Music / Marianas Trench

From left to right: Ian Casselman, Matt Webb, Josh Ramsay, Mike Ayley

A Canadian pop-punk band, consisting of lead singer Josh Ramsay, guitarist Matt Webb, bassist Mike Ayley, and drummer Ian Casselman. So far they have released five albums, and are pretty well known within their home country.

Discography:

Marianas Trench

• Fix Me (2006)
• Masterpiece Theatre (2009)
• Ever After (2011)
• Astoria (2015)
• Phantoms (2019)

Josh Ramsay (solo)

• The Josh Ramsay Show (2022)

Matt Webb (solo)

• Coda and Jacket (2011)
• Right Direction (2014)

The band and their songs provide examples of...

• Abhorrent Admirer: In the video for "Desperate Measures", Josh gets a really cute female one, who follows him through various scenes—much to his annoyance.

• Bland-Name Product: The “Gapp” commercial in the music video for “Celebrity Status”.
• Break-Up Song: "Lover Dearest", "Fallout", "So Soon"
• Concept Album: All of their albums starting with Masterpiece Theatre are concept albums to some extent, featuring lengthy opening and closing tracks to introduce and conclude the story respectively and a lot of lyrical and musical Continuity Nods. Ever After even had an actual story in the liner notes of the CD, where Josh gets stuck in a fairytale land called Toyland, battles an evil queen, falls in love, and tries to find a way back to the real world.
• Concept Video: Pretty much all of their music videos have a narrative of some sort.
• Continuity Porn: They really like reusing lyrics and melodies from their older songs, often in the last song on the album. For example, “Masterpiece Theatre III” takes at least one line from every other song on the album, and the bridge of “Dearly Departed” is made up almost entirely of the titles of a dozen of their older songs.
• Destructive Romance: "Lover Dearest". Josh wrote it for a rehab exercise, suggesting participants write a love letter to their drug of choice.
• Epic Rocking: Starting with Masterpiece Theatre, their albums have opening and closing tracks that are generally in the 6-7 minute range, and often feature some lyrics from their older songs and a variety of complex melodies and harmonies. “Masterpiece Theatre III” (6:41) and “End of an Era” (7:40) are some good examples.
• Fading into the Next Song: There are no breaks between the songs on Ever After, making it a gapless album.

• If I Can't Have You…: Said word-for-word in the bridge of “Toy Soldiers”.
• Indecipherable Lyrics: Parts of the pre-chorus to "Celebrity Status" and the chorus to "Vertigo" are almost completely indecipherable without checking the lyric booklet. ("Ditzy oven mike... something some... VERTIGO!")
• In-Joke: The beginning of the "Celebrity Status" video includes what looks like a That '70s Show take-off in which Josh falls over a couch and yells, "Pomegranate?! Aw, man!" According to one Behind-the-Scenes video, this was reference to a stay at a lousy hotel the band had where one of their drunk neighbors kept retelling a joke where the punchline was "Pomegranate."
• Large Ham: Everyone in the band has their moments, with Mike and Josh being the worst offenders. The best examples are in the videos for "Decided to Break It", "Celebrity Status", and their various behind-the-scenes videos.
• Longest Song Goes Last: Masterpiece Theatre ends with "Masterpiece Theatre III" (6:40), a medley of all the other songs on the album. Ever After ends with "No Place Like Home" (6:41), and Astoria" ends with "End of an Era" (7:40). Phantoms'' ends with "The Killing Kind" (6:46).

• Lyrical Dissonance: "Here's to the Zeros" sounds like it would be a rallying underdog song with a catchy beat, but in addition to a snarky Take That! directed at the success of "Call Me Maybe", there's also some self-deprecating humor aimed at lead singer Josh Ramsay himself.
  Hey kids, do you wanna do what I do?
  I got sick, got kicked outta high school
  Just then, I kinda got arrested
  With a car and a chase and a drug test.
• Lyrics/Video Mismatch: "Say Anything" is about self-harm and self-loathing, but the video is a hammy story about Josh selling the embarrassing secrets of his bandmates to the press. "Shake Tramp" is about what may or may not be an abusive relationship, and the video is... about Josh hallucinating being a smooth operator? “Don’t Miss Me?” Follows the same premise as well. For a serious ballad about missing a lover, the video instead is about... puppies?
• Mr. Fanservice: Josh comes out in in his underwear and a shirt in one scene of the "Desperate Measures" video. The whole band also used to perform that song live in the same outfits.
• Mythology Gag: In "Here's To The Zeroes":
  They say "Where's the next hit baby?"
  God, how could I top Call Me Maybe?
• Necktie Leash: At the end of the "Cross My Heart" video.
• Oblivious to Love: The girl in the "Cross My Heart" video. Josh spends the whole video following just behind her, singing to her, even forming a parade and she doesn't notice until the end of the song because she had headphones in the whole time.

• Orange/Blue Contrast: The “This Is War” music video has blue and orange as the signature colours of the boy and girl gangs, respectively, which is based on the hair colours of the gang leaders—Josh has his usual blue streak and the female lead is a redhead. Most of their “fighting” is just each gang trying to paint their own colour on the other.
• Raw Eggs Make You Stronger: They feature in the Training Montage of the “Decided to Break It” video.
• Running Gag: Josh is a really, really, really bad dancer. Check it out in the "Shake Tramp" video.

• Shout-Out:
  • In "Pop 101", the lyrics directly reference The Black Eyed Peas, Imogen Heap, and Mumford & Sons and indirectly reference Justin Bieber. The music video references Kesha and Robin Thicke, among others. Given the sarcastic tone of the song, it may qualify as more of a Take That!.
  • "Here's to the Zeros" mentions "Call Me Maybe", for which Josh Ramsay wrote the music.
  So they say, "Where's the next hit, baby?"
  God how could I top "Call Me Maybe"?
  • The video for "Desperate Measures" references Risky Business and Toy Story.

• Softer and Slower Cover: They did one of these for "Cross My Heart".

• Stalker with a Crush:

• This trope is used again in "Toy Soldiers" with the chorus repeating "I'll follow you like toy soldiers." The song was apparently written about a creepy fan.

• Title Track: Ever After and Astoria have them as the first song of the album, which sets up the story or theme for the rest of it. Masterpiece Theatre was almost an example, since it features three songs called "Masterpiece Theatre I", "Masterpiece Theatre II", and "Masterpiece Theatre III".

• Training Montage: In the music video for “Decided to Break It”, where the band undergoes intense training to prepare for a sack race against the notorious Spider Pirates.
• [Trope Name]: "Pop 101", a pop song where the lyrics are just listing the pop-music clichés that they're using.
• Weight Woe: Josh Ramsay has struggled with eating disorders, and the song "Skin & Bones" is about this.
• Yandere: "Toy Soldiers" is from the point of view of someone violently obsessed with the object of their affection.
  This'll hurt less if you just submit
  If I can't have you, no one can...

---