Points of No Contention

The new David Bazan album rules hard. It was to be expected.

John Vanderslice has still got it. Though it would have been nice to see him with a full band (not complaining, Chelsea), I can only imagine how expensive it is to tour with gas prices being what they are right now.

Twin Peaks has taken over my life for almost a week. Lynch must have had one amazing pitch to even get this thing on the air in the first place. Also, Sherilyn Fenn is a fox. And what I wouldn't give to have coffee and donuts with Agent Cooper.

There is no need for Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats to contain gelatin. This would be a liferuiner, if not for the fact that I've already begun to eat like an old man. Oatmeal, toast, banana. Everyday. Oh, and coffee - black as some kvlt as hell Norwegian metal.

Punk rock and hardcore is still great music. Those who say otherwise should just go ahead and apply for their AARP membership.

Just trying to keep this thing alive.

Some dudes need to chill.

Recently a friend of mine interviewed The Get Up Kids. You probably know by now that I think their new album, There Are Rules, sips large quantities of wack juice. That being said, the interview was good and can be found in its entirety here. But when reading it I was struck by a certain response from the band.

Jim Suptic: To us, every album we have ever made sounds different. When people say our “signature” sound, they are usually talking about “Something To Write Home About”. Probably because it was our most successful album. We wrote some of those songs when we were teenagers. I’m 33 now. I love that record but seriously, it was over a decade ago. We wouldn’t even know how to write an album like that again. Especially not lyrically. Things that were important to me then seem quite trivial now.

My immediate reaction was to shake my head and recall the classic jam below.

If you're scratching your head, thinking that there couldn't be two more unrelated entities than that of The Get Up Kids and Gang Starr, hold tight. Take a gander at Guru's hook on the above track.

It's mostly tha voice, that gets you up
It's mostly tha voice, that makes you buck
A lot of rappers got flavor, and some got skills
But if your voice ain't dope then you need to [chill...chill...]

In reply to Suptic's comments about the lyrical immaturity of Something to Write Home About, I say "irrelevant". Allow me to invoke Guru's concept of "tha voice", but furthering its scope to encompass all "sound" (or narrow it a bit to specify "instrumentation"). The Get Up Kids could write a song about Yogi Bear taking a rocket ship on an interstellar voyage for picnic baskets and I would listen to it...if it had "tha voice". I don't hear "tha voice" on There Are Rules. I hear some guys who really like New Order and Joy Division but lack the sense needed to incorporate synths and electronics into songs without a shoehorned awkwardness (oddly enough, Reggie and the Full Effect did a better job of this). So basically all that's left are some supposedly more-sophisticated lyrics that no one read in the first place. So basically it should have been a book of poetry that no one read in the first place. What's that saying about whether or not a tree makes a sound when it falls without anyone around? Well, it doesn't - not without "tha voice". Guess they should have chilled.