Beggars Can't Be Choosers

### *Let's make it work this time, ok?*

*Beggars Can't Be Choosers* is the ninth studio album released by *The Dropouts* on December 22nd, 20XX. After the lukewarm reception to *Rager at Jimmy's,* the band wanted to release another big album like *Spirit Weak*. Now being two albums out from it, the band had less of a mountain to get over in terms of besting their last album. And so, to continue the current trend, Nick Barnett pulls from a previous story in his life for the subject matter of this album. Revolving around a rocky relationship Nick had years in the past, he goes over their eventual break up and then their eventual reconciliation and make up, while the presentation of the album presents it in a much more dramatic fashion, with music videos for the album showing a country wide road trip to stop a wedding. The album also mixes with themes that were more present in Nick's current life, dealing with drug and alcohol addictions following the *The Big Party Show for Adults Only!!!* shows. During this time, Nick and the band were getting lots of criticism for his addiction.

While not the biggest album by the band, many songs and moments from the era have become iconic in *The Dropouts* fandom, most notably the music videos for *40oz. On Repeat* and *Beer*, as well as certain performances, like the first live performance of the song *Bad Habits.* Overall, the album did succeed at besting *Rager at Jimmy's*, and is looked back upon as one of the best albums of the *Spirit Weak* era.

## Planning Stages

Following the tours and parties that spun out of *Rager at Jimmy's* releasing, the band was ready to work on what was coming next. Around this time, tensions were rising as Nick Barnett started to gain an alcohol addiction, and other members also spiraling into their own problems that started around the time of *The Big Party Show for Adults Only!!!*. In spite of this, the band still stayed together and the plans for *Beggars Can't Be Choosers* was laid out. The plan was to make another hard hitting album with heavy guitars and fast paced music much like the more popular tracks on *Rager at Jimmy's*, straying away from the stranger and tamer songs like *Lonely Girl* and *Rock The House*. Early on, the decision was made to not use any songs from *Cheer Up!*, and while this promise was kept, there was one song that made it's way onto the album as a re-recorded version from *Party Down!*, that being *The Set Up (You Need This).*

The idea for *Beggars Can't Be Choosers* was chosen very early on, even before the official planning stages had begun, when Nick Barnett witnessed a couple breaking up while leaving a show. It made him reflect on previous relationships, and he decided the next album would be about one of his longest ones. While due to privacy reasons, it's never been made public who this album is about, Nick has stated that it was long before *Cheer Up!* had been put on stage.

With all this in mind, it was decided that the tracklist for the next album would be shorter and more compact than *Rager at Jimmy's*, taking extra care to make sure everything fit and flowed together well. So, Nick took to writing, and with this album not much was let out to other members of the band to make sure that everything fit together well. It was Nick's story and he wanted to write it himself with care. Combining the stories of his previous relationship with the problems he and his friends were facing now, Nick had his story and *Beggars Can't Be Choosers* was officially chosen as the name.

## Production

*Beggars Can't Be Choosers* officially entered production on May 15th, 20XX, a year after the last show for *Rager at Jimmy's* was played. Giving the lackluster response after the previous album, the band wanted to give themselves as much time as possible for the work on this album, and so production was started extra early, giving themselves a December release date.

Nathan Taylor took over as producer after Cory Rosenstock worked as the main producer on the previous album, but he agreed to hand over control after it's lackluster response. At the start of production, the tracklist hadn't been finalized yet, but the beginnings of every track were there and ready. It was early in production too that it was decided that *The Set Up (You Need This)* would return for this album. Nick felt like it fit the exact story that he was telling within this album, and now that they had been shot into much higher heights with the success of *Spirit Weak*, it felt justified to bring it back as they thought many people hadn't heard it on *Party Down!* as many fans cite *Spirit Weak* as their jumping on point for the band.

Presenting the demos for every song he had written for the album, the first phase of production had the band sorting through which songs flowed the best and fit together with each other and the overall story of the album. Following this, whichever songs made the final tracklist that hadn't been fully written were put on the back burner and the first phase of recording started for the finished songs.

The first batch of recordings included the opening track *40oz. On Repeat, The Set Up (You Need This), Trendy, Bad Habits, I Swear It's True,* and *Devotion.* Recording on site at Make Believe Records, the first batch took about one week to fully record.

