The Deckplates

A lot of people use music to help explain their situations in life be it work, friends, family and for most, relationships. One band in particular has been there for all of those, Bayside. Undoubtedly my favorite band, there isn’t one song that I have listened to from them that hasn’t gotten me through hardship, especially out here in Japan.
Bayside is a band out of Long Island, New York and their first album “Long Stories Short” hit the market in 2001 under Dying Wish Records. Five albums later, they are now a rising band with their latest album “The Walking Wounded” making #75 on the Billboard 200 and #4 in Independent Albums.

Why I like them so much is from what I’ve stated before, they have gotten me through much hardship in life. My buddy Jim was the one who originally introduced me to them. The first song I heard was called “Montauk” from there 2005 released Bayside Album from Victory Records. It’s not very often that you listen to a whole album and think that all the songs are catchy, but this band was able to pull it off.

Obviously at first, I thought they were good, but just another band I would listen to on a daily basis. It wasn’t until the end of my first relationship out in Japan that they would play a major part in my life. One of the songs in particular was “Don’t Call Me Peanut” and it was the one acoustic song on their album. I couldn’t say that I felt better after listening to that song, it was actually quite the opposite, but eventually I was able to get out of my funk and feel better about myself.

When I started my second relationship out in Japan, I still listened to Bayside, but not as much as I did before because I really had no reason to feel bad about myself. One mistake I did make was letting her listen to them eventually liking them. Even during the relationship, when she was aware I was listening to them, she knew I wasn’t doing well and she would eventually get depressed. I eventually broke up with her and immediately found a song that easily summed up the relationship, “They’re Not Horses, They’re Unicorns.”

Even at this point, I had listened to two of their albums a few times, but I picked songs in specific to listen to. In February, I was sent home for an emergency in my family. While at home, I was told that even though a sudden crisis had occurred that I would have to still go on with life. Well, I had taken up that offer, and found that Bayside was playing in Ventura for their Starting Line Tour, and it was a day before my leave expired and would have to head back to Japan. This was a rare opportunity for me to see the band that I have been crazed about for some time and I didn’t want to pass it up. This was when I figured I might as well repeatedly start listen to their albums over and over again. After the concert, I was in a state of awe and wanted nothing more than to tour with these guys. This was undoubtedly the best concert I have ever been to and would give anything to tour with them.

Even after seeing them live, I couldn’t stop listening to them. Over and over again I was listening to the two albums I had, and eventually it wasn’t enough. I went ahead and purchased the rest of the albums they had available, and would you know it, their first album was obviously the most expensive, but that didn’t matter to me. What was even better than that is that their “Long Stories Short’ album is now going for $200, a dramatic increase than how much I was able to get it for.

I am still listening to them over and over again. Numerous times I’ve been told that I would eventually need to listen to something else, but I haven’t gotten past wanting to listen to anything but Bayside. I am a crazed fan and I am proud to say that. I might even be too crazed about them, but I don’t think anything or anyone could get me through life better than this band.