The Hands That Thieve | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | April 30, 2013 | |||
Recorded | 2012-2013 | |||
Genre | Ska punk, punk rock | |||
Length | 50:04 | |||
Label | Pentimento, Victory | |||
Streetlight Manifesto chronology | ||||
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Singles from The Hands That Thieve | ||||
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The Hands That Thieve is the fifth studio album by the American ska-punk band Streetlight Manifesto. It was their first studio album since 2010's 99 Songs of Revolution: Vol. 1, and their first album of original material since 2007's Somewhere in the Between. In addition to the Streetlight album, an acoustic version of the album (titled The Hand That Thieves) was intended to be released by Toh Kay, but was cancelled. [1] The album was originally set to be released in the summer of 2012, but was pushed back several times due to label problems and rewrites, to its eventual release date of April 30, 2013. [2] [3] The album has received generally favorable critical response.
Aggregate scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 77/100 [4] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [5] |
Punknews.org | [6] |
Popmatters | 7/10 [7] |
Alternative Press | [8] |
Sputnikmusic | 4.2/5 [9] |
The band completed the album in mid-January, [10] and it was announced on February 15 that the album would be finally released on April 30. [11] [12] The band also planned to produce a live EP to compensate for the various delays, which the band claimed would be "an exclusive RISC Store gift and...the only professional live Streetlight Manifesto recording to date." [10] On April 1, the band released the first full song from the album "The Three of Us". On April 19 the album was leaked on many sites. [13] On April 30, the album was released as planned, but due to conflicts with Victory Records, the band was prevented from releasing the album and fulfilling preorders from their own website. [3] There were also claims that the live EP was canceled due to legal issues. [ citation needed ]
In May 2014, fans who originally preordered the album through the RISC Store received a "mystery gift" in lieu of the actual album, due to Victory Records not releasing any physical copies to the band. Fans received a white Digipak with a photograph of an orange tabby cat on its front cover and booklet cover, with no text or identifiers other than the track listing on the back cover. The booklet contains the lyrics to all ten songs, photographs of the band, and Aesop's Fable The Dog and the Wolf on its final page. The Digipak contained a blank CD-R with nondescript artwork of a barren tree, with the band stating on their Facebook page:
"You can use the blank cd to store your digital files, as a coaster, or even to burn your favorite songs. Any songs you want to put on it, you can put on it. You can put any amount of songs on it, as long as that amount will fit on a standard CD-R. You can burn 2 songs, 30 songs or even 10 songs, it's up to you. You can find music to burn onto the cd on the internet, or even ask fellow fans of bands you like to share their favorite songs so you can burn them, as long as you do so legally, or whatever. Then when you're done burning the cd (it takes a few minutes, but it's really quite simple to do), you can put the cd on your shelf, in your car, wherever. There are no words on the cd (besides the poems), no bar codes, no logos, no mean-hearted little dogs, nothing. It's just a blank cd that we're providing for you, along with a booklet of poetry and photography." [14]
All tracks are written by Tomas Kalnoky.
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "The Three of Us" | 5:18 |
2. | "Ungrateful" | 4:31 |
3. | "The Littlest Things" | 4:50 |
4. | "The Hands That Thieve" | 5:40 |
5. | "With Any Sort of Certainty" | 6:10 |
6. | "If Only for Memories" | 5:28 |
7. | "They Broke Him Down" | 5:20 |
8. | "Toe to Toe" | 4:22 |
9. | "Oh Me, Oh My" | 3:45 |
10. | "Your Day Will Come" | 4:44 |
Total length: | 50:04 |
Chart (2013) | Peak position |
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US Billboard 200 [15] | 95 |
US Billboard Independent Albums [15] | 21 |
US Billboard Top Rock Albums [15] | 26 |
The Hand That Thieves | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | April 30, 2013 [nb 1] | |||
Recorded | 2012-2013 | |||
Genre | Folk, acoustic | |||
Length | 53:00 | |||
Label | Pentimento [17] | |||
Toh Kay chronology | ||||
