becca jean rocks your socks ...

Best site for punk rock lyrics ...

2009-07-10T16:00:00.001-04:00

Forget googling for punk lyrics and ending up on some completely ad-riddled page. Head over to plyrics.com. Ok, they do still have ads but it doesn't seem as bad as some sites. And ok, I'm pretty sure they are actually the same as one of the big, top hitting lyrics sites. Regardless, they have only punk bands and it's great.

Me & 14 year olds .... love All Time Low.

2009-07-09T23:16:00.008-04:00

I've been meaning to write a post about All Time Low for a couple months now. I discovered their EP "Put Up or Shut Up" through iTunes genius and the song "Coffee Shop Soundtrack" awoken the musical core in me. That sounds ridiculous but I don't know how else to describe it. As I've gotten older, it's become harder and harder to find new music that rocks my roll as they say. When I was younger there was a vast sea out there just waiting for my discovery. But now ... now I know what I like. I should like new music. I should like hipster rock - 80s? Punk? Rockabilly? The combo should be perfect for me ... but it's just not. I guess I'm too much of a purist or something.

The truth is that the music I have always loved the most has been cheesy boy pop punk (i.e. MxPx) and authentic girlie ska/pop punk (Dance Hall Crashers, Tragic Kingdom-era No Doubt). (Don't you hate music labels? I mean what does authentic girlie ska/pop punk even mean? Granted I made it up but still.) Occasionally, I go through phases of listening to other stuff but the truth is that it always comes down to music that appeals to 14 year olds. Which is interesting because when I was actually 14, I was pretty much 14 going on 40. (I like to say that I've begun regressing). I'll get to the girlie ska/pop punk another day because All Time Low is pure cheesy pop punk. And I freakin' love it.

iTunes Genius recommended All Time Low because I downloaded New Found Glory's newest album at the time. I think that they sound more like Fall Out Boy than New Found Glory though. They are more nasally and Jordan-esque than FOB but All Time Low's singer's vocal stylings remind me a lot of Fall Out Boy's.

The last band to get me out of a musically devoid funk was The Loved Ones with their song "Jane." (I'm sick of feeling like I lost this fight/I'm sick of graying out the wrongs and rights ... I've got this guitar I can barely play ... If you can't forgive me for my mistakes/My heart will break, my heart will break) This time it was All Time Low's "Coffee Shop Soundtrack." (When it all comes down to a sunrise on the east side/Will you be there to carry home the remains of my wasted youth?/This wasted time on you has left me shaking and waiting for something more) Sometimes songs just hit you in that special way. You know?

All Time Low came out with a new album, "Nothing Personal," on Tuesday. I hadn't listened to it because I had MTX stuck in my head all day on Wednesday. Lately, I just have not been in a book reading mood which is very strange for me. So this morning when I got on the subway, I decided to put on "Nothing Personal." Normally, I'm too figity to just listen to music but today ... today it was just right.

"Weightless" is their first single and the first song on their album. I'm pretty sure I've heard it before. At the time it didn't strike me as anything special. This time was different. It started off with just vocals and synth-pop drums. My first thought was "really? synth-pop? gross." But then the standard pop-punk guitar crash came in, da-nut. "I'm stuck in a fucking rut/Waiting on a second hand pick me up/I'm over getting older." Um, hello? This is MY song. The song builds and then the chorus comes. "Maybe it's not my weekend but it's gonna be my year." Maybe it's not my weekend but it's gonna be my year.

And I start smiling on the 7 train to work. I start smiling even though I'm super late to work. Even though I probably look like a big fat fool. Even though there a billion things that I wanted to get done in the last few weeks but didn't.

Maybe it's not my weekend but it's gonna be my year.

Hell yeah.

Here are all the lyrics with my personal emphasis.

Manage me, I'm a mess
Turn a page, I'm a book
Half unread

I wanna be laughed at
Laughed with, just because

I wanna feel weightless
And that should be enough

But I'm stuck in this fucking rut
Waiting on a second hand pick me up
And I'm over, getting older

If I could just find the time
Then I would never let another day go by
I'm over, getting old

Maybe it's not my weekend
But it's gonna be my year
And I'm so sick of watching while the minutes pass as I go nowhere
And this is my reaction
To everything I fear
Cause I've been going crazy I don't want to waste another minute here

Make believe that I impress
That every word
By design
Turns a head

I wanna feel reckless
I wanna live it up, just because

I wanna feel weightless
Cause that would be enough

If I could just find the time
Then I would never let another day go by
I'm over, getting old

Maybe it's not my weekend
But it's gonna be my year
And I'm so sick of watching while the minutes pass as I go nowhere
And this is my reaction
To everything I fear
Cause I've been going crazy I don't want to waste another minute here

This could be all that I've waited for
(I've waited, I've waited for)
And this could be everything
I don't wanna dream anymore

Maybe it's not my weekend
But it's gonna be my year
And I've been going crazy
I'm stuck in here

Maybe it's not my weekend
But it's gonna be my year (it's gonna be my year)
And I'm so sick of watching while the minutes pass as I go nowhere (go nowhere)
And this is my reaction
To everything I fear (everything I fear)
Cause I've been going crazy I don't want to waste another minute here

What songs rock your roll?

Billy Bragg at the Grand Ballroom, New York, NY

2008-10-26T01:21:00.006-04:00

Tonight I had the privilege of seeing Billy Bragg live for the first time. The show was extra special because it was Adam's Birthday present ... and it was awesome.

Part Nader Rally, part punk rock show, part acoustic performance at a coffee shop, on-stage, Billy Bragg, is not like any performer I've ever seen - partly because he spent about as much time talking as he did playing. He bitched out an audience member who was heckling him about war in Ireland. He talked about the excitement he felt in the US over this election and warned us that, like Britain when Blair became PM after Thatcher, our expectations were high and likely to not be met. However, if Obama is elected, we shouldn't be cynical because this election, while it doesn't represent a change in the world, it does represent possibility. He was so good that I even enjoyed one of my least favorite songs - "Sexuality."

There were two especially profound moments for me though. The first was when he related an anecdote about going to see The Clash at the first Rock Against Racism show. At the time he was working in an office with a bunch of racist, sexist assholes but he never said anything to them because he felt like he was alone in his disgust. After going to the Clash show, his perspective changed and he went into work the next Monday and told the guys in his office what he thought. The point of the story was that people say that "what we are doing here is preaching to the choir" but he sees it as a way to come together and become invigorated with the notion that we are not alone in our beliefs. Then we can go out in the world and stand up for what is right with the backing of that knowledge.

The second special moment for me involved the interesting crowd. There were 2 meat-headish guys standing in front of us. Not the kind of guys you'd think would be at a Billy Bragg show. One of them was particularly into the show. When Billy began playing "There's Power In a Union," this guy along with half the crowd raised his fist for every "The Union Forever" and he dude-hugged his friend at every "With our brothers and our sisters from many far-off lands/
There is power in a Union." The friend - like many in the crowd - seemed a little uncomfortable at first but by the end of the song he was raising his fist with everyone else.

When I was a teenager, I would go to shows and be profoundly moved by the energy of the crowd - the bodies swaying together, the voices singing together, the towering-yet-accessible guy on stage. That's a feeling that is - for better or worse - no longer really a part of my life.

Tonight's show was a grown up version of that teenage feeling of camaraderie, energy, and hope and Billy Bragg is nothing short of a modern Woody Guthrie.*

* In fact, he played a Woody Guthrie song and noted how poignant and relevant the lyrics to Guthrie's songs are today.

New Playlist: "Reinventing Happiness Again"

2008-10-13T23:26:00.008-04:00

I made this last night. It's the first playlist I've made in a long time. Significant? Perhaps.

Give it a few minutes; it takes forever to load ...

If it never loads, click here.

How to be a Rock Star - Life lessons and other such dissapointments ...

2008-10-13T21:54:00.003-04:00

In my previous, and also ironically titled, post, I wrote about having to make a big scary decision. Update: I wussed out in making it and now it has been made for me ... which may or may not be better. The point is this: I'm back to square one. Literally, figuratively, emotionally.

Last week, I felt like I was treading water ... and had been for a long long time. I wonder where that metaphor will take me now ... hopefully, swimming forward but then again, it might take me out of the pool entirely.

Tonight, as I paid $15 an hour to play by myself, a certain lyric I wrote long ago hit me:

i was taught a lesson i'll never forget
the things i want the most are the things i'll never get

Ok. Enough with the self-pitying drama. Anyone know a drummer??

Genius Playlist: Maybe Tonight

2008-10-10T23:47:00.002-04:00

I was messing around with Apple's new Genius feature and to try it out, I asked it to come up with a playlist for Nicole Atkin's song Maybe Tonight.

I just realized this playlist changes as it goes so instead of listing it, I'm going to list the high lights and low lights so far ...

