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.
Re-Do
Modern Baseball Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
replace the voices in my head with blind innocence
I wanna complete re-do, maybe change my name
Report the loses grab the claim, it's a shame, it's such a shame
We're pissing away our time 'cause we're pissing away these beers
No monumental moment ever came from saying
"Come on dude, just take one more shot"
Try to, try to forget, that your bones will dismantle
And the dreams you had they'll collide with time
Your unrequited love for life will surely...
Halt that I'm thinking way too much at night
Maybe I could just move away or go extinct like triceratops
But I love loving: watching movies, sitting back and also breathing
My family and friends would be crushed, but is it enough
(No, it's not enough)
The "future freaks me out" but I guess I could just
Curl up in a ball and think
I won't be breaking any barriers
So I'll keep thinking the "future freaks me out"
I won't judge you if you think the same
So let's keep thinking:
"Well the future, the future freaks us out!"
The song Re-Do by Modern Baseball speaks about a sense of exhaustion and dissatisfaction with life. The singer wants to start over and forget about everything that has happened in their life. They yearn for a do-over, a chance to change their name, and earn the claim they should have gotten in the first place. However, the singer reflects on how they are merely wasting their time drinking beer and reminiscing about the past, rather than making something meaningful and productive. The lyrics "No monumental moment ever came from saying 'Come on dude, just take one more shot'" highlight this point.
The second verse speaks about the inevitability of mortality and how everyone's dreams will eventually collide with time. The singer feels that they think too much at night and that they have been unable to fully enjoy life. They consider running away or giving up completely, but they love simple pleasures like movies and spending time with loved ones. The singer reflects on how their desire to start over and forget everything is not enough, and they are not ready to make such drastic changes in their life.
In the end, the singer acknowledges that they won't be breaking any barriers, and that the uncertainty of the future frightens them. The singer consoles themselves by accepting that they are not alone in feeling this way and that many others feel the same. The lyrics reflect a sense of resignation and acceptance amidst the chaos of life.
Line by Line Meaning
I wanna start from the top, maybe like a do-over
I want to start all over again, like a clean slate
replace the voices in my head with blind innocence
Change my perspective to that of someone who doesn't know any better
I wanna complete re-do, maybe change my name
I want to start again in a different way by changing my name or my situation
Report the loses grab the claim, it's a shame, it's such a shame
I need to take responsibility for my losses and try to make the best of what I have now
We're pissing away our time 'cause we're pissing away these beers
We're wasting our time and potential by drinking and partying too much
No monumental moment ever came from saying "Come on dude, just take one more shot"
There's nothing monumental or significant about encouraging someone to drink more
Try to, try to forget, that your bones will dismantle
Try to forget that your body will eventually deteriorate and become weak
And the dreams you had they'll collide with time
Your dreams and aspirations will eventually fade away as time goes on
Your unrequited love for life will surely...Halt that I'm thinking way too much at night
Your unfulfilled yearning for life will stop you from sleeping soundly at night
Maybe I could just move away or go extinct like triceratops
I could run away from my problems or disappear completely
But I love loving: watching movies, sitting back and also breathing
I enjoy simple pleasures like watching movies and breathing
My family and friends would be crushed, but is it enough (No, it's not enough)
The love I have for my loved ones may not be enough to keep me going
The "future freaks me out" but I guess I could just Curl up in a ball and think
The fear of the unknown future scares me, but I could just isolate myself and think about it instead
I won't be breaking any barriers So I'll keep thinking the "future freaks me out"
I won't be making any groundbreaking achievements so I'll continue to fear the future
I won't judge you if you think the same So let's keep thinking: "Well the future, the future freaks us out!"
I won't judge anyone who shares the same fear of the future, so let's all think about how the future scares us
Contributed by Cole I. Suggest a correction in the comments below.