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In addition to the Streetlight Manifesto album, an acoustic version of the album titled The Hand That Thieves was planned to be released by Toh Kay and his acoustic trio. Tomas Kalnoky stated, "The albums may have the same song titles, lyrics and chord progressions, but the similarities end there. The album has a laid back, late night, lazy feel - something to put your feet up to, when you're not quite in the mood for the ball of frenetic energy that is Streetlight Manifesto." [18] This album, along with the Streetlight version, was pushed back due to rewrites and label issues, and was planned to be released on April 30, 2013. On April 15, Tomas released his first full song from the album "With Any Sort Of Certainty" along with a music video animated by Scott Benson. However, the video has since been taken down by Victory Records. On April 21, 2013, according to Kalnoky's Twitter account, Victory records successfully had the Toh Kay version of the album removed from Amazon. [19] On April 30, Kalnoky announced that the Toh Kay version of the album would not be released in the foreseeable future due to legal problems with Victory Records. According to the band's website, Victory Records had given Streetlight the choice between pulling the Toh Kay record completely or releasing it through Victory Records. The band and Kalnoky, who have shared a notoriously turbulent relationship with the record label, decided to cancel the record. [3] [20] Although the album was cancelled, it was leaked on its expected release day. CDs including the album and Toh Kay's music video of "With Any Sort Of Certainty" appeared during "The End of the Beginning" tour. The CD's metadata lists the title of the disc as "Fuck Victory" and a "FuckVictory.txt" file is included on the disc, with a message from "the Punk Rock Pirate". However, after their legal troubles were settled with Victory Records, they now plan to release the album under Tomas' own Pentimento Music Company. A release date is not yet known. [21]
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "The Three of Us" | 4:55 |
2. | "Ungrateful" | 6:04 |
3. | "The Littlest Things" | 4:52 |
4. | "The Hands That Thieve" | 4:54 |
5. | "With Any Sort of Certainty" | 6:56 |
6. | "If Only for Memories" | 5:44 |
7. | "They Broke Him Down" | 5:20 |
8. | "Toe to Toe" | 4:21 |
9. | "Oh Me, Oh My" | 4:10 |
10. | "Your Day Will Come" | 5:44 |
Total length: | 53:00 |
Streetlight Manifesto is an American ska punk band from New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States, formed in 2002. They released their first album, Everything Goes Numb, which was distributed by Victory Records, on August 26, 2003. The band headlined and sold out their first concert at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey on December 9, 2003. Several of Streetlight Manifesto's members were well known in the New Jersey third wave ska community for their roles in past ska punk bands from that area, primarily Kalnoky's Catch 22 and fellow New Jersey band One Cool Guy.
Catch 22 is an American ska punk band from East Brunswick Township, New Jersey. The band was formed in 1996 by guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Tomas Kalnoky, who left the band in 1998 and later formed Streetlight Manifesto. Founding members still in the band are vocalist/saxophonist Ryan Eldred, trumpeter Kevin Gunther and drummer Chris Greer.
Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution, or BOTAR, is a musical collective including influences from ska, punk, classical, and eastern European music, entirely in an acoustic format including classically trained musicians. It is composed of former Catch 22 members Tomas Kalnoky and Jamie Egan, in addition to Nick Afflitto, Marcy Ciuffreda, Matt Dannenberg, Rachel Goldstein, Layton Hayes, John Paul Jones, Achilles Kalnoky, Paul Lowndes, Chris Paszik, Mark Rendeiro, Dan Ross, Pete Sibilia, Shane Thomson, and Natalia Ushak.
Tomas Kalnoky is a Czechoslovakia-born American musician. He is the lead singer/guitarist and songwriter of the bands Streetlight Manifesto and Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution, and goes by the pseudonym Toh Kay as a solo performer. He is the former lead singer/guitarist for 3rd-wave ska band Catch 22, but left the band after making only one album to attend Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia, for visual art. According to the booklet of Somewhere in the Between, Kalnoky attended Rutgers University. He is the owner of Pentimento Music Company, a record company.
Big D and the Kids Table is a ska punk band formed in October 1995 in Boston, Massachusetts when its members converged in college. Their first release was on their own Fork in Hand Records label, but have since teamed with Springman Records and SideOneDummy. The band has been noted for its strict DIY work ethic, such as engineering, producing, and releasing their own albums and videos and self-promotion of their own shows.
Everything Goes Numb is the debut studio album by American ska punk band Streetlight Manifesto, released on August 26, 2003. It garnered critical acclaim, with critics commenting on the quality of the band's lyrics and their powerful energy. The album has since acquired a cult following among fans of the Third Wave Ska movement. This is the first full-length album frontman and vocalist Tomas Kalnoky participated in since leaving the ska-punk band Catch 22. The track "If and When We Rise Again" quotes the melody of Hungarian Dance No. 5 by Johannes Brahms.
