Nothing Feels Good

The Promise Ring released their debut album 30° Everywhere in September 1996 through independent label Jade Tree.[1] According to vocalist/guitarist Davey von Bohlen, it was recorded in five days "in a situation where we had no idea what we wanted to do or how we wanted it to come out."[2] Additionally, Bohlen was ill during the making of it, resulting in issues with his vocals.[2] Despite this, the release was an underground success, earning the group attention from independent publications.[3] The attention was aided by the inclusion of the emo staple "A Picture Postcard", which had been released earlier on the Falsetto Keeps Time (1996) EP.[4] The band had 500–600 copies of the album to sell over the course of several gigs, however, during one show at CBGB's, they sold all copies in one go.[2] The band reissued their earlier work as part of The Horse Latitudes compilation in early 1997.[3]

In April and May 1997, the group embarked on a European tour; at its conclusion, the band went on a brief break to complete writing for their next album.[5] Guitarist Jason Gnewikow said the group worked on material through jamming.[6] Following this, the group went to Memphis, Tennessee where they began recording at Easley Recording with producer J. Robbins of Jawbox.[5] The album saw the group focus on cleaner production and refined their pop sensibility. Robbins aided the band, helping them work on song writing and improved the overall sound, when compared to 30° Everywhere. The band toned down the punk rock-esque Midwest emo sound that Bohlen pioneered when he was a member of Cap'n Jazz.[4] Drummer Dan Didier had a strained relationship with bassist Scott Beschta throughout the sessions: "I’m shocked that we just didn't just off one another because it was a bad time."[2]

Musically, the sound of Nothing Feels Good has been described as emo[7][8][9] and power pop,[4][10][11] drawing comparison to Superchunk and Knapsack.[10] Throughout the album, Didier uses various syncopations, triplet fills and double-time cymbal hits. Beschta, instead of playing basic root notes, opted for more melodic and rhythmic parts. Bohlen incorporated geographical and color symbolism in his lyrics; he refers to his girlfriend as red, white and blue in "Red & Blue Jeans", while in "B Is for Bethlehem" the colors are representative of blood and flesh.[12] While the record wasn't a concept album, it saw Bohlen reuse a handful of lines, giving it thematic cohesion: the title phrase Nothing Feels Good is mentioned in "Red & Blue Jeans", while being reused for the title-track, and serving as the basis for "How Nothing Feels". Similarly two lines, "not as good as the interstates are/I just can't take you that far", are used in both "Make Me a Chevy" and "A Broken Tenor".[13]

The opening power pop track "Is This Thing On?"[8] begins with guitar interplay and aggressive drumming.[14] It consists of five lines of lyrics that Bohlen repeats, and is anchored by Beschta's bass part.[15] It leads into the punk rock-esque "Perfect Lines",[8] which opens with Gnewikow's distorted guitar part.[14] "Why Did Ever We Meet" was representative of the 1990s indie rock/emo sound in that it incorporated pop without abandoning the abrasiveness of punk rock.[16] "Make Me a Chevy" sees Bohlen compare a woman to a car.[17] "How Nothing Feels" is an acoustic guitar and piano interlude[14] with heavy tape hiss.[17] It is followed by "A Broken Tenor", which opens with the sound of a house party, and one participant is heard quoting by the poem "Daddy" Sylvia Plath.[12] The title-track sees Bohlen asking religious and personal questions, and is followed by the pop-orientated track "Pink Chimneys".[14] An early version of the track had appeared on the (Don't Forget To) Breathe compilation.[18]

Nothing Feels Good was released on October 14, 1997, through Jade Tree.[19] The album's artwork was shot by Jade Tree co-founder Tim Owen and designed by Gnewikow; it shows a brightly lit photograph of a boardwalk against a white background with colored dots lined up around it.[4] A music video was made for "Why Did Ever We Meet", directed by Darren Doane, and featured Jade Tree co-founder Darren Walters, Ken Dario, Chris Duncan and Mike Schoenbeck.[20] It appeared on MTV's 120 Minutes, which the members subsequently hosted and were interviewed on by Matt Pinfield.[2] For the album's supporting tour, Beschta was replaced by Tim Burton, who Gnewikow played with in his former band None Left Standing.[3]