I started with: Maybe Tonight by Nicole Atkins off Neptune City in Country - Alt Country

Highlights:
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists in Rock - Hipster
The Pretenders in 80s/New Wave
Paul Westerberg in Rock - Indie/Alternative
Pixies in Rock - Indie/Alternative - I'm not a big huge Pixies fan but I think it's nifty that it came up here
Old 97's and Rhett Miller in Country - Alt Country - Since I was introduced to Nicole Atkins when she opened for Rhett Miller recently, this is extra fitting.
Sucked Out by Superdrag off Regretfully Yours in Rock - Indie/Alternative - I'd forgotten how awesome this song is! Yay 1996!
The Clash in Punk - See! My love of country AND punk totally makes sense!
Elvis Costello
Into Action by Tim Armstrong off A Poet's Life in Ska - Excellent Song. Well played Genius.
Neko Case - Obvious but enjoyable.
Motion City Soundtrack - Hells Yeah! Teeny Boppin' Pop-Punk meets self-proclaimed 'pop noir'! It's like cheese and wine ... perfect.
Dashboard Confessional - See above.
Billy Bragg
The Muffs - Yes yes yes.

Strange/Unexpected/Unsure:
San Francisco by Vanessa Carlton off Harmonium in Pop - It's true. I like Vanessa Carlton. Go ahead and judge.
Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want by The Smiths off Louder Than Bombs in Rock - Indie/Alternative - Those closest to me know my most hidden, shameful musical flaw - I don't really like the Smiths. However, in this context, they were quite nice.
Nellie McKay - A friend gave me this album years ago and, truth be told, I haven't listened to it much. I enjoyed her though and will probably take a few more listens.
Tegan and Sara - Tegan and Sara was a popular association for Genius. I got all my Tegan and Sara songs from a friend and really only ever listen to them on shuffle or now on this. It's not that I don't enjoy; it's just ... I don't know, perhaps on their own, it's too much hipster/indieness for me.

Not so much:
Fountains Of Wayne off Traffic and Weather in Rock - Indie/Alternative - A couple songs off this album came up and I felt the need to skip them everytime. I guess I don't like Fountains of Wayne so much - except "Leave the Biker," that song is freakin' awesome.

And it's iTunes for the win!

2008-09-16T00:12:00.004-04:00

Sunday I installed the new version of iTunes - usually I'm pretty lax about my updates but iTunes was giving me weird errors so I thought it would help. With the new install, came "Genius," a nifty little side bar for iTunes that recommends music or creates playlists based on a selected song.

I decided to try it out and see what it would say. To be honest, I was wary. I selected my favorite Buddy Holly song - (I don't care) Baby you're so square (which, by the way, Joni Mitchell covers - how wierd is that?). Genius created a playlist which I have yet to listen to - it was an interesting mix of old rock n roll and punk which, for me, is an excellent sign and Genius recommended a few Buddy Holly songs I didn't own.

So I begin trying this for various other artists, styles, etc. At some point, I click on The Cramps ... and what? iTunes now carries two albums - A Date with Elvis and Stay Sick - that I have had on backorder from Amazon fo-ever! Amazing!

I kept looking and end up on Face to Face. What awesomeness does iTunes recommend?? An EP called So Why Aren't You Happy? that came out with Ignorance is Bliss and was only available from Best Buy!

Dear iTunes - I love you. I know you didn't carry all this stuff before because I've searched for The Cramps album but now that you do, I am forever grateful.

On iTunes:
The Cramps - A Date with Elvis
The Cramps - Stay Sick
Face to Face - So Why Aren't You Happy? EP

The New Mission - How To Be A Rock Star

2008-09-13T22:03:00.004-04:00

I've been thinking of changing the "mission" of this blog. It's not that I won't or don't enjoy posting cd/band/concert reviews and writing about other people's music; it's more that I think I need an outlet for my own process of doing music - my own frustrations really. In jest - seriously - I'm calling it "How To Be A Rock Star." At the moment I actually find that really unfunny ...

When I came to New York 2 years ago, I felt ready. Ready to pursue music for real - not quit my job, starving artist - but pursue it with a responsible gusto. You know, practice once a week, play shows, record. I felt like it was my time - a new beginning - time to do the stuff I wanted to do.

Here I am 2 years later. On the surface, I'm in exactly the same place I was. Only playing for myself; dreaming of something more; lowering my expectations to desperately attempt to accomplish something, anything. It's true that I do practice with a "band" but despite an attempt in the last year to push things into gear, I seem to have hit a plateau. I know what I need to do and I know that it means starting over on some level. While I know deep down this is the right thing to do - getting rid of dead weight will keep me from drowning - it's depressing. It's depressing to feel like you've put a lot of work into something and have nothing to show for it; no sense of accomplishment; nothing but shame when people ask you about it.

Perhaps that's melodramatic. I guess it is. I think this feeling is so raw and poignant for me because it's a feeling I lived with for most of adolescent life ... and we all know how hard those hang-ups can be to get over. I will say this - that connection between my past feelings and my present - is somewhat comforting; it somehow lessens the blow.

To be fair - to myself at least - I have learned many things in the last two years. My voice has begun to bloom and I will actually sing in front of people. I have improved my songwriting and am able to write not just in inspiring flashes but when I need or want to. I've become more comfortable with guitar and with playing with others. I've gained confidence in my own abilities and my own vision. That's a lot.

But what's missing - what, it seems, is always missing from my life - is other people. People who can share my vision and level of commitment. I have sometimes flirted with the idea of being a solo singer songwriter and it always feel like such a cop-out. I want a band! I want to rock! The truth is the community, family aspect of punk has always appealed to me in a 'something i want but don't have' kind of way.' I wish I could say, truthfully, 12 or so years after I discovered The Descendants, that I had that. I wish I could say it, but I can't.

iPod shuffle-age ...

2008-06-23T16:28:00.021-04:00

I just have not been in a specific music/artist mood lately. To quelch my musical needs, I've been turning to iPod's shuffle feature lately. Just because I can, I thought I'd share the suffle-age.

(Beginning from #12 because that's where I'm at right now)

Dear Girl by The Steinways (feat. Hallie from The Unlovables) - "p.s. where the fuck's my sweatshirt?"
My My Metrocard by Le Tigre - I wish I liked Le Tigre half as much as I love Bikini Kill but I just don't ... "next stop: Atlantic Avenue"
Basket Case by Green Day from Bullet In a Bible (Live Album) - I love Green Day for not editing this album (which I know because they occasionally fuck up and you can hear it)
Even Angels Fall by Jessica Riddle from the 10 Things I Hate About You soundtrack - um ... love this song ... love the movie ... sad but true
Sick Boy by Social Distortion - I wish Mike Ness, in his old fat age, wouldn't hit on girls in the audience anymore ... it's getting kinda gross. sorry but it is. in other thoughts: this song. great. classic.
Help Save the Youth of America by Billy Bragg - I can only tolerate Billy Bragg's brit-rockness (I know it's wrong, I just can't help that post-the 60s and not including The Clash, I kind of hate British rock) because he's just so fuckin' talented and awesome.
Volvare - Dean Martin
I Wanna Live - The Ramones - dude! this is the 3rd Ramones song I've heard! I love them but I think Apple could improve their shuffle algorithm. To be fair, they have released A LOT of albums and we have all of them.
Anchor Grill by The Descendents - This album (Cool to be You) was such a phenomenal dissapointment. 'Merican was an awesome teaser EP and then ... the 'Merican songs were the only good songs on the actual album.
Educated Guess by Mxpx - awww ... it's my high school era fake-boyfriend ... haven't listened to this for years.
Teenage Labatomy by The Ramones - See!
Four-Eyed Girl by Rhett Miller - He's so freakin' cute especially when he does his butt-shake-dance on stage ...
O Holy Night by Mariah Carey - uh, skip. this is only semi-ok during Christmas.
Breathless by Wanda Jackson - if you get a chance to see her live, do it. she's ADORABLE!
A Man Can Cry by Freddie Fender
You Do It So Well by Name Taken - this is from my sister and I am reserving judgement ...
Billy Be Bad by George Jones - I don't actually know who this or where this came from but it ain't bad ... a little Hank 2 pop-country-ish ... ultimately, it's skipper ...
No, All! by The Descendents - Does this even count? It's 2 seconds long!
30 Days by Run DMC - Skip! It's only very very very occasionally that I have any desire to listen to rap ... no disrespect to Run DMC though, he's the cream of the crop ...
Gonna be a Blackout Tonight by The Dropkick Murhpys

That's all for tonight kids!

Open Questions for Greg Graffin, Lifetime Acheivement in Cultural Humanism Award winner and all-around inspiring dude

2008-04-28T16:34:00.002-04:00

This past Saturday, April 26th, 2008, Greg Graffin, lead singer of Bad Religion, Phd in evolutionary biology, and generally inspiring dude received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism from the Harvard Humanist Chaplaincy (Watch it here; Listen here.). Being the big fat nerd that I am, Adam and I headed to Boston to witness this blessed event.

