I really enjoy listening to The Wonder Years’ music – The Upsides really was a great album and I have no shame in that. It bonded my best friend and I during one of the worst years of high school [well, the other 3 years sucked pretty bad, too], and it helped me change my outlook on life; I went from pissed off angsty teen to realistic and simply wanting to have a good fucking time before I left for college. Just thinking about belting out all of “Won’t Be Pathetic Forever” at the top of my lungs during my 45 minute commute for my senior internship reminds me of how much fun their old jams really were for me.
Run-of-the-mill pop punk logos, crowd shots, Varsity font, and a random dog modeling. Average but still satisfying.
This admiration for the music naturally led me to desire a ton of their merch. When they came to the venue at my school for the Pop Punk’s Not Dead tour, I nearly flipped a shit. I already had the pigeon logo tank from Warped 2011 and had saved up to buy their hooded windbreaker. Living in a college town with weather that changes its mind more than Jonny Craig changes his status in Dance Gavin Dance, this windbreaker was an absolute A+ choice and I rock it pretty regularly. However, the TWY merch I’ve been seeing lately has been kind of…weird.
Having unique merch is always a plus: we’ve seen foam hands, koozies, beanies, backpacks, disposable cameras, – hell, when I worked merch for a date of rave duo Dada Life’s tour, they sold banana suits for $35 a pop [around 0:23 in that video]. I guess the watch is an effort to cash in on the movement of 50’s dad’s haircuts? Not the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen, but we’re getting there…
I really wanted to like this shirt, mainly because I love Arnold Palmer Half & Half so it was perfect for me. However, I’m not really into repping anything that supports having anxiety. We all have anxiety over certain things; that’s just a characteristic of being a human [see Bronson’s most recent post on depression and other mental health issues]. My beef with this shirt is …do we REALLY need more kids begging their moms to get them to the doctor for a prescription of Xanax because they have SUCH BAD SOCIAL ANXIETY OMGZ I HATE EVERYONE :((((( ? No. Shut the fuck up. You can hate people/be nervous in crowded places without having social anxiety. It’s glorifying a disease that we really don’t need glorified. Being able to relate to a band’s music via similar experiences is one thing, but having a hoard of pre-teens think they are just like Soupy because they have self-diagnosed anxiety is fucking annoying.
THIS. WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?! Is nobody else seriously creeped out by this plush version of Hank the pigeon? It just looks like demonic road kill to me, idk. I can see why they decided to make one as a way of bringing Hank to life other than the costumed version we see in their videos, but this actually looks like this was based off a scribble done by a six year old.
What do you think? Is TWY over-thinking their merch or have they hit the balance between zany and super tr00? Am I just upset that there’s a skeevy fucking pigeon plushie looking at me right now? What’s the weirdest merch you’ve ever bought?
TWY’s merch store with a bunch of new items is up for lurking [actually mirin' that limited edition American flag snapback]. Holla @ cha gurl on tumblr or twitter if you ever wanna go to a show together where we awkwardly hold hands during “Hey Thanks” and go get pizza afterwards <3
I tried to find that banner from that pic with the dude chillin with the my little pony, but couldn’t find anywhere to buy it. Guess I’ll have to settle for this.
http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0063/2092/products/TWYflag_flag1_large.jpg?371
Hey good post! Band merch in general is a bottomless pit of entertainment and perplexity to me considering some of the weird/horrible designs that bands use.
Speaking of weird/horrible merch, do US bands try to sell tote bags, or is that kind of fail strictly euro-only?
@Thomas thanks, amigo!
@thebirthdayskeleton I’ve seen more totes for festivals [Bamboozle/Warped are the two I've seen the most] and music-oriented clothing companies but band totes definitely exist. Usually crappy canvas bags with designs that wear off after a month but the scene bitches love them. Drawstrings are also pretty big, since they’re the go-to bag for shows [and are uni-sex, at least imo since I've never seen a dude use a tote but hey whatever holds your stuff]
Dudes have totes a lot over here, via being ‘progressive’.
