September 2006
Sep 29, 2006
NOFX got teeth
On the heels of today’s wonderful news that we are as barbaric as those we wish to fight, I give you one of the few good things to come out of the last six or so years. Music, it seems, finally got its teeth back. I loved the Nineties but brooding music about how horrible it is to be alive gets old quickly after age 14. I never understood the point of music that had as a prerequisite previously feeling the pain of loss to truly understand and embrace it.
“You have to go through a really awful breakup to understand just how good Elliot Smith’s music was.”
“Hmm, that seems like a rather large commitment. I’d rather save the emotional trauma and $11.98.”
Where was I? Right. Teeth. NOFX.
I was not a NOFX fan. I had bought Punk in Drublic but never found it all that interesting. It was funny, but not…I don’t know, engaging? It just sounded like KISS without the makeup. “Let’s party all the time and laugh at everyone else who has to work…. but use that money to buy my album so I can continue to mock you.”
Then they released Wolves in Wolves Clothing in April. I didn’t buy it. My wife did. Not having ever heard about them, all she said was, “I think this might be good.” Holy hell, was she right.
The album reflects the anger and frustration of an increasingly more marginalized majority of the public living in the age of perpetual-terror.
It’s like Colbert at the Correspondent’s Dinner…in music form.
Sep 29, 2006
We’re going to do what, now?
So my country now allows torture. I am so proud.
At the very least, my senators took a stand against it. That’s something, but it might label them “unlawful combatants” as well.
Vote blue. This is ridiculous.
Sep 28, 2006
Mostly greater than Jake.
I got to see Less Than Jake this past summer at the Warped tour. It was 100+ degrees out in the middle of a airfield that used dirt as tarmac. The bulk of the tour consisted of bands that, sadly to say, more or less sounded the same. The only angst seemed to be derived by each band realizing that hair colors were all that separated them from each other. ( Notable exceptions include The Bouncing Souls, Joan Jett, Helmet and NOFX.)
Then there’s Less Than Jake who I had mostly forgotten about since “Hello Rockview.” In a day that had most singers trying to excite the crowd with the time worn “How’s everybody doin’?”, Less Than Jake (within the first two songs) offered a ‘piss off’ to another band that left the tour after getting insulted by NOFX or experiencing intra-band problems that had nothing to do with just getting insulted by NOFX. Either way, Less Than Jake states the obvious that it’s the height of stupidity to leave a tour that you helped promote and that people already bought non-refundable tickets to.
It was refreshing. And because of where it was said, it was the essence of punk. So I bought their album that day. Not surprisingly, it doesn’t suck.
Sep 27, 2006
Preventive war on my head.
The Global War on Terror has claimed my hair. Due to the heighted security that claimed my toothpaste as a jihadist but somehow missed the knife on my keychain, a significant portion of my hair lost it’s grip on reality and fell off my head. My swift response to this traitorous act was to mow down the rest of them in a single, brutal, ruthless stroke. (or more accurately, several smaller dainty ones.) Many bold and impassioned speeches and thoroughly reasoned arguments were voiced to no avail. In the end, a twisted version of swedish lagom had been imposed on the entire population.
The result is the unfortunate, undeniable reality of it all. My head is huge.