Keasbey Nights is the debut album by the American ska punk band Catch 22, released on March 24, 1998, by Victory Records. It is the only album by the band's original lineup, as singer/songwriter/guitarist Tomas Kalnoky, bassist Josh Ansley, and horn player James Egan all left the group later that year. Kalnoky re-recorded the entire album in 2006 with his new band Streetlight Manifesto in response to Victory's plan to re-release it. The album's title references Keasbey, New Jersey, an unincorporated area within the Woodbridge Township of Middlesex County.
Alone in a Crowd is an album by Catch 22, and the first release featuring the band's second lineup. It was recorded in June 2000.
Live! is Catch 22's first full-length live release, although fan-recorded live tracks were bonus features on several previous albums. Roughly a third of the album is devoted to Keasbey Nights, another third to Alone in a Crowd, and the remainder to Dinosaur Sounds. A bonus DVD includes footage from the concert, as well as a variety of extras. However, former frontman Tomas Kalnoky is conspicuously absent from the footage of the band's early days.
Victory Records is a Chicago-based record label founded by Tony Brummel. It operates a music publishing company called "Another Victory, Inc." and is the distributor of several record labels. It has featured many prominent artists including Thursday, Hawthorne Heights, Silverstein, Taking Back Sunday, Bayside, Streetlight Manifesto, and A Day to Remember.
Joshua David Ansley was the bass player for the band HURT and the ska bands Catch 22 and Streetlight Manifesto. Raised in Old Bridge Township, New Jersey, United States, Ansley was a Ford model and an actor as a tween/preteen. He was in Social Butterfly, an alternative band that also featured future HURT guitarist and bandmate Paul Spatola. Then he joined the pop-punk band The Youth Ahead before graduating high school and eventually joined the influential ska-punk group Catch 22. Josh went to Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University to study acting and also attended the London Academy of Theatre at The Globe. While in London he wrote a play in Iambic Pentameter called Cirque de Lumiere which he later produced back at home. He took off a year of school to tour with the band Catch 22. He played a fretless bass when he started but later for Streetlight Manifesto, he played a five-string bass. Ansley left Catch 22 a few months after the original release of Keasbey Nights in order to finish his degree. After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre, he rejoined with Tomas Kalnoky to form Streetlight Manifesto. He played with them for a while and recorded bass on the album Everything Goes Numb, released on Victory Records and the RISC Group, before later leaving to move to Los Angeles; he was then replaced by Chris Paszik.
Westbound Train is a ska band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 2001. Their name originates from the Dennis Brown hit song by the same name.
Somewhere in the Between is the third studio album by American ska punk band Streetlight Manifesto.
Kay Kay and His Weathered Underground is an indie band started by Kirk Huffman and Kyle O'Quin of Gatsbys American Dream. Like Gatsbys, the band is influenced by a wide variety of musical genres. Though the band only has three official members, they have been known to perform with as many as 11 additional musicians on stage.
The Supervillains is a five-piece reggae, ska/punk band from St. Cloud, Florida. The band has released nine studio albums.
99 Songs of Revolution: Vol. 1 is the fourth studio album by the American ska punk band Streetlight Manifesto, released March 16, 2010. It was proposed to be the first part of a multi-album cover songs project by several associated acts including Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution, although no other parts have been released as of 2022.
You By Me is a series of split albums featuring Tomas Kalnoky, best known as the lead singer of Streetlight Manifesto. The first release, Vol. 1, was released on November 16, 2010, through Kalnoky's Pentimento Music Company, with the second, Vol. 2, released on August 12, 2014.
Pentimento Music Company is an American independent record label founded by Streetlight Manifesto frontman Tomas Kalnoky. Pentimento was launched in 2007 to re-release A Call to Arms, the 2002 debut EP from Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution. Pentimento has since released albums related to Dan Potthast and Tomas Kalnoky and their respective bands. While Streetlight Manifesto was signed to Victory Records, Pentimento was responsible for the vinyl release of the band's 2010 album, 99 Songs of Revolution: Volume 1, which is possibly due to a deal in which Pentimento and Victory "co-release project-type records." In 2011, Pentimento signed Indiana-based indie rock band Rodeo Ruby Love. In 2017, after legal disputes with Victory Records were settled, Streetlight Manifesto is now fully signed to Pentimento.
Streetlight Lullabies is a full-length studio album by Toh Kay, released November 22, 2011. The album features 10 acoustic solo versions of Streetlight Manifesto songs.
Lionize is an American rock band based in Montgomery County, Maryland. The sound of the band is rooted in hard rock and heavy metal, but they frequently experiment with varying sounds, such as reggae, dub music, go-go, and funk. The band line-up consists of Chris Brooks, Nathan Bergman, and Henry Upton.