The church(!) pews were filled with an odd assortment of mostly punk rock kids/adults, a few parents, and other middle age adults. The front pew was filled with Greg's dad and his fiance. Sadly (well sad for the stalker in me), I couldn't catch a glimpse of her. I did already know that they were getting hitched because Brett & Jay don't seem to understand the peeping tom potential of their beloved myspace. But I digress ...

The event began with introductions by the president of the Harvard Secular Society and the all important radio intros (it was being sponsored by and broadcast on NPR as well as on local tv). Then Greg came out, in a suit, along with the Humanist Chaplain at Harvard (seriously, how do you get that job?) who gave a long, mildly incoherent, nervous introduction to the award, Graffin, and why it was awarded to him. During this time, Greg stood in the middle of the altar looking awkward.

Students from the society then read leaders to Greg from his PhD advisor, Will Provine, his co-author of Is Belief in God Good, Bad or Irrelevant?: A Professor And a Punk Rocker Discuss Science, Religion, Naturalism & Christianity, Preston Jones, and Brett Gurewitz. Provine's letter consisted of a story about how they didn't expect Greg to finish his dissertation so quickly but he did ... and not much else which was mildly amusing. The letter reading was a sweet touch though.

Finally, they presented Greg with the award and he came up to the podium and gave a very professor-ish lecture on the history of humanism. Frankly, it was a bit hard to pay attention to - especially considering we hadn't got much sleep the night before and the fact that I didn't have to take notes or write a paper on it (Grades are apparently quite the motivator. Who knew?).

After finishing his speech, Greg took off his suit jacket - proclaiming that he'd never played in a suit, rolled up his sleeves and played a few acoustic songs. He played: Highway off his solo album,Cold as Clay, Suffer off Bad Religion's album Suffer, and Sorrow off Bad Religion's album The Process of Belief.

After he finished playing, there was a Q&A session with the audience. Although I had a few questions in my head, I didn't go up to ask them for a few reasons. Firstly, by that point, I was utterly exhausted and knew I had a 45 minute T ride preceding my collapse into bed. Secondly, I know how judgmental I am of the people who ask questions (especially the pretentious "i'm an aaartist music snobs" and that overweight red-headed dude who felt entitled to sit in the front row despite the fact that it had been roped off ... for Greg's family. Seriously, what a douche. Seee?)

Anyway, Adam and I spent much time discussing the questions we might have asked on the subway ride to the hotel so I thought I'd pose them here where they may live on in internet oblivion.

In Is Belief in God Good, Bad or Irrelevant?, Graffin discusses Steven Jay Gould assertion in Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History that, if the Big Bang were to happen again, i.e. if we could start the world & evolution over again, humans wouldn't exist. While discussing this, he argues that evolution isn't logical. This struck me as a huge contradiction for someone who calls himself a naturalist. It seems to me that logic, and by logic I mean mathematical logic not our colloquial logic-as-a-synonym-for-reasoning, is the very underpinning of the experimental method: if A given B then C. Verifiability is essential to science and naturalism and verifiability requires replication; it require that, given the exact same circumstances, you will obtain the same results and if you don't, it means that the initial experiment was invalid and there are likely causes that aren't being taken into account. While I can completely believe that if the world were to start over again, the existence of humans would be highly improbable; I cannot believe that if the world were to start over again and every determining event happened exactly the same, humans wouldn't exist. I cannot believe the latter because it, in essence, disproves the scientific method itself. Having never read Wonderful Life, but having read another book by Gould, Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin, I would have asked Graffin to elaborate on Gould's assertion and his own statement on the matter.
In Is Belief in God Good, Bad or Irrelevant?, Graffin displays a disdain for philosophy. I'd love to hear him expand upon this.
It seems to me that the issue of creationism vs. evolution; religion vs. science is always set up as a strict dichotomy - including and perhaps especially by Graffin. (His PhD dissertaton was on religious belief amongst evolutionary biologists). As the daughter of two scientists (PhDs in physiology) and regular church goers, I grew up totally (blissfully?) unaware of this inherent conflict. Granted, I did not end up religious at all but my sense is that among scientists in general (not to mention the plethora of people trained in science and biology for other professions - medicine, pharmacology, nursing, teaching, engineering, etc) people are able, however tenuously, to rectify their belief in science with their belief in god. Regardless of how illogical or bullshit I may think that reconciliation is, the fact is that it exists. I'd be interested to hear Greg's thoughts on the matter.
Since Graffin's father was at the award's ceremony, I would have loved to ask what his dad thought of Bad Religion.
Graffin mentioned, in a response to a Q&A question, that he had not grown up religious at all and while that was good in many respects, there are essential questions of the world and our place in it that are taught in places like Sunday school; questions that he didn't have answered until he discovered science. I have occasionally missed going to church, especially during turbulent times in my life. For me, I think what I was longing for was the sense of community and roots that are found in religious institutions. (Happily, I have learned that many atheist parents are starting "Sunday schools" in their area to combat this very issues. Perhaps the existence of humanist societies also fills this void.) I would be interested to know how he, as a parent, instilled his values in his children and combated this issue.
When introducing Graffin, the Humanist Chaplain quoted a song from How Could Hell Be Any Worse?, which Greg wrote when he was 15. I know that I did and said some stupid, embarrassing things when I was 15 and I wonder how Graffin feels to hear those words now. I also wonder how it feels to be 42 and to influence 15 year olds.

Possibly the most amazing thing I've ever seen ...

2008-04-09T16:40:00.002-04:00

I mean seriously. SERIOUSLY.

CD Reviews: The Loved Ones, Horrorpops, and Tim Armstrong

2008-03-04T20:10:00.019-05:00

Some thoughts on recently purchased CDs:

The Loved Ones - Build & Burn

After listening to The Loved Ones new cd, Build & Burn, I missed the intense drive of Keep Your Heart which begins with pounding drums and an energy-filled yell. I think it's safe to say that The Loved Ones grew up ... at least a little.

On some level this is disappointing since I credit The Loved Ones and their song "Jane" to re-awakening my love of cheesy pop-punk and, in many ways, re-awakening myself. Nonetheless, after a few listens, I have come to really enjoy Build & Burn - and get its songs stuck in my head.

Despite the decrease in intensity, Build & Burn offers all the catchy-ness of Keep Your Heart. "Louisiana", a song about rebuilding New Orleans, is the first song that stuck in my head. It's gospel-esque repetition seems fitting for the subject and pulled me in immediately. After my obsessive singing of Louisiana, the next song to catch me was "Pretty Good Year". The catalyst for my love of this song, I believe, is the very good lyric: I'm reinventing happiness again. Amen.

The Horrorpops - Kiss Kiss Kill Kill

My first impression of The Horrorpops third album, Kiss Kiss Kill Kill, was that it was the link between The Horrorpop's more rockabilly and psychobilly first album, Hell Yeah, and their pop-punk influenced second album, Bring It On!: a little harder and more rockabilly than Bring It On! and more pop-punk-esque than Hell Yeah.

Like Build & Burn from The Loved Ones, I thought that Kiss Kiss Kill Kill lacked the drive of their previous album, Bring It On! After seeing them live, I realized that part of this was the use of one guitarist as a opposed to two. Especially live, some of the songs fell a little flat without another guitarist.

Regardless, this is a rocking album ... surely far more rock 'n roll than any of the popular punk bands out there. Patricia's voice, as usual, has the perfect tone, scratchiness, and volume for the music. I think she has one of the best rock n roll voices out their today.

Truthfully, my biggest beef with the album is some of the lyrics. For example, the second song on the album, "MissFit," has the line:

And I'm, I'm from the wrong side of town,
Now frown,
On top of that I'm female.

While I love and appreciate the sentiment of the lyric - the intersection of class and gender and the double prejudice that comes with it - I find that the word "female" stands out every time I hear it - and not in a good way. It's like reading a book and finding yourself correcting grammar and awkward sentences: distracting, to say the least.

This isn't an isolated incident either. There's the song "Copenhagen Refugee." Again, I relate to the theme of best friendships falling apart when one person moves forward in their life, even if it's in a direction that both desired. But, come on. Copenhagen Refugee?? That has to be one of the most 15-year-old-I-just-learned-about-punk-lame lyrics ever. Sorry but it's true.

However, the more I listen to the album the more I'm able to let the obnoxious lyrics go and enjoy the power of the music and appreciate the theme of the songs. Despite my bitchy, obsessive, nit-pickiness, I would definitely recommend this record.

Tim Armstrong - A Poet's Life

It seems that more and more I find myself having "God I'm old" moments. Often these occur when I find out about a band or album way after it's come out. Discovering that Tim Armstrong had put out a solo album was one of those moments.

