By: Ryan Martin
Modern Baseball is a band formed out of Philadelphia while the members of the band attended Drexel University. The two frontmen of the band, Jake Ewald and Brendan Lukens were best friends out of high school and met through Brendan's crush on Jake's twin sister. You'd think that would have put an awkward strain on their relationship but it was actually the perfect gateway to the two being able to write and create awkward, catchy, and emotional music together. The two moved out of New Jersey and sought out the help of Sean Huber (drums) and Ian Farmer (bass). Thus forming the current line-up. The band released their debut, Sports recorded at Drexel and followed it up with You're Gonna Miss It All which included their biggest hit to date, 'Your Graduation' as well as scored them a debut on the Billboard 200. Their third album is not just their most confessional but possibly their best to date.
Holy Ghost is fueled by the tragic events that both Brendan and Jake experienced separately. They go into more detail about what happened in their documentary that they've released recently through Run For Cover Records. Brendan, has recently been diagnosed with bi-polar disorders, behavior disorders, and manic depression. He almost attempted suicide before his friends reached out to his parents who made him get treatment. Jake, on the other hand lost his grandfather and wasn't able to say goodbye to him as he found out that he was going to die while he was in a completely different state. He simply stepped out onto the front porch of his house after receiving the news, looked to the sky and said goodbye. Both tragedies affected them in such different ways that they decided to split their new album in half. With Jake handling the first half of the record and Brendan taking the second half. They stated that they wanted to take a similar approach to what OutKast did with Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. Splitting the record in half allowed them both to be able to write songs that captured the way they were both feeling at a certain point in their life and then be able to collaborate as a unit on each song's sound.
Modern Baseball is a band formed out of Philadelphia while the members of the band attended Drexel University. The two frontmen of the band, Jake Ewald and Brendan Lukens were best friends out of high school and met through Brendan's crush on Jake's twin sister. You'd think that would have put an awkward strain on their relationship but it was actually the perfect gateway to the two being able to write and create awkward, catchy, and emotional music together. The two moved out of New Jersey and sought out the help of Sean Huber (drums) and Ian Farmer (bass). Thus forming the current line-up. The band released their debut, Sports recorded at Drexel and followed it up with You're Gonna Miss It All which included their biggest hit to date, 'Your Graduation' as well as scored them a debut on the Billboard 200. Their third album is not just their most confessional but possibly their best to date.
Holy Ghost is fueled by the tragic events that both Brendan and Jake experienced separately. They go into more detail about what happened in their documentary that they've released recently through Run For Cover Records. Brendan, has recently been diagnosed with bi-polar disorders, behavior disorders, and manic depression. He almost attempted suicide before his friends reached out to his parents who made him get treatment. Jake, on the other hand lost his grandfather and wasn't able to say goodbye to him as he found out that he was going to die while he was in a completely different state. He simply stepped out onto the front porch of his house after receiving the news, looked to the sky and said goodbye. Both tragedies affected them in such different ways that they decided to split their new album in half. With Jake handling the first half of the record and Brendan taking the second half. They stated that they wanted to take a similar approach to what OutKast did with Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. Splitting the record in half allowed them both to be able to write songs that captured the way they were both feeling at a certain point in their life and then be able to collaborate as a unit on each song's sound.
Songs like 'Wedding Singer' written by Jake, show a side of him and his grief that he previously couldn't express to his friends. It also includes the album's catchiest riff and is one of my personal favorites off the album. Lines like "Said goodbye from the front porch/I always wonder if you're smiling at us or if you're looking away" demonstrate how Jake is able to take meaningful emotional lyrics and put an entirely bright new melody over them. On the other hand, Brendan's epic closer 'Just Another Face' is not only the longest song on his half but his most personal as well. He is able to capture the angst of rebelling against the world and his treatment as well as the acceptance of his disorder and accepting help. All under 4 minutes.
Modern Baseball's new record is surprisingly short, only clocking in under a half an hour but it's one of those albums that you can listen to in it's entirety. Multiple times even. It might not be an album that's full of experiences that resonate with you personally but especially after you know the backstory behind each song, they sit with you even more and you're able to experience the album on a deeper level. It's very rare that you can take two negative experiences and turn them into a sonically impressive project. That almost resembles a phoenix rising from the ashes.
Modern Baseball's new record is surprisingly short, only clocking in under a half an hour but it's one of those albums that you can listen to in it's entirety. Multiple times even. It might not be an album that's full of experiences that resonate with you personally but especially after you know the backstory behind each song, they sit with you even more and you're able to experience the album on a deeper level. It's very rare that you can take two negative experiences and turn them into a sonically impressive project. That almost resembles a phoenix rising from the ashes.