When I was a kid, I would always get a little blue whenever the calendar turned from October to November. Halloween was over, Christmas was a good two months away, and there were no days off from school until Thanksgiving. It felt like holiday purgatory.
I was never overly excited by the November holiday in my younger years, as Halloween and Christmas seemed to set the bar too high. Between dressing in costumes and getting candy on the first holiday, and receiving presents the next, Thanksgiving simply had too much to live up to. The highlight of my Turkey Day was playing football with my brother, but that was often cut short by being called in to dinner. This is when I would see all my aunts who smothered me with cheek kisses, followed by being forced to sit at the dinner table when all I wanted to do was play football.
Now that I’m older, I have a newfound appreciation for Thanksgiving and the eleventh month of the calendar year, and it starts with listening to The Early November. I started listening to these guys in high school, when my music taste started yearning for anything alternative/punk/emo/indie rock. Part of the reason I still enjoy this band so much is its diverse musical range. Led by frontman Ace Enders, The Early November has an uncanny ability to lull listeners in with soft melodies, engage us with catchy guitar riffs, and make us think with inspiring lyrics. I often find myself involuntarily tilting my head to the side when one of their songs is playing. For example, it’s easy for me to get a crick in my neck every time I hear “1000 Times a Day,” a story about boy meets girl.
In the spirit of the first week of November, I invite you to enjoy the following playlist that includes my favorite tracks from The Early November, listed in no particular order. Each page includes some information on the band followed by a few of their songs courtesy of YouTube. To get started, click the “Next” arrow.
The Early November hails from New Jersey and currently features Ace Enders (vocals/guitar), Joseph Marro (guitar/keyboard), Bill Lugg (lead guitar), Sergio Anello (bass), and Jeff Kummer (drums). The band signed its first record deal in 2002 with Drive-Thru Records and released its first album, “For All of This,” on December of that same year.
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The band played at the Vans Warped Tour in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2006, during some of the festival’s most influential years on the alternative music scene. By the mid 2000s, Warped Tour started featuring roughly 100 artists per year, and TEN played a small part in the tremendous growth the festival still sees today.
[tps_header]Decoration[/tps_header]
[tps_header]All We Ever Needed[/tps_header]
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[tps_header]Hair[/tps_header]
[tps_header]1000 Times a Day[/tps_header]
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The band has four albums out: “For All of This” (2002), “The Room’s Too Cold” (2003), “The Mother, The Mechanic, and The Path” (2006), and “In Currents” (2012). After years of success touring and writing music, the band went on hiatus from 2007 until 2011. When they reunited at the end of 2011, TEN signed a new record deal with Rise Records, their current label.
[tps_header]My Sleep Pattern Changed[/tps_header]
[tps_header]The One That You Hated[/tps_header]
[tps_header]A Stain on the Carpet[/tps_header]
[tps_header]Come Back[/tps_header]
[tps_header]Tell Me Why[/tps_header]
[tps_header]Ever So Sweet[/tps_header]
The Early November has been recognized by the Billboard Top 200 three times. Once in 2003 for “The Room’s Too Cold,” again in 2006 for “The Mother, The Mechanic, and the Path,” and most recently in 2012 for “In Currents,” which peaked at number 43. TEN has also been recognized by the following lists: Top Independent Albums, Top Heatseekers and Top Internet Albums.
[tps_header]Dinner at the Money Table[/tps_header]
[tps_header]Sunday Drive[/tps_header]
[tps_header]I Want to Hear You Sad[/tps_header]
[tps_header]In Currents[/tps_header]
[tps_header]Baby Blue[/tps_header]
[tps_header]Every Night’s Another Story[/tps_header]
[tps_title]Bonus track from Ace Enders & A Million Different People[/tps_title]
During the band’s hiatus, each of the members worked on side projects, most notably Ace Enders. I definitely enjoyed what I heard from Enders’ solo work, but I couldn’t be happier to see the original lineup back together.
Still, I find it fitting to include a cover of “Bittersweet Symphony” on this list. To record this track, Enders collobarated with several vocalists in the alternative music scene including Mark Hoppus (Blink-182), Craig Owens (Chiodos), Kenny Vasoli (The Starting Line), Alex Gaskarth (All Time Low), Bryce Avery (The Rocket Summer), and Matt Thiessen (Relient K). All proceeds earned from the song were donated to VH1’s Save the Music Foundation.
For more on The Early November, visit:
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