In my own defense (and in an attempt to make myself feel better), I haven't bought a Rancid album in years and I haven't really been into one since ...And Out Come the Wolves. Everything since then has just seemed like the same old, same old.

This made me pretty excited that Tim was doing something new. Apparently, he started making songs available to download for free while fans waited for the new Rancid album. Fans responded so positively to the songs, especially "No Action", that he decided to release the songs as a solo album.

The album, A Poet's Life, is like a reggae version of Operation Ivy. Tim's husky, smoker's voice lends a rock n roll-ness to the reggae music. Combined with female vocals on "No Action," it stands heads above the other songs.

A Poet's Life didn't knock my socks off but it is the perfect album far chilling (preferably with a cold beer) after a long, grueling day.

Girls Rock: Kathleen Hanna & The Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls

2008-02-07T13:51:00.001-05:00

As some of you may or may not know, I am currently on the Advisory Board of the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls and an alumni of their inaugural Ladies Rock Camp. I don't think I could ever express how amazing I think this camp is and the awesome experiences that come out of Rock Camp.

Check out Kathleen Hanna and rock camp volunteers talking about the camp on Current TV.

Also, mark you calendars for the premier of the film documenting the Portland Rock Camp for Girls, Girls Rock! The Movie. It comes out March 7th and the Willie Mae Rock Camp for Girls will be holding a Mini-Rock camp in honor of the movie.

Count Your Blessings Now ...

2008-02-07T11:55:00.001-05:00

Do you ever find a song that you need to listen to over and over and over again? It's catchy and speaks to you ... in an abstract way. It expresses a universal, undying truth or emotion - but you can't relate it specifically to an event in your life.

Than, suddenly, something happens and that song is it. The song is happening to you right now.

When someone said count your blessings now
'fore they're long gone
I guess I just didn't know how
I was all wrong
They knew better
Still you said forever
And ever
Who knew

Who Knew?

Who hearts Pink? I heart Pink!

2008-02-05T22:18:00.002-05:00

I believe Pink has been listening to a lot of Freddie Mercury lately. There are certain moments in her new album, I'm Not Dead, that caused me to furrow my brow and rewind in case I'd heard wrong. First, it was the chorus to the title track, I'm Not Dead: "I'm not dead just floating." The punctuated, tentative high pitch of the delivery screamed Freddie Mercury to me but then I thought maybe I was just crazy. On comes "'Cuz I Can" with high pitched faux-Classical style backing vocals that include "Ice Cream Ice Cream We All Want Ice Cream" and "Ruff Ruff Ruff" (which was preceded by the line "I'm trying to school you dog." Now I know I'm not crazy ... and I know I freakin' ♥heart♥ Pink.

My love of Pink is not new it's true but I really thought I had gotten over it. I came reluctantly to Mizunderstood. At the time I saw Pink as another R&B Britney wanna-be ... with cooler hair. But the more I learned about her - the fact that she actually skateboarded - and the more songs that came off Mizunderstood, the more I was hooked. It's catchy shit y'all ... and more importantly, the lyrics had a sense of integrity that no one was getting from Britney or Christina or Jessica Simpson. "Everyday I fight a war against the mirror" - hello? what teenager girl hasn't?

Then Pink came out with Try This - which was partially produced and written by none other than Mr. Hot Influential Punk Rocker with a Chipped Tooth, Tim Armstrong. I could hear the Tim Armstrong influence in the ska guitar strums on "Last to Know" and the rock beat (and rockness) on many of the other songs. That really solidified things for me. Pink freakin' knew who Tim Armstrong was! And wanted to work with him! (Something tells me that Baby Face - owner of her record label - wasn't standing in line to work with Tim Armstrong.) Plus she was dating MotoCrosser Carrie Hart. All this added up to cool in my book. And I got myself and many a friend through break ups with "Walk Away."

But then Pink disappeared and aside from the occasional listen to "Walk Away" on Break-Up mixes I'd made for others , I didn't really notice. At one point, I think I saw the video for her first single off I'm Not Dead, "Stupid Girls," and heard the first booty shaking beats and thought "ugg." Then I saw a live performance of "Dear Mr. President" on Fuse and it was amazing. "What kind of father would take his own daughter's rights away?" Who hasn't asked that question? (Besides Dubya of course) However, the straw that broke the camel's back was, while standing in line at the grocery store, hearing a familiar catchy song ("Who Knew") and realizing that Pink was singing it. That was it. Three strikes, I'm hooked so I bought the record off iTunes.

The first thing I noticed when the songs downloaded was that "Dear Mr. President" featured the Indigo Girls. The Indigo Girls. How amazingly awesome is that? In fact, on Pink's Official MySpace page she lists the Indigo Girls as an influence ... as well as Bad Religion!

I accidentally had my iPod on shuffle for my first listen to I'm Not Dead and the first song to come on was "I Have Seen the Rain" featuring none other than her father! She introduces the song by saying her father brought it back from Vietnam and it was the first song she learned how to sing and harmonize with. See? Awesome.

I gave "Stupid Girls" another try too and it surprised me. It's beat is booty-shakingly catchy - which I can handle some of the time - but it's the lyrics that were so pleasantly unexpected. It half parodizes the Paris Hilton-esque female celebrity ("They travel in packs of two or three with their itsy bitsy doggies and teeny weeny tees") and expresses a desire for something better ("Outcasts and girls with ambition that's what I want to see.") And the video is hilarious! Seriously, though, it gives me hope to see celebrities - especially celebrities who are speaking directly to young girls - expressing their political beliefs in general and these particular beliefs.

Mostly, I give Pink a lot of credit for honestly expressing relationship issues from a female perspective. Too often us ladies are the spoken too not speaking. A while ago I had a conversation with a friend and it turned to the politics of our relationships with liberal (and awesome) guys. She related an incident in which they went out to a club and her guy pointed out a girl dressed to the nines. He said he hated girls like that because they never talked to him. She looked at him quizzically, "She's just here to have a good time with her friends." Perhaps Pink says it best in her song "U + Ur Hand:"

I'm not here for your entertainment
You don't really want to mess with me tonight
Just stop and take a second
I was fine before you walked into my life
Cause you know it's over
Before it began
Keep your drink just give me the money
It's just you and your hand tonight

Amen to that.

After listening to the whole album I really felt a kinship with Pink. I wanted to go out and have a drink with her ... even though I'm pretty sure that she could drink me under the table.* So who ♥hearts♥ Pink? Me!

*Note: This is not a good litmus test for electing a president ...

The definition of Irony?

2008-01-28T23:07:00.002-05:00

Irony - when there is a gap between what a speaker says and what is generally understood.

While working out at the gym the other day, I saw Good Charlotte's video for Lifestyles of the Rich and the Famous.

Is it just me or is the fact that someone who sang, if not, wrote these words:

Lifestyles of the rich and the famous
They're always complainin'
Always complainin'
If money is such a problem
Well they got mansions
Think we should rob them

is now having a kid with Nicole Ritchie the exact definition of irony???

Is Nicole Ritchie not the definition of :

Celebrities who want sympathy
All they do is piss and moan
Inside the Rolling Stone
Talking about
How hard life can Be

I really liked him better when he was robbing the cradle with Hilary Duff ...

Grammies & Druggies: A night with Paramore (Nov 28, 2007, Roseland Ballroom, NYC)

2008-01-28T21:59:00.004-05:00

So Hayley Williams, the lead singer of Paramore, has an adorable grandmother. Adorable.

I ran into her very proud grams in line for the ladies bathroom at the Roseland Ballroom, NYC on November 28, 2007. I wanted to tell Gramma Williams that Hayley had quite a voice but she was busy chatting it up with the girls behind me. So instead I'll tell you.

Hayley Williams has quite a voice.

I first saw Paramore on Steven's Untitled Rock Show on Fuse in their video for Pressure off their Fueled By Ramen debut, All We Know Is Falling. Hayley's amazing voice and coveted red hair coupled with their unexpected rhythmic changes sold me immediately. (Adam would call those unexpected rhythmic changes 'their drummer is too good for his own good' changes but as someone who can't stick to one rhythm when writing a song, I say: whatever.) In fact, I continued to flip to Fuse - a station which, until then, I rarely watched - to try to catch a glimpse of that video and the name of the band in it. Finally, I found it and out to the record store I went.

All We Know Is Falling is addictive. Addictive like pop rocks. Sometimes you don't even want it but you need to have it anyway.

And I'll admit it. Hayley and her 'I'm 15 and a rock star' life is living my dream. And then there's the hair. The fact that she's now 19 doesn't subdue my jealousy at all either. Me and my dishwater blonde are totally, completely jealous.

