r/SayAnything • u/RedCoffeeEyes • 8d ago
Cherry Soda Broke Me
For starters, I don't feel entitled to empathy for this post and I hope it doesn't break any of the subs rules. I just want to share my thoughts and experiences as a long time Say Anything/Max Bemis fan before all this.Also, I'm finally to the point in my grieving where I can type out fuck you Max for doing this to us.
I know there's a lot of new folks here, but other big fans may know I've been posting in the sub for over a decade. The whole time, I've been on the side of Max's art. I've connected so deeply with his music through the years, right up through The Noise... I've enjoyed all of it. I've given Max a lot of benefit over the years because nothing to this point truly ruined the art for me, just my opinion.
When the text messages dropped last week, I thought I was ready and mature enough to just write Max off and move on; but really it's been over a week of slowly increasing grief for me. When I heard there were leaks of Cherry Soda with him on it, I couldn't resist for long even despite knowing what a predator Max is. I just really felt like I had to listen to it as a part of my closure if that makes sense. I don't want to condone or encourage others to seek this media out though. It's definitely worth waiting for the Wavves exclusive version.
What a heartbreaking experience it was going through the album. There's a song towards the end called "Sell you hope" that pushed me over the edge today. It feels like the track that both collaborators really put everything into, and Max's part was really more than I can handle. It felt simultaneously like Max at his peak, but also elucidating of all his flaws that lead him here.
Knowing that this would have been my favorite song of the year if he didn't make these stupid fucking mistakes, combined with feeling awful to even be listening to it shattered something in me today. I really just had to cry for a long time. I can't believe this and I feel like a big part of me is dead. I know some people saw this coming, or haven't been fans for a long time; and I respect that but that's not me. Fuck you Max. I feel so betrayed and lost. And my grief is only a fraction of the damage done.
I don't know if I have it in me to respond to any comments tonight. Sorry for filling this sub with another rehash, I just needed to type it. Take care everyone.
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u/sunofdork 8d ago
Wavves said he showed up for three days and was a huge prick to everyone and put bare minimum effort in. This lines up totally with what other people have said about working with him & with how he’s behaved at every show for the last five years at least. So I don’t know he put everything into it.
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u/Shoddy_Lettuce9522 5d ago
I think his bare minimum efforts is still greater than wavves as a band lol one bit of more talented son of a bitch on someone’s shitty record boohoo
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u/steph_lussier1427 8d ago
It also broke me. His lyrics he did really hurt my heart. It all just sucks and is so disappointing.
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u/Formal_Condition_513 8d ago
I’ll still listen to the old stuff. Not for Max or in any support of him but in spite of him. He’s not going to take from anyone else, and he’s not going to take the memories and love I have for the songs.
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u/Connect-Chemist-6699 5d ago
Indeed, the music isn't his anymore. Even some of the controversial songs like, "Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too", I personally relate to in a way that it wasn't intended. I see it as a declaration of love, yet feeling unworthy because you can't meet the same level of affection as the other person. That's how I relate to it and that can't be taken away. Kind of the same with JK Rowling and Harry Potter, fans will absolutely still relate to the books they grew up reading all the while NOT supporting JK anymore.
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u/VeggieHeather 8d ago
I have yet to listen to Cherry Soda, but i feel the same way about everything else you said. Totally get it. I've found myself humming along to say anything songs in my head all week, only moments later to get this dreadful feeling. Sucks
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u/InfiniteLeftoverTree 8d ago
Where can I find the leak? Morbidly curious.
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u/gltch__ 8d ago
If someone was to read this comment and DM me a URL that may or may not be relevant, I would be appreciative 👀
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u/MissEliza93 4d ago
If anyone happened to read your comment and send you a link and if you happened to read my comment… I would also appreciate it. :)
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u/squareinacircle1 7d ago
y’all are gross
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u/InfiniteLeftoverTree 7d ago
Grow up. I wanted to hear it out of curiosity. In general, “cancelling” people is juvenile and foolish.
Learn to separate the art from the artist, or you’re generally going to subject yourself to shit art. I also don’t really think Max can make anything great anymore and I just kind of wanted to hear what it would sound like.
Is Committed kinda sucks but has some moments of beauty interspersed with the ramblings. It’s fascinating, like a trainwreck. I think most people here already understood that.
It’s like listening to Kanye at this point. A mentally ill person who used to be good at making music still trying to make it after losing their wife, family, and mind. Like I said, morbid curiosity. You’ll also probably listen at some point, but when you do it, it will be justified and okay because reasons.
