Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Trivia Tuesday: Shut Your Mouth and Open Your Eyes

Today's trivia Tuesday is dedicated to AFI's most hardcore album, according to fans.

  • SYMAOYE was released on November 11th, 1997. (Tomorrow's the 12th year anniversary)
  • It was the last full length to feature Mark Stopholese and the first one to not feature bassist Geoff Kresge
  • AFI did not have an official bassist to record this album, so they hired The Force's Hunter Burgan.
  • Hunter was reportedly paid $666 for playing in this album.
  • There are some promotional pictures for SYMAOYE featuring an unknown band member. This is Frank Vicario, a member of Snapcase, who never played a show with them and it's unknown if he recorded anything for the album. Snapcase was going to break up and Frank would join AFI. Snapcase remained together.
  • The album art comes from an old kids magic box.
  • There are many references to the number 3 in this album. There are 4 songs with a reference to number 3 (Three Reasons, Third Season, Three Seconds Notice and Triple Zero), and there are 3 songs between each of them.
  • The Patron Saints and Angels is the working title for The New Patron Saints and Angels. It was changed because the chorus bass was changed without Hunter knowing. Hence "The New...". It's unknown who played the new bass lines on the chorus (Mark most likely).
  • This was the first album to feature an intro as first track.
  • The vinyl version of this record features a cover of The Misfits' "Last Caress". This was the closer of their live shows for most of the SYMAOYE era.
  • As far as we know, the only songs they haven't played live are: pH Low, The New Patron Saints And Angels and Three Seconds Notice.

20 comments:

  1. Although I have no proof of this, I am 99% sure one of my friends had a VHS bootleg of some show on the Shut Your Mouth tour where they played Three Reasons.The "Frank" that you refer to above is Frank Vicario, most known for being in the band Snapcase. In late 1997 or so, Snapcase was possibly going to break up and Frank was going to join AFI as a permanent member. (It was even announced on AFI's site, if I'm not mistaken.) Then Snapcase ended up not breaking up and The Force did, so Hunter joined AFI full time. Some of the details of that might be a little off, but that's definitely who Frank is.These trivia entries are pretty cool. Keep up the good work.

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  2. Real cool facts! Didnt know the one about Patron saints and angels. very cool triva. I enjoyed that.

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  3. Have they ever played Today's Lesson? I dont recall. I know its a cover but still its on the record.

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  4. They've played Today's Lesson at least once, at the "secret" show at San Francisco's Bottom of the Hill in Jan. 2000 where they played as The Boys Who Destroyed The World. This show had a fairly weird setlist which also included a cover of Rancid's "Rejected" as well as (I think) the first time they actually played Totalimmortal. (They didn't play it anytime on the fall 1999 tour that I am aware of.)

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  5. Afi absolutely played pH Low, The New Patron Saints And Angels and Three Seconds Notice(as well as 3 Reasons) as they toured that fall and through 1998. Frank never became a member of the band, not even for a minute, it was totally a rumor.

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  6. And re: my original post, I read "Three Seconds Notice" as "Three Reasons", which was why I mentioned them playing it. Oops.

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  7. Thank you, Brian! You should ask your friend for a copy of that VHS btw :PBlack: Do you have any proof of that?And Jabnews, they played Today's Lesson in February 2007 in one of the FL shows :)

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  8. WHAT^! well fuck me thats awesome. Is there a video or some kind of audio?and Brian thanks for that. They've covered Rancid's "Rejected" in early shows too if I'm not mistaken. Very cool to hear.

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  9. I haven't seen one. They played two dates. One got Triple Zero and the other got Today's Lesson.

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  10. Oh yeah this was the one released on my bday!! WOOT! lol I always mix it up with VPOY for some reason...... O.o Whatever. :D Nice. Didn't know ;ike half of that. :P

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  11. The best AFI record IMO.

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  12. Pablo, Um... yeah I saw them 4 times on that tour and filmed two of the shows on film. It's been awhile but I believe so.

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  13. Angelsineveryone(Brandon)November 10, 2009 at 6:11 PM

    While Davey was recording the 'I QUIT' part of Three Seconds Notice, Davey was clinching his fists so tight that his finger nails cut the inside of his palms and started bleeding so he had to put towels in his hands to keep from cutting himself further. I read it in an old interview.

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  14. Lol thats a greath triviaI love them

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  15. SYMAOYE is probably the most passionate AFI album. Just listen to the effort in Coin Return, Let it Be Broke, and Three Seconds Notice. There's nothing like it. I've seen AFI three times and haven't seen a single song (no pun intended) from it.

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  16. In 2002, Hunter said something to the extent of "To this day, I still don't know how to play the chorus for 'The New Patron Saints and Angels'." so I don't think they could have played it. Frank didn't record anything for the album, Davey said the album was already recorded when they had asked Frank to join when I asked him about it here.

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  17. You should focus one of these trivias on their very early days (like when they just formed), I think it would be really cool and interesting contrast to the album facts. But keep up the work! As usual, I didn't know like 60% of this haha.

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  18. We will try and do that Drew

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  19. Does anyone find it a little funny that this Frank dude has an album called End Transmission out with Snapcase?? Not saying this is relating to AFI, but it's a funny coincidence.

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