Hayley and Paramore lived up to my expectations at the show too. I'll admit my expectations weren't that high considering my love-hate relationship with the current pop-emo-rock trend going on. Nonetheless, Hayley rocked herself just like she does in the video and it was awesome to see a female up there head banging and dancing around like she fucking owns that stage. And she did own that stage ... and like the gracious hostess she is, Hayley would step aside during musical interludes to let the boys shine too. And shine they did.

Paramore is definitely a talented band. Perhaps, as Adam says, a little too talented for their own good but talented none the less. They are also a fun band - the kind of band that brings energy to the crowd not just the other way around. I think the place would be "tickin' like a clock", as Paramore says, even with a generally apathetic crowd.

The part of the show that really endeared me to Paramore, though, was when they covered a Sunny Day Real Estate song and attributed the band's formation to one of the boys putting the song on a mix tape for Hayley back in the day. Their intro to the song was, like all their stage banter, a little contrived. Nonetheless, I love it when bands share the history of their music with their audience. It's how underground music propagated and it's an important tradition to continue.

An another important tradition that was alive and well at the Paramore was one that I've harped on more than a few times here: punk rock community.

Everywhere I looked at the Roseland Ballroom that night I saw kids wearing t-shirts proclaiming "To Write Love on Her Arm." I thought: What the hell? Is this a new band I've never heard of? If so, that name is quite a mouthful. Am I really so out of the loop that I've never even heard of the band let alone heard it?

When I got home I googled "To Write Love on Her Arm." And no, as the cool kids reading this know, To Write Love on Her Arm is not a band at all. Instead it's a grassroots organization dedicated to alleviating the self-destruction behaviors tormenting youth or, in their own words,

TWLOHA is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for those struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire, and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery.

I think that is awesome. The phrase "To Write Love on Her Arm" comes from a story the founder wrote about helping a friend overcome addiction. Read the story here. Now, they have a little bit of a religious bent which I'm not into, but they are open about their beliefs and have stated that their mission is to help everyone:

Identifying something (such as a band, store, venue or project) as "Christian" often alienates those outside of the church/Christian culture, and we don't want to do that. TWLOHA aims to be inclusive and inviting. This is a project for all people. This is a project for broken people, and it is led by broken people.

Like I said, awesome. Donation to TWLOHA can be made via paypal at www.twloha.com and 25% of all money goes to the following organizations:

NATIONAL HOPELINE NETWORK (1-800-SUICIDE) - WWW.HOPELINE.COM
The National Hopeline is a non-profit organization that fights suicide at the front lines. Their toll-free call line is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and links the caller to the nearest crisis hotline in their area. To date, they have received over 2 million calls from individuals struggling with thoughts of suicide.

TEEN CHALLENGE - WWW.TEENCHALLENGEUSA.COM
Teen Challenge is a rehab program with locations in 70 different countries. "Teen Challenge endeavors to help people become mentally sound, emotionally balanced, socially adjusted, physically well, and spiritually alive." Many Teen Challenge centers offer treatment for free, and that is made possible through donations.

MERCY MINISTRIES - WWW.MERCYMINISTRIES.ORG
Mercy is a non-profit organization for young women who face life-controlling issues. They provide residential programs free of charge designed to address the whole person: spiritual, physical and emotional. Mercy homes are located in the USA, Australia, and the UK.
Construction is underway for Mercy's first home in Canada.

S.A.F.E. (Self-Abuse Finally Ends) - WWW.SELFINJURY.COM / 1-800-DONT-CUT
"S.A.F.E. Alternatives is a nationally recognized treatment approach, professional network and educational resource base, which is committed to helping you and others achieve an end to self-injurious behavior."

KIDS HELP LINE (Australia) - WWW.KIDSHELP.COM.AU / 1-800-55-1800
Offers free, confidential, anonymous 24-hour phone and online counseling for young people (5-25) in Australia.

INDIA:
Back in January, three of us traveled to Kolkata, India, as part of a group there to experience the work being done in the fight against human slavery. We partnered with two different organizations, and as part of our commitment to the children we met and the work we experienced, 5% of the money we give away will go to those
organizations:
Apne Aap - WWW.APNEAAP.ORG
Sanlaap - WWW.SANLAAPINDIA.ORG

***

Fucking A. Who said that kids today are apathetic and uninformed?

Not me. Not Hayley either.

Well, there's a million other girls who do it just like you
Looking as innocent as possible to get to who
They want and what they like it's easy if you do it right

Well I refuse, I refuse, I refuse!

Stroke your emo - Dashboard Confessional at the House of Blues, Atlantic City, November 10, 2007

2008-01-07T22:18:00.004-05:00

Dashboard Confessional is not one of my favorite bands. I'm not sure Dashboard would even break the top 20. Dashboard Confessional is, however, a band full of memories. From my initial rash, un-informed hatred of their emoness to certain friends to good times and bad. Their music makes me especially nostalgic for my time in St. Louis singing at the top of my lungs to songs from 'A mark, a mission, a brand, a scar' in my nice, big apartment dreaming of a certainly impossible man who would write those dreamy words for me:

I'll be true I'll be useful I'll be cavalier I'll be yours my dear And I'll belong to you ... if you'll just let me through ...

Those same words that I sang into Adam's ear while he stood begrudgingly next to me at the Dashboard Confessional show at the House of Blues in Atlantic City on November 10, 2007. That song, 'As Lovers Go,' is especially poignant for me since I see myself as the antagonist of the song. But enough about me, on to the show.

Chris Carraba is adorable ... and tiny. He came out - to roaring applause - to sing with each of the opening bands (neither of which, in my opinion, are worth mentioning ... or remembering for that matter) which, aside from being a rousing endorsement, gave him a badge of integrity in my book ... and proved that he has quite the voice. When he finally arrived on stage for his own set, he was effectively naked - it was just him and his guitar. For most of the show, the mic effects blurred his vocals, but the onstage banter i made out was amusing. For all I've read about his stage fright, he seemed at comfortable, at home on stage. Despite the obnoxious, collar-popping crowd, I enjoyed the quiet, graceful momentum built up and torn down with each song.

I may not rush to see Dashboard Confessional again but the show, like the songs, will hold a special place in my heart for a long time. Which, I suppose, brings this blog post back to me again. This is what connects me, reluctantly, to those other kids at the show - the deeply personal and private way I think about Dashboard Confessional.

I read an excellent (albeit pray to the glorifying, mythical talk of music fan turned journalist) book, Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers, and Emo. Dashboard Confessional comprises an entire section. For good reason. Despite the debatable history of emo - from Rites of Spring and Sunny Day Real Estate to Face to Face to the Get Up Kids and Saves the Day, Dashboard Confessional is probably the band most widely associated with emo. I came to terms with my love of poppy punk/rock long ago; yet it was this book, tracing the history of emo and describing the intense - familiar - way the fan's feel about the music, that allowed me to admit that I, too, have an emo place in my heart. It is not a large space - I need more rock than Rites of Spring or Sunny Day or many of the new wave of emo bands can provide - but it is there nonetheless.

Motion City Soundtrack at the Roseland Ballroom NYC 11/9/2007

2007-12-03T18:29:00.003-05:00

Motion City Soundtrack is the first band that my sister introduced me to. This fact makes me simultaneously sad and proud.

Truthfully, the first time I heard Motion City, I was going through my sister's iTunes copying songs onto my computer. Her AIM away message has sported Motion City lyrics a few times so I took a listen to The Future Freaks Me Out. I have come to deeply adore that song but at the time I thought it was kind of wierd and hipster - probably because I skipped through it too quickly. Eventually (I'm not sure when), I came around and became addicted. So when I found out Motion City was coming to town I was stoked. Recently, on a long drive with my cousin, he played me Anberlin and Mae. Both bands made it on my list of bands to check out so I was doubly stoked to see them opening for Motion City.

Prior to the show I went out and bought all the bands' new albums. Motion City's was, of course, awesome. Aberlin and Mae got a few good listens with no complaints.

We arrived at the show - Roseland shows start so damn early - around 7:30. Just in time to see Anberlin play. There was a lot of the singer standing with one foot on an amp and screaming about how "this show is for YOU." The songs were filled with excessive and unnecessary keyboards. I was less than impressed.

Next up was Mae - I was hoping for the best. In a review I read, Mae's set was described as one 30 minute long song. That's about right.

Finally (after taking a bit of their sweet rockstar time), Motion City took the stage. After the angering experience of the Lawrence Arms show, I am almost at a loss for words in describing Motion City Soundtrack's set. It was amazing. It gave me hope. It made me nostalgic. All at once.

The minute the band hit the stage that intangible it was there. Everyone in the band was into it - I thought the keyboardist might do some serious brain damage he was head banging so hard. Each member was sining along to themselves and all seemed to be having a genuinely good time. Even better, the minute the band hit the stage the crowd brought it. You could feel the collective energy starting with the first note of the first song. I thought: This is a punk rock show. I don't care how un-punk rock you think Motion City Soundtrack is; this show is what punk rock is about.

