lyricists and songwriters of the 21st century
WILL TOLEDO MENTIONED RAHHH
I remember first time I heard BLA. I was with my friend after trying out to be the Fill in drummer for their band (not as lame as it sounds if named the band), and they were playing it in their car and started perfectly reciting BLA passages and asking me what they could mean.
that’s cool! name the band im curious…
Weird flex
Can't thank BLA enough for featuring me on my favorite album by them!
I‘ll have to say: thank you. Since I‘ve seen this Video and the Top Albums Video one or two months Ago. i cant stop listening to just got back. TBH when i started listening to them they sounded like Noise. But the more i listend to them the better they became. I can really feel their emotions. The Last time i was that hoocked by an Artist was with Lil peep 3 years ago. So, thank you. Keep going
I appreciate it! I’m glad u like em 💯
I’m a bit late here but thank you so much for this video. Discomfort is my favorite album ever and it’s so great to see a video about these guys and their history. I appreciate it immensely.
hey dude loved the video! not to nitpick but i just wanted to point out that that screamed part in the blah blah blahs wasn't sung by adam, but by his friend rory nolan. he even re-did it in the vic geary center show!
im so glad there’s coverage on one of my favorite bands
Wow, i didn't knew that it's not an official spotify.
came for viper, stayed for... everything else!
great channel so far, excited to see you grow :)
they are genuinely one of the greatest and cool band ever
Your videos are wonderful, every time I think about the brave little abacus I want to cry and scream!
this is the most comprehensive collection of abla info ive seen... good shit man
Glad my interview with Adam was a helpful source for this video! Great vid brotha.
Seahorste thank u (both for doing the interview and for the positive feedback 🤝)
I've been listening to Masked Dancers nonstop for the last few weeks so im excited to check this video out. I always like to hear peoples thoughts on this amazing band.
Amazing video man, please keep making videos, you're sure to blow up.
Oh wow, that's incredible. Acouple of years ago I could have sworn only about a hundred people had ever heard of this album, let alone heard it. Had no idea it blew up this big. Glad it's getting the love that it deserves!
He is saying hat of green. On Orange, Blue With Stripes he says "What I said about Christmas Trees", which is connected to when he says "What I said about Hat of Green". Hat of green is a christmas tree.
We’re gonna look back at these guys in 2050 as some of the greatest artists of all time
TMBG is my favorite band, and knowing that Adam is also a fan made my day
Great video
Just found your channel through the Viper video, holy shit you're incredible. This is my favorite band too! Didn't even know some of this.
I’m so fucking glad I found this channel. Amazing stuff dude
Great video, you really do deserve more viewers
Honestly if I never found Okumay on quoteunquote like a week before their last show I'd never have found out about these guys. I do wish there was a good single place where their discography was.
I have this crazy theory that without the band knowing they made an album for&about Matt aspinwall being dead even before he died this is the opening lyrics to the first track of masked dancers "Treetops, canopy
Branches caress three clouds, make it easy
To never leave home, it's an animal kingdom
And this here's your throne" maybe referencing his tree from their split&the album being about death& having him be reborn could just be him missing him& wanting him to be here with him. The album cover also being a reference to a ghost &T posing to resemble a tree. I know this is all impossible but watching your video&the fact that that's how your video played out with mentioning his death&then going into masked dancers that's the first thing that came to mind. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
Nice video! Would love to see one on AJJ
YES
theyre on spotify now
Nice video. Indeed one of the most enigmatic bands out there.
Colin a.k.a Colin Briggs is one of the guitarists of interreobang he also played back up guitar for the brave little abacus's last show
Thanks for this video man, keep up the good work documenting the underground scene
Great video. They're my favorite band as well!
P.S. My good friend is the guy who conducted the 2020 interview! :)
Still my favourite band to this day, great video guy!
Great video man
great video altho i heard in an interview with adam that the refrain in "the blah blah blahs" isn't sung by him
Brilliant analysis🤟🏼
Realoemo aye thx! Love ur Instagram page
One more cool connection with Laura Stevenson/BtMI!: I flew to New York to see Bomb's last show ever with AJJ, Cheap Girls, and Laura Stevenson as openers, and I was stoked to see Adam was playing drums in Laura's band!
damn, that's awesome
Can you please, please do Camping in Alaska next. Also love the current vid, I’m savouring each second
As far as hat vs hannah goes, i think its “hat” because later in the song adam talks about how the posters on his wall are his only company, and j think he could be referring to the hat as another object keeping him company while hes alon
Also collin was the guitarist for interrobang and he played guitar at the last show as well :)
Gunnar Stephan ah I see, that’s a cool interpretation, and thank u I was wondering that
Saw your video on viper and enjoyed this one too have you ever thought about making a video on stunnaboy get em real Hollywood star
this is the content i subbed for
great video, thanks for doing my brave little abacus homework for me :)
So the day before this video went up (and after it was all p much finished) Adam was actually on another podcast where he speaks about Discomfort pretty thoroughly. It’s pretty cool and worth checking out (thx to a couple commenters for making me aware of it)
th-cam.com/video/eEZj8SXNvcQ/w-d-xo.html
You got a map of the stars wrong (these song names r a lil bit much) but solid vid
River Barber what do u mean? I’m actually curious (appreciate the support btw)
@@108Mics when you mentioned "a map of the stars" you said n wrote "a map of stars" instead but it's just a typo is all!