Following the first batch of recordings, Nathan Taylor started to mix what had already been done, and Nick Barnett had Scott Wilson help finish up the last of the songs that were needed for the album, as Scott was who Nick trusted the most when it came to writing due to their long history writing music together.

Finally after about a month of mixing and writing, the band came together once more to finish up the rest of the recordings and fix anything that needed to be fixed from the first batch of songs.

This second batch included the songs *Beer, Sober, I Just Threw Out The Love Of My Dreams, Getting Up and Leaving,* and finally *West Coast.* Originally, *Devotion* was meant to be the album's closing track, but Nick wanted to add one more song as a sort of epilogue to the story. This lead to *West Coast* being added almost last minute during the second recording session.

### Rising Tensions

*Beggars Can't Be Choosers* was the start of tensions and rifts starting to form between the original line up, after the stress of trying to live up to *Spirit Weak* with their previous album and an increase of partying and drug use after their newfound success and tours for *Rager at Jimmy's,* each member was going through their own various problems that was starting to clash with everyone else's. While certainly not the peak of the original line up's issues during this era, it was the start. In an interview with SMILE PAINT during the release of *Formerly Known As,* Nick Barnett looks back at this time saying this:

"Yeah, I'd say the time that we really were struggling started with *Beggars Can't Be Choosers*. We all still had fun and loved each other while recording the album, but there were certainly moments that pushed us to the edge and had us ready to explode at each other at times. I remember having a big fight with Nathan about the mix of... *I Swear It's True,* I think. Now of course I can't even remember what the hell we could've been arguing about back then."

Despite the stress and fights surrounding the album, eventually the second batch of recordings were finished up and then mixing and finalization went into August of the same year, with small hiatuses being taken from the production side of things as Nathan Taylor dealt with personal issues of his own. *Beggars Can't Be Choosers* had officially finished production even before the album was officially announced, and so with all the extra time they had, the band decided to go all in on promoting it.

## The Road to *Beggars Can't Be Choosers*

Wanting to announce the album in a big fashion, the band took to start the music video for the first single for *Beggars Can't Be Choosers.* Teaming up with a crew of stunt performers and drivers, the music video and single for *40oz. On Repeat* premiered on September 1st, 20XX as a surprise drop, no announcement coming before hand. The video featured a fleet of pick up trucks driving down a deserted road with the band members all standing in the bed of each individual truck, performing the song and starting off the idea of the cross country road trip Nick Barnett had wanted when writing the album.

The day after the music video was released, the band performed the song live on The Talkie McTalkerson show, using a large stage prop of the bed of a pick up truck that Jimmy Rodriguez would play drums on top of, leaving room for Nick Barnett, Scott Wilson, and Nathan Taylor to jump off the front at the beginning of the song. The single was met with universal praise, along with praise for the music video and performance, helping launch the song to the top of the charts and get everyone excited for what the band had coming next. Along with the performance, the band announced the name and cover art for *Beggars Can't Be Choosers* the same night on the Talkie McTalkerson show, cementing the December release date of the album.

Following this, the second single to be released for the album was *Beer,* on October 14th, 20XX. Much like the first single, *Beer* premiered with it's own music video as well, featuring the band all together in the back of one pick up truck, continuing the story and theming found in the music video for *40oz. On Repeat,* but this time at dusk and through what seemed to be a more populated area. The band sings the song together like it's an old drinking song, with only Nick playing guitar during the video. This single was also met with praise and excitement, many noting the guitar solo as one of their favorites from recent memory out of the band's catalogue. The song also became a hit in bars, as it unironically became a very popular drinking song for karaoke nights.

The final single to be released for *Beggars Can't Be Choosers* was *I Swear It's True*, releasing on November 20th, 20XX. And just like the last two singles, it released with a music video. Featuring Nick Barnett in a set up self recording as if he was sending a message to someone, the music video features him singing the song as the video glitches and cuts in and out to the other members of the band playing their instruments and their parts, and the video ending with Nick trying to figure out what was going on, and the camera falling over and cutting out. *I Swear It's True* was the least popular of the three singles, but many fans appreciated it showing the variety of the songs that were going to be on *Beggars Can't Be Choosers.* And while *I Swear It's True* was a bit slower than the first two singles, the distorted and heavy guitars and matching compressed and distorted vocals made it fit in well with the previous singles and provided a good basis of what the final album would sound like.