Up front, the jersey & long island kids got going the typical east coast circle pit. Justin (the lead singer) was quick to ask all those running around to turn around and give each other 'a big hug.' He told the crowd that they can rock out and dance but 'no [making elbowing motion].' About 60 seconds into the next song, he stops. Some crowd-surfer had gone down and Justin was distraught: 'Is everyone ok? I saw a big hole ... ok, sorry, just wanted to be sure.' I thought: I love you. I take comfort in knowing that somewhere, somehow the punk rock ethics and etiquette that so effected my life are alive and well ...

CMJ Weekend: Bloodshot Records, The Lawrence Arms, and Diatribe on Punk Rock Community

2007-11-21T14:24:00.005-05:00

I started out my CMJ weekend by heading to the Bloodshot Records BBQ at Union Pool - Free Beer! Free Food! (after the $10 cover). We arrived late because that's how I roll and guess what? No food and the beer might have been free but it also might have been dog piss. They only charged us $10 for 2 people though.

We got there just in time to see Centro-Matic. I generally like Bloodshot Records' bands and love the Old 97s. For years I've been hearing the praise of Centro-Matic as the new Old 97s but never really gave them a good listen. Now that I have, all I can say is that their music is good alt-country but nothing special. As for their live show ... well the guitarist looked like he was about to fall asleep and I was right there with him.

In one word: Dissapointing. And the Bloodshot merch stunk which was doubly dissapointing since I'm currently on a big band shirt kick.

After that we head up to Greenpoint to see The Lawrence Arms. Since we had no interest in the opening bands and since our tummies were growling due to lack of free BBQ, we decided to get some food. Prior to this decision we walked aimlessly in the wrong direction for 2 blocks. Whoops. Once correctly situated, we decided to sit down at this small polish joint mostly because it was the first decent looking restaurant we came across. The food was quite delicious and our waitress was adorable.

Because Adam and I are huge dorks, we often play "top 5" or "if you could" games. Tonight's was "What is the one current band you haven't seen that you really want to see?" Both of our answers was: The Lawrence Arms. At the time, we didn't know how dissapointed we'd come to be.

After finishing our food, we headed over to the venue. Perhaps it's because I'm from Chicago where the Lawrence Arms sell out the Metro, but I was pretty surprised by how few people were there. I later came to be surprised at how big of an asshole those few people could be.

Finally, the band came on. They were wasted and slurring which made it tough to understand their banter which, according to them, was hilarious. Only the drummer - who was rocking out and singing along behind his kit - seemed into the show at all. Apparently, they were playing the same set that they played the previous evening on the Rocks Off Boat Cruise. One word: Lame. Don't worry though, it gets lamer.

About midway through the show a 200 pound (I'm not exaggerating he later told us how much he weighed) meat head decided it'd be "fun" to stage dive into the sparse crowd. First of all, stage diving is pretty much never ok; let alone stage diving by a two hundred pounder. I didn't come to a show to play basketball with this asshole. Moreover, the only case when crowd surfing itself is ok is 1) if the crowd is packed and 2) if you way less than 120 lbs. Niether of which was the case this evening.

Eventually a most pit forms behind us (we were almost at the stage) which is fine. Unfortunetly, Meat Head decides that instead of moshing in the pit like any community-respecting punk properly trained in punk rock etiquette, he starts jumping on top of the people standing up front. Adam and I are getting more and more pissed off. I'm elbowing people left and right (and so is everyone in the pit - always a sign that things are not as they should be) and Adam is pulling crowd surfers down. At one point (or two or three), I shoved Meat Head.

Meat Head then decides to start shit with me. The song ends and he says "Does it really bother you that much?" blah blah blah. I respond, "If you're going to mosh, get in the pit." Then Adam gets into it with him. According to Meat Head, he was just having fun so it should all be ok. As Adam told him, "It's fun for you." Meat Head then pulls the 'punk rock community' card with Adam. Adam's response: "Just because we like the same band doesn't make us a fucking community." Moreover, doing something that is fun for you but not fun and potentially dangerous to the rest of the crowd, aka the 'community,' is really the antithesis of community, is it not?

While all this is going on, Meat Head's shrimpy friends decides he's going to get some cool, macho points by going after Meat Head's leftovers. That's right, he starts shit with me. Things were said back in forth or more accurately, I called him out on his lame, insecure bullshit and he responded (everytime) by asking me "Why are you even here? At a punk rock show?"

At this point there are only a few songs left (Like a Record Player and 100 Resolutions - two of my favs). Adam pulls all crowd surfers down and takes a clearing round around the pit and my elbows get more than a little contact. We sing along and try hard to rock out and enjoy the last few minutes of the show. Truthfully, the show was pretty much ruined for me and I was livid ... at those guys, at the injustice and irrationality of the underlying assumptions of the things that were said and done, at the Lawrence Arms for making no effort to regulate their crowd, and at myself for being so upset by it.

Note: Adam and I were engaged in the same behavior - pulling crowd surfers down, shoving/elbowing/generally making unwelcome all the assholes making the show less welcome for others, yet Adam gets asks about his allegiance to a punk rock community while I get told that - because I don't want to have a 200 lb asshole jump on top of me - I don't have a right to be at a punk rock show. It is assumed that Adam is defacto a part of this so called punk rock community despite his actions while it is assumed that I am not and surely can't be if because of those same actions.

Punk Rock community is an interesting thing for me to think about. On some level I find the idea/ideal very attractive and it probably contributed to my general attraction to punk rock music and the punk rock scene. But the truth is that I have never felt like a part of that community. I've been going to shows by myself or tagging along with people I didn't know that well or forcing friends that weren't really into it to go withe me since I was 14. In case your wondering, standing in a crowded venue loud with the sound of voices and crowds of friends by yourself, isn't fun and it doesn't make you feel like a part of a community - it makes you feel alienated. I kept going because once the band started, it was awesome. I guess in those moments of singing along and dancing in the pit I felt like I was apart of something. But it ended there. Maybe that's what kept me believing in the ideal of a punk rock community. But believing isn't feeling.

The Glitz! The Glamour! Bad Religion on Broadway!

2007-10-18T11:41:00.006-04:00

Monday night I saw bad religion at the nokia theater times square. Does anyone remember when music venues weren’t named after big corporations?

Going to times square is always an ordeal. The tourists, the flashing lights, the traffic – I have a hunch it’s pretty close to hell. We step out of the subway, get our bearings and walk 2 blocks on that strange patch of triangular cement that exists between broadway and 7^th. Suddenly, to our left, there was a huge screen screaming Bad Religion and prominently displaying their new cd cover. Adam says there was a music video clip but I missed it. We walked up to the entrance where security guards yelled “All exits are final!” swept us with metal detectors before letting us in the door.

And wow. It was just so … shiny. The carpets were clean and the color was obvious. There were escalators. Multiple sized televisions dotted the walls playing a plethora of concert stills, advertisements, and the occasion video of the current show. We stopped at the merch table for a bit (disappointing) then entered the stage area. We walked down to the pit, got a choice spot at the back of the floor directly in front of the stage, and sat down … on the clean, nicely varnished hardwood floors. I noticed some security people walking around with flash lights. I assumed it was to make sure people stayed in line. It wasn’t. It was to make sure the floor stayed clean, which was probably a legitimate liability for them.

The “All exits are final!” call must have scared many people off. A half hour or so before the first band it was pretty empty. And there, in the middle of the pit, was the typical drunk frat boy douche trying to mosh with the few early-risers not pressed up against the stage barricades in anticipation and adolescent glee. This guy was wasted. It was around 7:30 and he could barely walk. So it came as no surprise towards the end of the second band’s set, he slid to the floor and started dry heaving. Some pious soul picked him up and lead him the foot or so to the back railing where he proceeded to start vomiting. By this time the band had ended and this poor douche became the audience’s spectacle of choice. The guy standing next to me, who I have decided is perhaps the nicest person in the world, went and brought the garbage can to the guy. Douche boy then fell over while vomiting into it. Once the guy was walked out by two security guards, tripping over his jacket which had fallen around his ankles, one of the female floor cleaners stood guard by the mess waiting for cleaning tools and help. At this point the crowd became very invested in protecting others from the soiled area. Yells came at anyone who dared walk in front of the girl guarding the spew. The most intense yells came when some guy walked dangerously close then kneeled to tie his shoe. Finally, cheers erupted when a guard came with disinfectant cleaner. I think, for some, this was the highlight of the evening.

But not for me. Bad religion was where it was at.

So let’s start from the beginning:

First band was The Briggs. On first myspace listen they were ok. On first site, they were douches. Two singers with the same voice. Lyrics like “This song is for you, this song is for us, this song is for the world.” Overall, been there, done that. There’s not much to write home about.