Didier said him and Beschta began disliking each other, which led to them not caring about each other. The members knew Burton and were aware that he had no plans, asking him to join the group.[2] In February 1998, the band were traveling back home from a show,[21] while on tour with Hum,[2] in the midst of a snowstorm.[3] Their van flipped over after Bohlen hit a bump on the road;[21] Bohlen flew head-first through the windshield. Bohlen (who had head trauma), Burton (who had broken bones)[4] and Didier, were released from hospital the following morning. Gnewikow, however, was in the intensive care unit for three further weeks due to a broken collarbone and other injuries.[21]

Since the group felt Burton wasn't working out, coupled with a broken arm, they replaced him with Scott Schoenbeck. At the time, Schoenbeck had formed Pele with Beschta.[3] The band returned to touring after a six-week break, though with Gnewikow suffering intermittent pain from his collarbone due to his guitar strap.[21] They went on an east coast tour with Jimmy Eat World,[2] and a European stint with Jets to Brazil. The band toured with Jets to Brazil again, touring across the US in October and Japan in November.[22] The album was re-pressed on vinyl alongside 30° Everywhere and Very Emergency (1999),[7] and received its first cassette edition, in October 2015.[18] A few months later, the band performed the album in its entirety during a one-off reunion show.[23]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[24]
Ox-Fanzine	Favorable[25]
Pitchfork	8.6/10[10]
Punknews.org	[26]

Nothing Feels Good received favorable reviews from music critics. AllMusic reviewer Blake Butler said the release saw the group move into more poppy territory that they had previously teased on 30° Everywhere. While Nothing Feels Good continued the "beautifully odd" lyricism against "extremely catchy and powerful music", its overall sound conjured up "sentimentality and imagination" that their "music always seems to exude."[24] Ox-Fanzine's Joachim Hiller complimented Bohlen's improved vocals, serving as a weakness on their previous record.[25] He called it a "seemingly calm" album that "strings together twelve melancholic-melodic guitar pop pearls."[25] Pitchfork writer Nick Mirov felt that the "dearth of lyrics" was the release's "Achilles' heel".[10] He added that Bohlen would repetitively sing "the same three lines over and over"; it served as a "minor blemish on an otherwise damn good album."[10] In a retrospective review, Punknews.org staff member Joe Pelone said the record acted as the best starting point for people wishing to get into the group, calling it "catchy, rocking and heartfelt in equal measures."[26] Bohlen's lyrics landed in middle of two ideologies: "'90s indie rock bands [that] wrote really good, lo-fi rock songs that weren't actually about anything" and emo acts that "mean[t] everything."[26]

Nothing Feels Good pushed the band to the forefront of the emo music scene,[27] forging the way for releases such as Something to Write Home About (1999) by the Get Up Kids and Bleed American (2001) by Jimmy Eat World.[8] Bohlen featured on "A Priase Chorus", a track from Bleed American, where he referenced "Why Did Ever We Meet".[4] The band became the most successful emo act of the era with sales of Nothing Feels Good reaching the mid-five figures,[28] becoming a defining album in the genre's second wave.[4] Mike Damante of the Houston Chronicle said "Red & Blue Jeans" acted as a blueprint for the likes of Taking Back Sunday and New Found Glory.[8] Similarly, the polaroid-esque aesthetic of the album's cover influenced countless other emo groups.[16] Eduardo Cepeda of Vice said the artwork was "one of the quintessential visual cues in the emo canon", and also within Jade Tree's roster as Owen and Gnewikow worked on a lot of releases for the label.[4]

Nothing Feels Good has appeared on various best-of emo album lists by Drowned in Sound,[29] Kerrang!,[30] LA Weekly,[31] Louder,[32] Rolling Stone,[33] and Treblezine.[34] Similarly, tracks from it have appeared on best-of emo songs lists by NME,[35] Stereogum[36] and Vulture.[15] The album gave its title to the book of the same name by Andy Greenwald.[12]

• Davey von Bohlen – vocals, guitar
• Jason Gnewikow – guitar
• Scott Beschta – bass guitar
• Dan Didier – drums

Citations

Sources

• Nothing Feels Good at YouTube (streamed copy where licensed)