Tuesdays with Tom: Everything Is Alright (Except Walsher Clemons)
A collection of 2005 pop punk albums that defined my youth; plus thoughts on Oklahoma City's Thunderous title run, Florida Panthers hockey dominance and ChatGPT marriages
In high school, my band played the Brookfield Battle of the Bands, aiming to win over local judges. We didn’t. Walsher Clemons won: two years in a row. A jam band! The judges were thrilled. I was furious. I Googled them for this piece. They have no available music and a broken website link. That’s good enough for me. Walsher Clemons is DEAD!
What we lacked in Battle of the Bands trophies, we made up for in heart, and a setlist inspired by the bands we loved. For this piece, I’d like to reflect on some albums that fueled my passion for music. In 2025, three albums that shaped my teenage love of music turn 20 years old. They didn’t just define my taste. They shaped the kind of music we aspired to make. I still listen to them regularly, and they still slap. I’ve done this in the past, but I’m changing the format a bit.
Each one of these albums played an important role in my development as a musician and in the broader pop punk scene. They’ve aged well while also showcasing the era that they came from. We performed some of these songs when we were enthusiastic teens, playing shows in suburban backyards and poolside at the Riverside Swim Club. One of these albums achieved massive mainstream success. The other two weren’t as popular, but they are revered by pop punk loyalists. Together, I think they tell a neat story.
Alkaline Trio - Crimson
I discovered Alkaline Trio through the Crimson single “Mercy Me” and I haven’t looked back since. Prior to Crimson, this Chicago-based punk trio was best known for gothic intensity mixed with catchy hooks. Think The Cure meets The Ramones - a blend of dark roast and light thrash. At its core, Alkaline Trio is a very gnarly band. They tapped into producing legend Jerry Finn to orchestrate and mix previous albums like From Here to Infirmary and Good Mourning. Crimson would be the final Jerry Finn-produced Alkaline Trio album.
Crimson hit like crack for me. It had a sensibility that I found both familiar and new. The back and forth singing between guitarist Matt Skiba and bassist Dan Andriano was very Blinkian, but sounded nothing like Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus. It had the look of American Idiot, but it wasn’t a politically charged concept album. From the album’s opening track, “Time to Waste”, Alkaline Trio introduced a cinematic quality to the record that lent an elevated importance rarely seen within the genre.
Alkaline Trio touches every base in its home run trot around Crimson, a 13-track album that is littered with hidden gems. You want a dark chocolate sugar rush? “Fall Victim” will take care of that. You want classic garage rock? “Poison” and “I Was a Prayer” are coming right up. There’s a haunting tribute to the West Memphis Three within “Prevent This Tragedy” and it's not the only semi-sympathetic tune about a real life crime. There are equal doses of ballads and bangers throughout Crimson.
“Mercy Me” is pop punk bliss. It’s incredibly catchy, full of flavor and sticks in your head immediately. It was amazing to play live. People often complimented it after shows. It’s probably the most well known Alkaline Trio song ever. Later on, there is “Sadie” - the pivotal ballad on the album. The song was written about Susan Atkins, a member of the Manson family, and explores her disturbed mental state with macabre precision. The interlude is fabulous, as is the entire song.
Crimson was a turning point for Alkaline Trio. It peaked at No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 200 albums list and exposed them to mainstream audiences. This alienated some fans who preferred their harder songs. For this listener, it was a change for the better. Several good albums from Alkaline Trio have come out since Crimson, but none of them have topped it for me. Crimson makes me feel things as much as it did back then. Are they the same exact feelings today? Not really! But I still love giving this a spin. It introduced me to awesome music, improved our band and it deserves more attention as a legacy-making pop punk record.
Motion City Soundtrack - Commit This to Memory
I don’t know if they were the first pop punk band to make the Moog synth cool, but it felt that way. It all began with “Everything Is Alright” — their breakthrough single and still their most beloved. I’ll get to that in a moment. In 2003, Motion City Soundtrack popped up within the emo revival movement with a fresh take. Their debut album I Am the Movie introduced fans to their quirky synth-fused sound with deeply personal, introspective lyrics from singer-guitarist Justin Pierre. Pierre’s wild, colorful hair perfectly matched the band’s chaotic-yet-polished vibe.
Motion City Soundtrack caught a lucky break when Mark Hoppus discovered them and invited them to play on an arena tour with his band. Hoppus quickly embraced the group and eventually accepted an offer to produce their sophomore record. Though a rookie producer, Hoppus’s experience helped sharpen their songwriting and sound. Many tracks were fueled by Pierre’s battles with alcohol, anxiety, and the chaos of sudden success. Compared to their first album, the production quality significantly improved.