Up next was The Gallows. A british hardcore band full of tiny, skinny boys in tight jeans. But damn, did they put on a show. Amazing split leg jumps were executed by the singer and guitarist to the envy of any kid on the track team. The singer spent 80% of the show in the pit. This was mildly problematic since he had a corded mic and here on the east coast the kids love their circle pits. (On a side note, I’ve never really gotten down with the circle pit. I mean, what’s the point? At least with slam dancing or moshing, you’re, you know, dancing. But the circle pit seems like Nascar. Don’t they ever just want to go right??). Towards the end of the show the singer told us that his and his brother’s (the guitarist) mom and aunt were in the audience. On the next song, the guitarist ran up to the upper seats where his mom was sitting, slung his guitar over the railing, and played. Then he kissed his mom and ran back on stage. I’m not sure if his guitar had a wireless pick up or what but it was cute either way.

And finally … drum roll please … BAD RELIGION.

Bad Religion’s stage presence, while awesome, was in stark contrast to The Gallows. As Adam says, there’s no ego in Bad Religion shows. None. It’s refreshing. While there was a sense of punk rock community and values in the Gallow’s singer’s time in the pit, it was a community about him. The kids danced and ran around him. Bad Religion is more like, as they’ve called themselves “a gang of teachers.” They seem more interested in making each other laugh (Brian Baker – of Minor Threat fame – apparently does crazy stuff on the guitar just to amuse Jay Bentley. Bentley seemed utterly amused.) than in looking cool. Greg Graffin is the only singer I’ve ever seen who can pull off the ‘acting out the words to songs with his hands’ thing. Sure, it’s still insanely dorky but since he’s not trying to be anything else, it works. I have a special place in my heart for Greg Graffin. He is my professor father if he was an atheist and in a punk rock band … which sadly, he’s not.

Where The Gallows on stage banter was rock-fucking-roll (“We’re leaving today to go to Australia. We gotta show those convicts how it’s done … [ crowd yells ] ah, shut up, we invented you too …” or ealier “We’re from London-town and honestly, not much good music has come out of there … but how about some Black Flag?”), Bad Religion’s banter made you feel like you were hanging out with your dorky best friends. At the end of one song, Bentley went on a screaming rant about running for mayor of New York City, seriously dissing Giuliani. Jokes were made at the expense of the New York Giants (“This next song is something the New York Giants sorely need – The Defense” and the New York/Boston rivalry (“We haven’t rehearsed this next song much but it’s ok, because this is just practice before our big show tomorrow in Boston …”).

About a third through the show, Graffin tells us how happy he his to be back on Broadway and goes into an impromptu musical-theatre-esque song ending with the line “cuz no one in this band can play guitar … except Brian.” This causes an offended look from Greg Hetson. Graffin then tells us that that lovely rendition was all because “Where his he? Where his he? … Simon Cowell is here tonight! Looking for his newest talent!”

Later, mid way through the show, the band takes an extra long time between sets. I couldn’t quite hear but it looked like Bentley couldn’t remember how to play the next song. Graffin, eventually covering for his band, tell us Trixie the bartender asked them to take a long time between songs so everyone could get drinks. He called it the “alcohol intermission.” (I called it the “we’re old” intermission …). This rant still didn’t fill the time so Graffin asked to have the house lights up to see the “cheap seats in the back.” Graffin said that’s where he’d be … he “spent his time in the pit as you all know but …” and then he mimed a hip fracture. Bentley missed the lights up so they did it again and he commented: “You know who’s back there? … Your moms and dads … it’s ok cuz I’m dating your mom!” The audience booed ... I thought, actually, you are those dads in the back. (In fact, Graffin was spotted at a Fall Out Boy show. When asked about it, he said that his kids wanted to go so he took them. Awww.)

But what about the music you may be asking?

The truth is Bad Religion’s music speaks for itself. Intense, passionate, articulate, intelligent. What else can be said? I will say that, having only seen them live at Warped Tour, they are, in fact, far superior at their own shows. Perhaps because they have time to talk to and get to know the audience. This modest, self-depracting quality is what makes Bad Religion shows so special. After the band walked off the stage, pre-encore, they came rushing back. Jay Bentley ran up the mic and blurted “We have 7 minutes to play 3 songs.” The rest of the band hurried but with less gusto. Jay taunted “Drunky McGoo” (Brian Baker) to hurry up and get his guitar on. After two songs, Graffin pointed one finger at the side of stage, mouthing “one more.” His insistent, repetition makes me think whoever was in charge was not having it. They played another song (“Infected” of course) anyway. The truth is, however old the members of Bad Religion get and in whatever capacity (performers, spectators, parents), they are here for the kids and for the music. Period.

Songs they played (courtesy of Adam – not in order):

We're Only Gonna Die

Fuck Armagadden...This is Hell(from How Could Hell Be Any Worse?)

Suffer(From Suffer)

No Control
I Want To Conquer The World
You (from No Control)

Modern Man

Anesthesia
God Song
21st Century Digital Boy(from Against the Grain)

Generator
Atomic Garden (from Generator)

Recipe For Hate
American Jesus
Lookin' In
Skyscraper (from Recipe for Hate)

Infected(from Stranger Than Fiction)

Come Join Us (from the Gray Race)

Supersonic
Sorrow
The Defense (from the Process of Belief)

Social Suicide (from the Empire Strikes First)

52 Seconds
Heros and Martyrs
New Dark Ages
Requiem For Dissent
Dearly Beloved (from New Maps of Hell)

i'm a stalker!

2007-10-17T16:59:00.003-04:00

i admit it. i was, hands down, completely, childishly obsessed with Mike Herrera and MxPx in high school.

but i thought i had gotten over that.

and not just because i had gotten older and started feeling lamer about liking pop-punk bands like MxPx. the real downfall was when they all got married. yuri's marriage wasn't so disconcerting but once tom got hitched, we all knew mike would be a close third. and after that, after the everpassing moment, their songs just went down hill. without a broken heart, mike's lyrics lost their gusto. it all seemed a bit too formulaic and cheesy.

but things changed yesterday when i came across mike herrera's new solo, country myspace page. i mean, hello, is that not the most amazing thing you've ever heard?

for me, it is. i'm always looking for sense in my musical tastes (really in my tastes in general), which in our pop culture defined, identity-politicing society, always seemed so dichotomous.

the thing is - i love country. kasey chambers. johnny cash. hank williams. dixie chicks. it just does it for me. and i think it's awesome that mike is putting out a country record. and even more insanely awesome that he lists kasy chambers and neko case as influences.

the other upside of this was that i found mike's wife's myspace page. (it wasn't that hard considering she was his number 1 friend ... and, i'm pretty sure the song "sunny in dallas" is about her.) i also found out the kat von d is not longer married to oliver pecker ... since mike and his wife holli are friends with him and, not only is kat no longer his number 1 friend, but his relationship status is now single.

i am simultaneously in love and creeped out by myspace (and facebook and all the rest for that matter). i mean, do these bands know how easy it is find shit out about them? i once came upon brett and jay (from bad religion's) pages in which they exchange a series of comments that include each others email addresses. which, for a harmless stalker fan like me, is a freakin' gold mine ... but not everyone is as harmless as me ...

so if you ever need an interent stalking done you now know where to turn. :)

Picture This.

2007-10-02T13:20:00.001-04:00

Now I'm not a huge Debbie Harry fan - who is now apparently going by Deborah - and I'd take Pat Benator or the Go-Gos over Blondie (and Jane over Belinda but that's another post ...), but this is cute. scripted. but cute. and right up there with my idea for a punk rock ettiquette show.

and i'm happy to report that i have never pooped on stage.

i like people who wreck. homes.

