Song Of The Week: 1/13/19

Song: "Sacrifice Of Life"

Artist: Midtown

Album: "The Sacrifice Of Life" EP

Year: 1999

Place Of Origin: New Brunswick, New Jersey

Years Active: 1998 - 2014



WHAT I THINK THE SONG IS ABOUT:

"Sacrifice Of Life" appears to be a song about finding out that those you thought were your friends are not. The vocalist felt he would put his life on the line for these so-called friends, but eventually he finds out that they would not do the same for him. Their friendship was nothing more than a lie and now he sees that he has to sever ties with these people and seek out people that would be real, true friends in the future.

MIDTOWN DISCOGRAPHY (Full length albums only):

2000 - Save The World, Lose The Girl (Drive-Thru Records)
2002 - Living Well Is The Best Revenge (Drive-Thru/MCA Records)
2004 - Forget What You Know (Columbia Records)

CURRENT STATUS OF MIDTOWN:

New Jersey's own Midtown formed as a band back in 1998 when the band members were attending Rutgers University. The band's first release was the 1999 EP, "The Sacrifice Of Life". Midtown signed on with upstart punk label Drive-Thru Records for their debut full length album, 2000's "Save The World, Lose The Girl". After touring Europe with bands like Millencolin and Donots, Midtown offered up split EP's with those two bands before releasing their sophomore full length, 2002's "Living Well Is The Best Revenge". This album featured the singles "Become What You Hate" and "Like A Movie". This album also featured major label distribution through MCA Records who had a good working relationship with Drive-Thru Records. Now, without a label, Midtown's 2004 album "Forget What You Know" would be picked up by Columbia Records and would be their most successful album featuring perhaps their biggest single, "Give It Up". In 2005, Midtown covered The Outfield's "Your Love" for the "Punk Goes 80's" compilation. This would be the last piece of music to come out of the Midtown camp as the band broke up in 2005. Vocalist and chief songwriter Gabe Saporta focused all of his attention on his new band Cobra Starship at this time. In 2014, Midtown reunited to play three live shows and there was word that maybe two or three new songs were being worked on but it's now 2019 and those songs never came to the surface. Saporta is now focused on the business side of the music industry and it seems that Midtown and Cobra Starship are no longer going to be a part of his future. Midtown was a nice little pop punk band. "Forget What You Know" is definitely their high point as far as I'm concerned, in fact, I never even heard of them until I heard "Give It Up". I had to work my way back through their catalogue but found that their earlier material didn't compare with their 2004 album. If you like bands like The Starting Line, Fenix TX, The Ataris, Allister or The Movielife, then you would most likely enjoy the music of Midtown. The band's contribution to the 2003 compilation album, "Liberation (Songs to Benefit PETA)", "This House Is Not A Home" is a really good song if you like acoustic tunes.

TEN MIDTOWN SONGS YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT:

1. Give It Up
2. This House Is Not A Home
3. Empty Like The Ocean
4. Become What You Hate
5. Knew It All Along
6. Get It Together
7. Your Love (The Outfield cover)
8. Still Trying
9. Is It Me? Is It True?
10. Just Rock And Roll