Jake and his twin sister, Hannah, were both in a "paramore ripoff band" called "Purple Shanty Shack." At the time, Brendan had a huge crush on Hannah and went to one of their shows to try and get closer to her. Whilst they were on the way to the show, they accidentally stepped into dog shit. When Bren arrived at the show, they made a comment about it during small talk with Hannah. Jake always carried an extra pair of shoes with him in his car, so he brought them out and gave them to Bren for the time being. One day, after school, Bren and Jake decided to hang out with each other at Jake's house. They both quickly bonded over their shared love of music and started hanging out more, jamming with each other. One day, the two of them were rummaging around in Jake's basement and found a book called "Modern Baseball Techniques." This would inspire the name of the band, a majority of their branding, and their compilation cd "Techniques" released in 2014.
After the two of them saw the book, they decided to form the band, performing their first show in one of their friend's garages. The two of them graduated and both moved to Philadelphia, Bren going to Chestnut Hill College and Jake going to Drexel University. At the time, Philidelphia had a young but explosive underground punk/emo scene, and the two of them became very interested in the scene. The two of them recorded their first ep, "The Nameless Ranger" all by themselves and released it on November 11th, 2011. Jake also met Ian Farmer at Drexel, who was a massive ska nerd at the time. The three of them quickly got along with each other, performing their first major show at the "Micheal Jordan House" on the campus of Drexel. The house was named after the fact that admission for any show would be either $3, or a picture of Jordan's face. The music video for their song "The Weekend" was performed in the basement of the Jordan house.
In Autumn 2012, Jake, Bren, and Ian all went into the studio in Drexel to record "Sports", their debut album, which was released on November 27th, 2012. The lyrical content of the album mostly consisted of girls, beer, and sports themselves. Jake played all of the drum parts on the album, as they didn't have a drummer yet. For the shows that they did play, they usually had a friend of the band fill in for them on drums. However, at one of the shows, the trio met and soon became friends with Sean Huber, who was a few years older than the rest of the band and could grow a cool beard. They all got along with each other, and Sean soon joined the band. At these basement shows, many regarded Modern Baseball as one of the greats in the slowly blossoming 4th wave emo scene, also known as the emo revival. The now 4 of them soon became good friends with many members of the scene, most notably Marietta, Old Gray, The Hundred Acre Woods, & Julia Brown. They would eventually release a split with all of them, "Couples Therapy" with Marietta in 2012, "4-Way V-Day Split" which as the title implies, is a 4-way-split between Mobo (which features an acoustic version of "Its Cold Out Here" from "Couples Therapy" called "Phone Tag"), Julia Brown, The Hundred Acre Woods and Old Gray, which came out on Valentine's Day 2013, and another split between just Mobo and The Hundred Acre Woods, also released in 2013.
The band soon embarked on their first full on U.S. tour, playing basement and or bar shows at whatever venue that they could find available. Many other bands from the emo scene around then joined Mobo on tour, such as The Menzingers, Lee Hartney, Ted Nguyent, and Cayetana. Also around this time, the quartet signed to Run for Cover records, gearing up to release their sophmore LP, You're Gonna Miss It All, which soon released on February 11th, 2014. For promotion for this album, Bren said that they would shave the avatar arrow into their hair if the album got over 1,000 pre-orders. It went very much over that, and Bren stuck with the nearly bald haircut for the rest of the Mobo career. Once again the band (mostly) tackled production by themselves, and the album peaked on 97 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart. The band went on another tour, this time with the Wonder Years, later touring Europe with bands such as Knuckle Puck, Foxing, Crying, and Somos.
On October 23rd, 2015, the quartet released "Mobo Presents: The Perfect Cast EP Featuring Modern Baseball", their 2nd EP. The EP is extremely important to the trajectory of Mobo moving foward because of their sound change presented here. Whilst their projects before this were more snarky and lighthearted even through the circumstances and lyrical topics, The Perfect Cast wallowed in the sorrow. This is mostly speculated to be because in mid-2015, Bren was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and attempted to kill themselves. The band at the time, cancelled their tour and would (for the most part) step away from touring as much as they did after this event. The band announced in late 2015 that their third LP, Holy Ghost, began development. In February of the next year, the band announced the release date of May 13th via Run for Cover in the US/Canada, and Big Scary Monsters everywhere else. In May, the record released. The concept of this record was split into half, depending on which member was writing and performing the vocals. Jake took up the songs Holy Ghost to Hiding, with his main lyrical focus being on losing a loved one. Bren took up the other side, from Coding These to Lukens and the closer Just Another Face. Their side mostly focused on depression and death.
In May 2016, the band embarked on their next tour, promoting The Perfect Cast and Holy Ghost with Joyce Manor and Thin Lips. Later in 2016, they would support acts such as The Front Bottoms and Brand New. In December 2016, Jake would start the (at the time) solo side project, Slaughter Beach, Dog. Sean would also start a new band, Steady Hands, where he would provide vocals. In January 2017, Bren would announce on Instagram that they would not be joining the band on their Europe/UK tour, to focus more on their mental health. The month after that, the band would cancel the tour all together, also citing their mental health as a reason for this.
