There are moments in life where a certain situation transforms you back to a very specific time and place. Plain and simple, it’s the act of nostalgia. There is such an emotional investment that we, as humans, put into nostalgia. For me, music has always been that thread that intertwines the current and the memories of the past.
One of those musical cornerstones of nostalgia for me surrounds Welcoming Home the Astronauts by Flickerstick. For those unfamiliar, become familiar. The Denton-turned-DFW band got their first break as one of the contestants on VH1s 2000/2001 Bands On the Run, one of the grandfathers of reality-style shows. After winning the contest the band signed a record deal with Epic Records, re-released WHTA (the original being released on 226 Records in 2000), and saw “Beautiful” become their debut single, getting picked up on Top 40 and alternative radio, VH1, MTV, and the likes plus hitting hit no.1 overseas. The test markets told Epic that WHTA was a 4-5 single album with off-the-chart potential. As the band is truly on the way up to becoming the next big thing in alternative rock, 9/11 happened. As that day changed the world we once knew, it also changed the trajectory of Flickerstick.
As Brandin, lead singer of the band, stated in a podcast a few years back, the band was set to play their biggest show to date that evening, a sold out show at Irving Plaza in lower Manhattan. The new president of Epic was set to be at the show along with a plethora of staff who were working on the album, some of them seeing Flickerstick live for the first time. The show at Irving Plaza on 9/11 was cancelled, the band kept with it, staying on tour and playing in Jersey on 9/12. From there, the wheels just fell off the momentum that was built. A month later, the bands A&R guy got fired from the label, the next video shoot for their follow up single, “Coke”, was postponed by the label, then the single release of “Coke” to radio got pushed back (and eventually never released). At some point in 2002 the band and Epic parted ways. Sidenote: the bands tour manager caught some pretty haunting pictures of 9/11 with his disposable camera.
Welcoming Home the Astronauts (Epic Records Version), for the first time in TWENTY years, is officially “released” again and available on streaming services and for purchase on the likes of iTunes. WHTA remains one of the most slept on alternative rock albums of the 2000s for my money. While my default preference is always going to be the 226 Records version (the only version I owned on CD, multiple copies of over the years.. and by far the better version of “Coke”) the Epic version kept the same nuts and bolts, albeit with some juiced up production, a few lyrical changes, the addition of “Smile”, and some added backing VOXs. All this to say, yesterday was truly an “epic” day.
Back to the nostalgic piece: I remember seeing the band live for the first time in June of 2001 at KJ103’s Summerfest and ever since that moment, I was absolutely hooked. I was lucky enough to see the band upwards of eight times prior to their final shows, and still rank their live show as a top 5 live show i’ve ever seen in my life. I live and breathe music and have worked in the music industry for 10+ years now, seeing and working with some of the biggest acts and festivals the world has to offer - but I still think back to Flickerstick and the awe-inspiring live show experience I had a teenager in 2001 and later in life at the Granada Theater, Aardvark, and similar venues in/around DFW.
For those unfamiliar, give WHTA a spin. Transport yourself back to the late 90s/early 00s when bands like Third Eye Blind, Splender, Tonic, Nine Days, The Calling, and Dishwalla ruled alt-rock radio and crossed over into Top 40 land and tell me that what you hear on WHTA is not a perfect fit for major success. It’s a sad story of ‘what could have been’, but for those of us who were lucky enough to ride the wave back in the early 00s, it’s a story of ‘what was and still very much is’.
For those familiar, enjoy the return to innocence. Enjoy hearing the album like it was the first time all over, twenty years later. The album saw a shining moment yesterday, cracking the top 200 albums on iTunes and steadily riding in the Top 100 alternative albums on iTunes still to this very moment. The tragic story, while still tragic, is at least formulating a happier ending two decades later, and the fact that people still care is currency enough for Flickerstick to pump their chest out a bit larger today and take comfort in knowing that their legacy lives on.