Finally, leading up to the release date, the last episode of the Talkie McTalkerson show before the holiday season hiatus featured a telethon performance by all of the show's musical friends, and for this season's, lead up to the release date of *Beggars Can't Be Choosers.* And so after having multiple different bands play all day, including a performance by *California Kids* early in the night that featured Nick Barnett coming on as a guest, at midnight *The Dropouts* performed *Beggars Can't Be Choosers* in it's entirety, coinciding with the official release of the record. Dressed with Santa hats and tinsel wrapped around their instruments, at the end of the set, the band shouted out "Merry Christmas!" and *Beggars Can't Be Choosers* was finally out as a Christmas present for all fans of the band.

## Reception

*Beggars Can't Be Choosers* officially released on December 22nd, 20XX. After it's long marketing cycle, many fans were extremely excited for the album and lead to a big bump in sales coming off the initial performance of the album on The Talkie McTalkerson Show. Many critics agreed that this album was indeed a step up from *Rager at Jimmy's*, feeling much more unified and put together, but due to it's shorter tracklist and the inclusion of an already released song *The Set Up (You Need This),* it still wasn't the next big project that upstaged *Spirit Weak*, like many were still waiting for. The album received many high end ratings, getting around 70-80s from most of the reviews. The story that Nick wanted to tell was very easy to follow throughout the album, with many fan websites and fourms discussing the plot of the album, going from the happier and upbeat songs like *The Set Up (You Need This)* and *Trendy* and then into the slower, heavier, and more dramatic songs like *Bad Habits, Sober,* and *I Just Threw Out The Love of My Dreams.* Many fans were also happy to hear Nikki Brown taking the wheel on vocals during *I Just Threw Out The Love of My Dreams.* The excitement and overall success of the album was enough for the band and this even lead to another full scale tour like the one for *Spirit Weak*.

While not as big as a tour as *Spirit Weak* had, the tour for *Beggars Can't Be Choosers* did take some notes from their last big tour, keeping in line with stage decoration, bringing that road trip aesthetic that had started with their first performance of *40oz. On Repeat,* the truck bed centerpiece made it's way to each of the performances.

*Beggars Can't Be Choosers* performed great, and continued the band's success and continued to bring in money for Make Believe Records as well, but behind the scene issues between the band members, missing tour dates, and the drug use and alcohol issues that were starting during the album's lifespan started the band down a rocky path that would eventually explode.

## Tracklist

1. *40oz. On Repeat -* Written by Nick Barnett
2. *The Set Up (You Need This) -* Written by Nick Barnett, Scott Wilson and Jimmy Rodriguez
3. *Trendy -* Written by Nick Barnett
4. *Beer* - Written by Nick Barnett and Scott Wilson
5. *Bad Habits -* Written by Nick Barnett
6. *Sober -* Written by Nick Barnett and Scott Wilson
7. *I Just Threw Out The Love Of My Dreams -* Written by Nick Barnett, Scott Wilson, and Nikki Brown
8. *I Swear It's True* - Written by Nick Barnett
9. *Getting Up and Leaving* - Written by Nick Barnett and Scott Wilson
10. *Devotion -* Written by Nick Barnett
11. *West Coast* - Written by Nick Barnett and Scott Wilson

## Fun Facts

* Originally, the album artwork was going to be a scene from the movie *The Graduate,* but due to licensing and copyright issues, it had to be changed.
* During the premiere performance of the album on The Talkie McTalkerson Show, sleigh bells were added to many of the songs on the album, despite not being present in the studio version. This was just to fit the Christmas theme of the show.
* Nick Barnett has stated if not for the state of mind he was in during the time of production, *Beggars Can't Be Choosers* would be one of his favorite records from the *Spirit Weak* era.
* The band was approached by a theater company after the record's release, asking about doing a show following the plot of the album, somewhat in the vein of *Cheer Up!.* While plans fell through, it did inspire Nick Barnett's next project, *Far Away.*
* While in the studio version of *Trendy,* the chorus sections sound like the band just shouting nonsense, in later performances and recordings this was changed to the lyrics "One of us!"
* There was almost a music video made for *Sober,* which would've cut between a young version of Nick Barnett and present day Nick, both arguing with someone off camera, which would eventually be revealed as a bottle of alcohol. The plans fell through after *I Swear It's True* was chosen as the final single for the album.