In the meantime, Ian joined Slaughter Beach, Dog, and Sean would continue to focus on Steady Hands, releasing their debut. A few months later, the band announced that they would be going on indefinite hiatus. In a June 2017 interview with Jake, he remarked saying "let's not call it a breakup and make a huge deal about it and have a 'Last Show Ever' or anything like that. Let's just take it easy for now, and if we wake up and want to do it again, then let's do it". They performed a one off show supporting Daniel Johnston on his last US tour, which would also be their final performance as Modern Baseball. In an October 2017 interview, Jake confirmed that the band no longer had plans to perform again.
In the years following the "end" of Modern Baseball, all of the members have been doing their own thing. Sean became a father and continued to work on Steady Hands, releasing 2 albums. Jake and Ian are still working on Slaughter Beach, Dog, and currently have 5 albums and a few eps. Bren has been a different case - for the most part they have been laying low, and doing their own thing. They have been mostly absent on social media, however they did reappear on Instagram for the 10th anniversary of Sports.
Charlie Black
Modern Baseball Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Making up fake lives but nothing like, tangible
Daydreaming while watching the TV
Intricate combos by myself to fall asleep
But alas, none of them come true
No car accidents, plane crashing
No six o'clock news
Just me and my too-far-away TV
(Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Bob, can you hear me?
Sorry, but it looks like we lost reception)
Whoa, tragedy's got my heart a-beatin'
Whoa, rethinking all my days
Whoa, tragedy's got my heart a-screamin'
Take them away, oh just take them away today
Wait a minute, cause I've been living
More like a fucking king without you
And I've been spending all your past feelings
On a bunch of shit that I won't use
Whoa, tragedy's got my heart a-beatin'
Whoa, rethinking all my days
Whoa, tragedy's got my heart a-screamin'
Take them away, oh just take them away today
Whoa, tragedy's got my heart a-beatin'
Whoa, rethinking all my days
Whoa, tragedy's got my heart a-screamin'
Take them away, oh just take them away today
The opening lyrics of Modern Baseball's song "Charlie Black" is a reflection of the singer's life. Despite having a seemingly ideal existence on TV, the person is unhappy and feeling sorry for themselves. The singer indulges in daydreaming and creating fake lives for themselves, but nothing ever seems to come true. The mention of "intricate combos" implies that the singer is trying to devise creative ways to fall asleep, perhaps a technique that they have tried multiple times to no avail. Despite attempting to create exciting scenarios, the singer feels her life is monotonous with no real drama or excitement.
As the song progresses, the singer transitions to questioning their relationship with another person ("Cause I've been living more like a fucking king without you"). The lyrics suggest that the person they were involved with was not good for them and that their absence has positively impacted their life. The chorus is entirely devoted to how the singer feels about tragedy. They feel that their heart is screaming, and they want to get rid of their troubles. It is unclear precisely what tragedy refers to, but it is clear that the singer is expressing their desire to leave behind anything that makes them feel negative.
Overall, "Charlie Black" is a reflection of the singer's dissatisfaction with their life, their failed attempts to create some excitement, and their desire to leave behind any negative feelings.
Line by Line Meaning
I'm pretty good at feeling sorry for myself
I have a tendency to wallow in my own self-pity.
Making up fake lives but nothing like, tangible
I create imaginary scenarios that have no basis in reality.
Daydreaming while watching the TV
I get lost in my thoughts while mindlessly staring at the television.
Intricate combos by myself to fall asleep
I come up with complex ideas to help me fall asleep at night.
But alas, none of them come true
Unfortunately, my elaborate fantasies never actually materialize.
No car accidents, plane crashing
Specifically, I envision things like car accidents and plane crashes.
No six o'clock news
I don't want to see bad things happen to others on the news.
Just me and my too-far-away TV
In reality, I am alone with only my distant television for company.
Whoa, tragedy's got my heart a-beatin'
I am very affected by tragic events.
Whoa, rethinking all my days
I reflect on my entire past in light of such events.
Whoa, tragedy's got my heart a-screamin'
The tragedy has emotionally impacted me deeply.
Take them away, oh just take them away today
I wish I could remove such troubling thoughts immediately.
Wait a minute, cause I've been living
Upon reflection, I realize that I had been living a fulfilling life without these negative thoughts.
More like a fucking king without you
In fact, I was living very well and did not need you.
And I've been spending all your past feelings
I have been wasting so much time dwelling on past emotions.
On a bunch of shit that I won't use
All the time I've wasted has been pointless because it won't help me in any way.
Lyrics © TERRORBIRD PUBLISHING LLC
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Sam Bailey
No matter what I always end up back listening to this band there's something about them it's just brilliant
Jack Skoglund
Still feels like freshmen year miss them
Citka Norg
Best band ever created to be completley honest
Peter Third Music
I like the short talking part after he's says he can't hear TV! It's little funny things like that that make me not just like but love mobo!!
littleb109
GREAT TUNES
CareandCompassion
great comment! srs
Serena Luna
I love modern baseball
L.S. Pig
This band is like the soundtrack to my hometown in Tennessee. I can't explain it but if that place were converted to music format it would probably sound like this.
Kat Rose
woaaah Judge Judy’s got my heart a beatin
CosmicLord91
Thanks for making it get stuck in my head,now I will never will see this song in the same light again 😂😂