River Barber Ohh I gotchu. Thx ⭐️🗺⭐️
What do you think about 100 gecs?
I think they’re doing a lot to push forward the whole PC music wave. Their one album is a little inconsistent but I look forward to hearing what they do next
I'm new to this channel but the second you said TBLA was your favoret band I had click on your top 10 albums of 2019 video to make sure Come In by Weatherday was there. Sure enough, it was.
the tree metaphor is a reference to the shel silverstein story "the giving tree"!!
ive had people tell me about this band before and i watched part of this video before but i just dismissed the band because i was swamped with new music to listen to. but i discovered that they were on spotify today and i went thru their two albums and im very impressed. track 1 on masked dancers is INSANE and im still making my opinion on discomfort (its a positive one tho). im not a midwest emo fan at all but i really like this band. thanks for the video :)
I just listened to Discomfort a few days ago as it was added to Spotify and really really loved it, excited to hear Masked Dancers soon
holy shit lol i didn't realise i commented here, to update: BLA are my favourite midwest emo band and will always have a special place in my heart :)
Check out Adam the lead singers new band Me In Capris on spotify and TH-cam
People really sleep on Masked Dancers. I honestly think it’s better than Just Got Back. I listened to Just Got Back first, and while I liked it, Masked Dancers was what really made me love the band.
You make a video about my favourite band AND my second favourite band clouddead AND your name is a reference to my favourite song from the Tony hawk's underground soundtrack!
same, was pretty trippy seeing his videos cover most of my favorite artists. tbla, viper, clouddead, etc.
thanks realoemo
one of the best bands ever, nice work
subbed my guy love this band
Damn, this is a good ass channel
Regarding the "hat of greens" line off of 'Can't Run Away'. I think the lyric is about a hat, but it says saying "Hat of Green's", as in "Hannah Green's hat".
Oo interesting
I felt I should let the comment section know that RYM has to give less popular projects a larger edge than other reviewing websites would, as similarly niche projects that gained a cult following are what takes up the majority of online music critique and discussion.
Masked Dancers currently ranks higher on RYM than Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective, with Masked Dancers currently ranking 509 overall (3.9/5) and Merriweather Post Pavilion currently ranking 895 overall (3.8/5), but Merriweather Post Pavilion's feat is much more impressive, as it is a MUCH more popular album, which has been listened to 142 times as often, and has 4 times the ratings on RYM.
However, if they changed this to be more fair, it would likely cause an uproar, as there are far too many well-beloved projects that are important to online music discussion that would drop a large amount because of their lack of ratings.
RYM updated their algorithm since I made this, it’s now much more heavily weighted towards the average than it was a couple years ago (I do agree tho they should weigh it less)
Also damn I just checked and that update was in November 2020, time flies 😭😭
@@108Mics I'm aware, yet Sweet Little Abacus still dominates the midwest emo charts
remaster baby
YOOOOO
Joe
Amazing video, thank you so much for creating this.
One question, where could I find some of the live clips you're using? I have not been able to find them on TH-cam. For example, the one where Matt is singing and Adam is jumping around. I would be so thankful if you can let me know. I love this band so, so much.
1:59 He doesn't know about the Myspace server incident :'(
it’s officially on soundcloud
love the video! i think you should check out a artist by the name of Dave Wenger, he was a bit of an underground legend in toronto and has some really fantastic releases under his belt. check out Ache Hour Credo and Breakwater, i think his discography is up your alley
Daddy’s Hands! What a great artist he was. Every project he was in is so great
Now they’re officially on Spotify (sans the split, which is damn good so it’s sad)
Thank you for completing my life you are amazing I love u
wait is that intro Mexican Radio?? i thought it was only me...
Evan Newell It’s taken from Iron Galaxy by Cannibal Ox (which is also where I got the channel name from) but it is a sample from Mexican Radio so yea that’s correct
Damn shame you only have 2k subs
I think the "two of me and only one of them", and "two of them and only one of me", are a play on each other while having separate meaning. The "two me's" can be what you said, two versions of himself, one in a relationship and one not. Like one being in the band and one not, while the "two of them" could be his two band mates and friends.
my masked dancers tat just healed
listen to tonstartssbandht
WOW I THOUGHT IT WAS YOU AGAIN. I WATCHED YOUR VIPER VIDEO WHICH WAS 🔥🔥🔥🔥
NOW THIS?! Please get a patreon, I will support.
Aye thank u! I rly appreciate that
for me they´re the "Emo Gbv"
love tbla. last frontier of hipster rock. im glad to have rocked with it b4 it was cool
Onett AND Andrew Ryan?? Damn weirdest crossover of the century
jack ging
Same
good video :)
what the matt aspinwall stuff is referencing: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giving_Tree
hey can u plz make a video on phil elvrum, microphones and mount eerie?
These guys really like Malcolm in The Middle
what song is in the backround at 9:40 ?? wonderful video by the way :D
dont come around here no more
they really do fit into emo tbh, intentional or not the vocal is as emo as they come and the lyrics double down on that. the other instruments aren't as emo as AF of Capn Jazz by any means but that's always hard with a dedicated synth player
I dont want to distract from the video topic but your Taste is Baste
you ever listen to flotation toy warning?
I have but I don’t rly have any strong opinions on em tbh. They cool (Sry if that answer is underwhelming lol)
@@108Mics hey man cant feel strongly to everything. keep up the vids! these are great
LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
I concur
Best group ever indeed !!
I love this video so much jesus christ