Commit This to Memory is a nearly flawless collection of 12 songs that elevated the band into the elite tier. They’ve described it as a winter album, but I think it encapsulates all the seasons. “Everything Is Alright” is a summer anthem: sunny, jittery, slightly neurotic. “When You’re Around” is late July chaos: humid and relentless. “Make Out Kids” feels like spring, sweatshirt weather and new crushes. “Time Turned Fragile” captures the jagged turn from Midwest fall to winter.
If I’m making a Mount Rushmore for this album, it starts with “Everything Is Alright” and “When You’re Around” in the album’s front half. In the back half, I’ll nominate “L.G. FUAD” -- an acronym that doubles as the song’s opening lyric “let’s get fucked up and die.” That line jolts me awake every time. The title and lyric stemmed from a drunken rant on tour with The All-American Rejects. It’s a brutally honest snapshot of Pierre’s alcoholism: dark, clever, and beautifully performed. The final head on the mountain is “Hold Me Down” — a bitterly cold ballad and a sensational closer.
Before this album, I’d never heard a pop punk band tackle serious problems with such a sharp mix of humor, self-awareness, and clarity. Combining that with the utterly unique sound made me an instant fan. For a moment, they were very mainstream, with prominent placement in the trailer for Accepted. Overall, I think it's one of the classics in this genre. With its heartfelt stories, delightful hooks and Moog synths, Commit This to Memory became the defining album for Motion City Soundtrack and a watershed moment for pop punk. Plenty tried to copy their style (badly), but no one did it better. These themes hit even harder now that I’m a proper adult, or at least trying to be one. If you need someone to tell you that you’re alright, look no further.
Fall Out Boy - From Under the Cork Tree
When I think about being “emo”, it starts with “Sugar, We’re Going Down” — the antlers, the falsettos, and the basement that changed the scene. This is an incredibly anthemic song about star crossed lovers with an amazing in-video twist. If Shakespeare were alive in 2005, he might have written a play about it. From the moment “Sugar, We’re Going Down” hit the airwaves, Fall Out Boy was the talk of middle schools everywhere and often penned in spiral notebooks. Their aesthetic and sound were instantly iconic. You couldn’t escape them.
Before all that, Fall Out Boy was an exciting upstart from the suburbs of Chicago. Many regard their 2003 album Take This To Your Grave as one of the genre’s best works. But as much as I love that record and singles like “Grand Theft Autumn / Where Is Your Boy”, it was From Under the Cork Tree that launched the band into stratospheric heights. As the band’s major label debut, they teamed up with producer Neal Avron to evolve their sound for a wider audience. Avron helped the band develop airtight melodies, layered guitars and a dramatic flair. It solidified the formula of bassist Pete Wentz writing darkly poetic lyrics to match Stump’s knack for ear-worm musicianship. This intensity was amplified by Wentz’s suicide attempt during the album’s pre-production.
From Under the Cork Tree is a skyscraper of an album — massive, iconic, and full of emotional floors to explore. For better or worse, they brought the “emo scene” to the masses. The headliner was “Sugar, We’re Going Down” -- an unassailable pop smash that Variety ranked as the greatest emo song of all-time. From top to bottom, From Under the Cork Tree is filled with rousing anthems and devilishly clever lyrics. Wentz’s egregiously long and ironic song titles were a new approach that eventually became an annoyingly overdone genre trope. The opening track was re-titled “Our Lawyer Made Us Change the Name of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued” over a real dispute with their lawyer. Others were nods to pop culture, such as “Of All The Gin Joints In All The World” and “Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner”, two of my favorites. The funniest one? Easy. “I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy And All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me” is both an eye-roll and perfectly emblematic of its time.
The other big single was “Dance, Dance”, which felt like a taunt to the music industry and a dare to high schoolers too shy to get wild at homecoming. It hinted at Fall Out Boy’s desire to push outside of traditional pop punk and proved their versatility as songwriters. The most slept-on track is “Sophomore Slump Or Comeback Of The Year”, a mid-tempo banger that whines and croons with expert touch. All together, From Under the Cork Tree earns its place as an integral pop punk album that absolutely blew up radio stations around the world. The album went platinum and the two lead singles finished as top 10 hits in the Billboard Top 100.