2007-09-20T16:16:00.003-04:00

this may come as a shock to many (or not) but i like michelle branch. and vanessa carlton. they write catchy pop music. let me say that again: they write catchy pop music.

the state of women in music today is dire. DIRE. and i feel that michelle branch and vanessa carlton get unfairly lumped into the britney and avril camp. they are both musicians and artists as opposed to marketing ploys. and because they write the words they sing, they are a voice in music today that is rarely heard: the voice of young girls growing up.

in vanessa carlton's song "white houses," she sings about losing her virginity. from the joy of new, bestest friends to crush and obsession with insignificant details ("he's so funny in his bright red shirt") to the disappointment of the aftermath; the disappointment of growing up. i've seen one tree hill and buffy and everwood and the other shows that imply and show but never say, not really. i mean have you ever heard something this honest on tv or in popular movies or music?

my first time, hard to explain
rush of blood, oh, and a little bit of pain
on a cloudy day, it's more common than you think
he's my first mistake

now we have all gossiped about britney and christina and mandy's virginity from the time they claimed it to the rumors of when they lost it. they were coy and vague. and they sure as hell never came out and said that it had happened, let alone mentioned blood or pain. but there are millions of girls out there going through that experience without any representation in popular culture. and the point of music (or one of them) is to make you feel like what your going through makes sense.

i also have a thing for liberal pop country - you know, the dixie chicks and now, michelle branch's new collaboration the wreckers (purportedly a shortening of 'the cass county home wreckers' which is what michelle's husband nicknamed her and her friend and collaborator jessica harp). i like about a third of the album a lot ... which is pretty impressive for me frankly. oddly enough i created a playlist that consisted of my favorite songs of bad religion's new album 'new maps of hell' (new dark ages, requiem for dissent, honest goodbye, dearly beloved, grains of wrath, scrutiny, and prodigal son) and favorite songs off the wrecker's album 'leave the pieces' (leave the pieces, tennesse, stand still look pretty, cigarettes). of these songs on my playlist, i think michelle and/or jessica wrote all but one and i think that plays into my enjoyment of the songs. we're around the same age, they are into tattoos (michelle has got a pretty hot pin up tattoo on her forearm these days) ... it's a match made in great theory. the point is that i like these songs because a) i like catchy songs that aren't contrived b) i like pop country and the real clincher c) the lyrics say something that i think i would say; i could say those things and mean them (unlike, say, 'hit me baby one more time.') but even beyond that there lyrics are honest and it's a kind of honesty that we rarely hear from female artists today:

see i left another
good man tonight
i wonder if he'll miss me
lord knows i tried

but i think maybe
the thing that i did wrong
was put up with his bullshit
for far too long

i think i might like
the quiet nights
of this empty life ...
from cigarettes

compare that to 'You're so fine/I want you to be mine/You're so delicious/I think about you all the time' (avril lavigne's newest hit 'girlfriend').

even better, though, is that michelle is honest about herself and her life and not in a 'feel bad for me i make millions of dollars kind of way':

i am slowly falling apart
i wish you'd take a walk in my shoes for a start
you might think it's easy being me
you just stand still, look pretty
from stand still, look pretty

now why does it matter if women's voices are represented in pop culture? or anywhere for that matter?

i've been asked this question many times, especially in the context of workplace diversity. i always tell the same story:

in the beginning days of heart bypass surgery there was an inordinate number of women who died from the procedure. the doctor's couldn't figure out what was causing this. women's immune system? their period? what? it turns out it was because woman are, on average, physically smaller than men and the tools used were too big and popping their arteries. Here's the thing: had women been included in the study (the fda didn't require women to be a part of studies until the last 5 or so years), then these women might not have died. there are other factors of course but this seems pretty basic to me.

of course, music isn't quite as dire as say, heart surgery. but for some, it can be pretty important, especially during adolescence. moreover, if we're not telling women's stories in popular culture, it's not just women who lose out. men do too. many of us learn to relate to each other (sadly) through tv, music, movies and without an honest, true female voice we tend to operate on different wavelengths (venus and mars, for example). but i don't believe that's inherent; i believe it's because we each have false preconceived notions about the behavior, motivation, and feelings of the other gender and thus, we operate under false assumptions and get angry and confused when these assumptions - which we hold to be truths - don't turn out how we planned.

but you don't have to like michelle branch or vanessa carlton to support women in music (although, try to search out female artists that play the type of music you like, maybe you'd be surprised?). you can support rock camp for girls!

i personally am on the advisory board for the new york city willie mae rock camp for girls! hooray!

more pitchfork + bad religion

2007-09-18T16:19:00.004-04:00

i admit it. i was spurred to search pitchfork for bad religion reviews after hearing that a friend's hipsterific brother stopped liking bad religion after pitchfork called their lyrics 'politics for seventh graders.' (let's not even get into the fact that this person blindly follows pitchfork ...) the previous post on their review of los angeles is burning was just my first foray.

next in google's "more from pitchforkmedia.com" is:

the process of belief:

well i respect them for not dissing too hard on br; on refusing to give their readers what they want: "You want to see your friendly neighborhood elitist thoroughly skewering a band long past its prime." (what does that say about their readers? only 28 year olds in girls jeans one size too small plastered on by the modern marvel of spandex can make good music?) at least, they are mildly aware of the roots of the shitty hipster indie rock crap they listen to.

but it's statements like these that i really don't understand: "Obvious pleas for radio play, like the mid-tempo and acoustic-flavored "Broken," make you feel a little sorry for the band and their memories of brief mid-nineties alt-rock stardom (sing it: "You and me-ee/ Have a disea-ease!")"

let's review something here ...

the highest a bad religion song ever charted on the us modern rock charts (never hot 100) was 11 ... and it was 21st Century Digital Boy not Infected. (Infected only got to 27). That was over 10 years ago. Somehow I don't think a band that has been around since 1980, that seems to be doing quite well financially, and in which most members have kids and other jobs is really looking for that #1 in celebrity magazine hit. I guess it's just me but maybe, just maybe, they, as Jay Bentley says in their latest dvd, "want what they have." Bad Religion makes good money off their music ... what else can a punk rock band ask for? Personally Bad Religion with their just under the radar record sales in the hundreds of thousands (250,000 to 800,000) is something to aspire to. Plus I look like an ice cream cone in skinny jeans.

Don't get me wrong I don't think Process of Belief is their best album and yes, Bad Religion can do wrong. I just don't trust the self-proclaimed "elitist" who consistently lists animal collective under best new music.

~ * ~ * ~

ah-ha! found it! the impetus for the search!

"Therefore, I think discovering Bad Religion and their Chomsky for Dummies rhetoric is an important experience for a youth in his/her formative musical years. Sure, their politics are a little flimsy and idealistic (the line "when all soldiers lay their weapons down" would make even a 1967 Haight-Ashbury drum circle queasy), but Graffin's lyrics at least can plant questions in a seventh grader's brain more profound than whether that girl in study hall likes him. And it's all delivered in the kind of sugar-high sonic package that speaks most directly to the age range in question."

I can barely begin here. Are you saying that adults who like bad religion are intellectually immature? That punk rock is only for kids (kind of like trix)? Bad Religion has the largest age range of fans of any band i know.

And Chomsky for Dummies? Flimsy and idealistic? Here they call it "thesaurus rock."

Have they ever actually written a song? Have they ever tried to use "transubstantiation" in a lyric?

The truth is that pitchfork media exemplifies the old adage that those who do do and those who can't teach ... or in this case, review. Now I don't believe that of teachers but I definitely believe it of critics and reviewers of all kinds.

More importantly, we forget that songs are not dissertations (which Greg Graffin has successfully completed for his Ph.fucking.D). They are short and rhymed and there is no way that a song could ever capture the nuance of life, especially politics. Songs are a moment of thought and feeling and shouldn't be held to the standard of say, Chomsky's books. And if you read Greg Graffin's books and articles you will find a very well-read, intellectual, solid mind. More importantly, why don't you try to fit a Chomsky book into 2 minutes of verse/chorus/verse? oh right, because you can't even strum an E chord.

once upon a time pitchfork media reviewed los angeles is burning ....

2007-09-18T15:09:00.004-04:00

Read the article here.

"The irony of it all is that the band's call-and-response vocal arrangements are straight out of a Baptist church house, as are the rich harmonies and the reliance on one man-- in this case, Graffin-- to testify to (and for) the congregation. Bad Religion's magic doesn't stem as much from their political lyrics as from the airtight arrangements and thick, sweet harmonies that bring the lyrics to you, and interestingly, are also the antithesis of the social rebellion the band advocates. A case could be made (and sometimes I make it) that the band resorts to the very things it deplores in order to get across a message, and that in the process, they demand a kind of allegiance that a cynic might call unhealthy. But if Graffin and Gurewitz are willing to return to the well to help the innocent climb out, the end certainly justifies the means. "

Um, what?

Just because they use musical techniques developed in a church (which ps - everyone does because that's how music developed) doesn't mean they "resort to the very things [they] deplore"? I don't even understand what they are talking about? You can't have airtight arrangements and harmonies if you are an indie band or advocate for a social rebellion? The formualic songs written by record company execs in no way resemble Bad Religion. Pop music isn't evil in itself. I mean who doesn't like the Beatles? Have you heard the Ramones? Have you listened to Buddy Holly at a really fast speed … oh wait, that IS the Ramones.

Punk rock and social rebellion are about creating the world you live in and not just going along with the corporate, powerful, self-serving way. That does NOT mean doing something just because it's against authority. It means thinking about the actions that you take, the way you vote, the things you say. Sometimes those things may be in line with "authority;" sometimes not. The key thing is that it involes thinking and thoughfully doing things your way. And that's exactly what Bad Religion does and has done for 18(?) years.

Perhaps ironically, blink 182 said it best: (I'm paraphrasing here) a kid who won't listen to anything because it's on the radio is just as bad as a kid who will only listen to something because it's on the radio.