Also, they’re cheaper to cut up for back patches than t-shirts, so if you fancy earning some tr00 points, you can try that. Why do I know this? I have lost too many friends to the tr00bonic plague, I guess.
Haha like I said, whatever holds your stuff! And that’s very true [no pun intended], I know people who make back patches out of shirts they’ve outgrown/ripped/etc. but canvas is definitely a better material to make patches with. tr00 points over 9000
am a dude with a tote via being an Euro and lame. No fucks given.
Dumb Teenage Girl Talking About Stuff: topic
hope youre gonna use that forever
It’s pretty much the most accurate title I can give to anything I post on the internet haha I’d love to write more posts like this
ur backed
Haha, tone of this piece reminds me of when I invite over my somewhat artsy dumb teenage girl friends from LA and they talk about their own experiences with merch/music/others dumb stuff while we awkwardly share music and our biggest problem for the night are all the posers that dare to liek the stuff we leik. Good times.
That watch is really damn weird though. I’m all for guys owning a watch (bonus points when you’re out on a date) but I think that this is the equivalent of buying a tacky $10 watch at Wal-Mart. Don’t do it bros!
Hey girl want to join us the next time we talk about how inspiring Blink-182 is while we sip on tea and I awkwardly wonder whether it’s okay to make a sex joke when we discuss their songs about jacking off?? W00d order the cheapest pizza available just 4 u.
bby I’d be honored :* :*
I can’t be sure, but from that little thumbnail it looks like the TWY logo is on Hank’s b-hole. :(
Pretty sure I have a Wonder Years snapback somewhere. Why do I have that? I think I might have to tell my family something about my ‘lifestyle’ …
Sincere, honest, DIY
GENUINE honest diy imo
void eater ur commets avatar looks like a piece of a demonic roadkill
Slight nitpick: That other article was by Bronson, not Bromst if I remember correctly.
I don’t get this band’s merch (like understand get, not acquire get)
Oops, my bad! Thank you for the heads up.
my attempt at reshaping my brand from c-level meme author to sensitive and brutally honest mental health guru is going poorly.
Sorry, <3 u bb PLZ FORGIVE ME
i only like that captain crunch song about bangin the koolaid mans wife. (not sure if accurate)
“Living in a college town with weather that changes its mind more than Jonny Craig changes his status in Dance Gavin Dance”
I just wanted to say I really appreciate this line. Made me lol.
It’s true, upstate NY is a fucking schizophrenic drama queen
Soupy if you’re reading this: I’m going to fuck you up.
PERSONALLY.
their mesh shorts are pretty nice but that other stuff is really kinda weird
love the article, I’m just surprised you didn’t mention the Hank flip flops and Hank towel haha
Oh yeah, the beach package thing? That KILLED me haha
tits or gtfo
you first
Old news is old.
luzly merch is lulzy
first time i saw them i didn’t buy any merch ’cause it all said “i’m not sad anymore’ on the back
Fucking raging harder at dat im not sad anymore faggotry shirt but wutevs i bet this band is laughing all da way to the bank…
wood go out just to hang out n tell u to wing-girl me that nice green-eyed blonde from ithaca or basten or w/e collegetown she be from.. i promise to invite u for our nice racial mixed wedding so u can bust a julia roberts ala my best friends wedding or get drunk n hookup w/ any of my latino cousins of ur pick… Will have 3-leches cake fersure!
n da kickass posts keep on rolling.. onto tha next!
Yeah, they might have weird merch but kids will buy legit whatever the fuck they put up in their merch store. Wood be happy to wing girl to help u acquire fine blonde bitches haha and thank you!
lame post is lame
Agreed. How did you manage to find a girl to write for this blog? Surprised their hasn’t been an abundance of white knighting towards her.
HI ASHLEY IT SURE WOULD BE NICE TO KNOW YOU, I BET YOU SMELL GOOD AND ARE REAL PLEASANT. YOU LIKE POP PUNK TOO? ME TOO, WE HAVE SO MUCH IN COMMON. YOU ARE GOOD AND LOVELY.