From Under the Cork Tree is so angsty and teenager-coded that it is a bit less relatable now. However, it does work immensely as a time capsule for an indelible moment growing up. When I hear it, I’m immediately transported to my days wearing Abercrombie & Fitch shirts and locking in for passionate, sloppy makeouts. It’s certainly “A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More “Touch Me”. Fall Out Boy is one of the few bands still thriving from this era. It’s because of this album that so many of us remain tethered to the genre — not just by sound, but by memory, emotion, and side-swept bangs.
Coda: Crimson Memories and Cork Tree Dreams
While at different stages of their lives and careers, Alkaline Trio, Motion City Soundtrack and Fall Out Boy all tapped into the bountiful energy that swept up legions of pop punk fans in 2005. With Crimson, Alkaline Trio took their hardcore roots to cinematic levels, with just the right amount of pop sensibility to expand their horizons and audience. Motion City Soundtrack leveled up with Commit This to Memory, doubling down on their singular sound and symbiotic blend of chaotic anxiety and heartfelt sincerity. Fall Out Boy plugged their devil-may-care pop cynicism and lustful angst into a nuclear reactor with From Under the Cork Tree, catapulting other bands into a new plane along with them. Together, they contributed to a catalog that I’m still very fond of and helped usher in more acts that felt the same inspiration I did as a teenager. And unlike Walsher Clemons, it won’t be erased forever.
Tom’s Thoughts of the Week
In the last two episodes of Friday Night Beers, we reviewed Taj Mahal Lager and Same Same Different. Let’s just say Taj Mahal Lager is not the Taj Mahal of beers. We dove into India’s beer history and the country’s cinematic legacy. We also thought through some metaphorical Taj Mahals of the entertainment business. Same Same Different marks our return to HOMES Brewery, an Ann Arbor staple. We had an honest conversation about when something cool becomes uncool, memorable remakes and celebrities who are “same same different” if you will. Please subscribe, rate and review our podcast here and follow our Instagram page for relevant updates!
Heading into the NBA Finals, expectations were low. But the Thunder and Pacers delivered one of the most entertaining series in recent memory. I was skeptical that it would be competitive, even after watching Tyrese Haliburton make yet another stunning game winner in Game 1. Ultimately, OKC prevailed, led by MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and their army of defensive stallions. Are they a dynasty in the making? I won’t go that far. But they’re built to last. Give some credit to Indiana, too. They nearly pulled off one of the biggest shockers in NBA history. I fear that they’ll be haunted by Haliburton’s Game 7 Achilles tendon tear forever, which simultaneously dooms their chances at a championship run next year. However, in totality this is further proof that this league is a lot better off than some like to believe. There hasn’t been a repeat champion in this sport in seven years. It’s a league full or parity, where small market teams have a real chance at winning as long as they make the right moves. That’s a great development for the NBA and this was a fantastic postseason. Anyone who says otherwise should admit that they just don’t care.
From irrelevance to dominance, the Florida Panthers have completed one of hockey’s unlikeliest glow-ups. Before 2020, they were barely a blip on the NHL radar. Now, they’re back-to-back champs: a feat only ten NHL teams have ever pulled off in 108 years. They’ve extended Canada’s Stanley Cup drought another year. No Canadian NHL team has won the Cup since 1993. I’m a bit sympathetic to Oilers fans compared to Panthers fans. There was little to no interest in the Panthers prior to this Cup era in Florida, which is about as anti-hockey as it gets culturally. But through a series of shrewd roster moves and taking full advantage of generous state tax laws, Florida built a juggernaut on the ice and became a top tier free agent destination. They’ve made three straight Stanley Cup Finals and battled an equally tough Edmonton Oilers team twice in a row to achieve historic greatness. It takes a lot to make Connor McDavid look like a loser, but improbably these Florida Panthers have done just that.
According to a new MIT study, excessive ChatGPT usage may be harmful to critical thinking skills. No way! This experiment divided 54 people in three groups and asked each group to write SAT essays about various subjects. One group used OpenAI’s ChatGPT, another used Google Search and one used nothing at all. The result? The ChatGPT group showed the lowest brain engagement. This group “consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels” and over the course of several months “got lazier with each subsequent essay.” Other studies from the MIT Media Lab suggest that ChatGPT users feel lonelier with increased engagement. There’s even a man who fell in love with ChatGPT, despite living with his girlfriend and their two-year-old son. After programming the AI chatbot to flirt with him, he became so obsessed that he proposed to it and expressed feeling “actual love” from the program. Yikes! I feel for parents and educators in this environment. This is not going away and there’s compelling evidence that AI tools are making people dumber, lonelier and more confused. I don’t have a solution, but just be careful out there. If you start falling in love with your computer, you’ve gone way too far.