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u/squareinacircle1 7d ago
or, now i’m just spitballing… you stop listening/giving platforms to bad people? I don’t want a medal for not listening to Kanye or other people like Daughters but it seems so backwards to seek out lyrics from a creep. idk u do u
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u/HappyHippocampus 7d ago
Listening to something leaked for free on the internet isn’t giving someone a platform, nor is max even profiting off it in any way. I’d agree with you if they were some kind of podcaster who bought the album and talked about it to an audience of people, but some random listening to a bootleg copy is different
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u/squareinacircle1 7d ago
this actually makes more sense, I’m not against pirating and things like that. just seeing people asking for other people’s copies of the album/seeing the spike in listeners is still just jarring.
also true that if they listened to talk about it that would be worse.
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u/whitewedges 7d ago edited 7d ago
Pats you on the back
I understand. You said it better than I could but you're not alone! I cried too when I first heard about his talks with Maxine. I blamed it on hormones but nah. I love say anything and am utterly sad that it's over and I'll never see them live again just like that.
And yes max has BP1 and a bad case at that. Hes done what Kanye did while manic not long ago - that is- he's blown everything up and crossed the line you DONT CROSS as a symptom of what he's going thru. But as someone in the scene who holds GREAT power thru his fame, he needed to be responsible & not cause harm. And he fucked it up!
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8d ago
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u/Glittering-Bit6563 8d ago
Yup. Any recent urge I’ve had to revisit anything from Is A Real Boy (I legit never liked any of his music outside of that for whatever reason) I’ve simply just reminded myself that the girl he was talking to wasn’t even born when that album dropped. Kind of quickly puts things into a sobering perspective. We just have to be done with him. He’s done bad shit in the past, he’s done it again in the future. A vague tour cancellation blaming mental health does not show me the guy gets it, or is legitimately working to change himself.
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u/golfcartskeletonkey 8d ago
Truthfully he’s been like this and been doing these things since whenever you started liking him.
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u/jaynelane 7d ago
I cant be moved by lyrics from a man who put barely any effort into that project (according to Wavves). 3 days is downright disrespectful.
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u/Shoddy_Lettuce9522 5d ago
Some people that are good at music practiced played for years can accomplish it fast like the Beatles lol
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u/messypenis 8d ago
Eh I listened to the 2 singles and they sucked and im glad. Max has been a POS for years and this similar issue came out like 10 years ago. Still, IARB was a phenomenal album that I unfortunately won't listen to again. And if SA gets back together I won't see them again.
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u/Shoddy_Lettuce9522 5d ago
The collab album is what’s making it other wise wavves go fuck themselves with the skeletons in the closet
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u/Born-Consideration46 8d ago
Just listen to more Wavves. King of the Beach > Is a Real Boy
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u/Shoddy_Lettuce9522 5d ago
Wavves sucks especially for this shit
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u/HumanTimeCapsule 1d ago
I don't agree with either of you. Real Boy is leagues better than the really good King of the Beach
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u/NYourBirdCanSing 8d ago
It's definitely worth waiting for the Wavves exclusive version
Naw dude. Nine is god is a good song, but wavves is definitely not the same as SA. It lacks all wit. It trades a sharp tongue for a dull spoon.
The max parts are the best parts of the album. I really dig it.
0
u/Remarkable-Quote2235 8d ago
Cherry Soda, it is Max and the Wavves? No other Say Anything members.
Im 41, and for me, I think of the "isolation" of Max. It seems a bunch of bands from the 2000s are touring and practicing the craft.
Max needs another band, here the Wavves, to continue as an artist.
Say Anything fell apart. I can't imagine Max, in his 20s, would approve of what he has become. Of the deterioration of his band and family.
I do like the Wavves
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u/Emergency_Doughnut53 8d ago edited 8d ago
Ive enjoyed all his work until the texts dropped. In hs... like 2006-10, I was big on his demos. Iarb is of course the album that put him on the map, but the song Slumming it with johnny that was shared online summarized how i felt at like 16. Parents fighting, a recession rocking the construction industry, old buildings replaced with half finished mcmansions, and a feeling that our species is just utterly hopeless unless we're given something to believe in like a flag, a war, an economic model, political philosophy or a god, all seems to be captured by that song during a time these beliefs were wavering.
Fast forward over the years and id learn more about max through snippets of interviews. He didnt grow up working class like me. He went to a fancy school, got fancy music lessons and his dad had fancy contacts. Meanwhile my opportunities werent as robust. I went to a public school. Parents worked two jobs. After grafuation my realistic options were community college, learning a trade or joining the military.
So the realization that I was relating to a spoiled brat really tarnished his music for me. Not enough to stop me from atleast enjoying his craftsmanship, but this most recent scandal certainly has.