Green Day rant

I like Green Day, if you take each album for what it is face value. American Idiot was a good rock album, as was 21st Century Breakdown. But calling them punk would be a stretch for those records. That said, their first four records, 39/Smooth, Kerplunk!, Dookie, and Insomniac are all catchy pop punk albums. The first two are great Lookout-era albums. Nimrod and Warning are good albums, but can hardly be called pop punk. So basically, 1/4 of Green Day's albums are great, half are above average, and another quarter are listenable. The last two, skip them.

/rant

(I wrote this at 3 am, after thinking over how they were Rolling Stone magazine's top punk band)

Fake Problems

Let's face it; Florida has some of the best punk. Hated Youth, Against Me!, Less Than Jake, and my current love: Fake Problems. I saw Fake Problems on Warped Tour of last year. They put on my favorite performance and quickly became a favorite band of mine. Aside from making great music, the band is super nice. Right now I have How Far our Bodies Go spinning on my record player. I can never tell which record is my favorite. Each album is different from the others, and that's definitely a huge plus for me. If you get a chance, listen to some of their songs; they're a great band and great guys. Buy some of their stuff too, it's pretty great.

http://fakeproblems.tumblr.com/

P.S. -I'd like to give a shout out to Sarah Saturday. She started a kickstarter campaign and has successfully raised enough money! I'm stoked to hear her second album. Sarah's pretty much the most down to earth and nicest musician I have ever met. I also saw her at Warped last year and then ventured up to La Crosse to see her a second time. She has very intimate shows and really cares for her fans. If you wanna help her out, you can still donate money to her kickstarter campaign! It's a great thing to donate to!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gna/send-gardening-not-architecture-to-record-her-seco

Morning.

This morning I've been doing nothing but listening to Against Me!. I felt the need to listen to "Russian Spies", and I guess I didn't stop. I went back and listened to White Crosses, and it's still an absolutely amazing record. As of right now, my favorite track is definitely "Because of the Shame". Tom Gabel can write some great tracks, and I'm super excited to see them in October.

That is all.

Crutches

The Copyrights; ever since starting in 2002, they've rocked all over the place playing their Screeching Weasel influenced pop punk. Nine years later the band is releasing a new EP, Crutches. It's four tracks of pop punk goodness, the EP's double-edged sword. All four songs are all infectiously catchy; they make you want to sing and dance along. However, they're all very similar and follow the standard pop punk formula. It's not a bad formula to stick to, but it doesn't leave much room for experimentation. That being said, the EP itself is a well-done release. As previously stated, it's catchy, an EP you can listen to the whole way through a few times over. But, if you don't pay too close attention, the tracks do run together and it can be tough to discern one song from another.

Look at it this way though: It's the Copyrights. It's Red Scare. It's pop punk. When you look at these three facts it's pretty easy to fall in love with the EP. Despite the few flaws it has, it's good. It's damn good really, and helps solidify the Copyrights as one of the best pop punk bands around.

7/10

 

 http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/crutches-single/id442001027

 Guys, come on. It's Red Scare, one of the best labels around, releasing the Copyrights, one of the best pop punk bands around. It's like, two bucks, for four tracks. Four! That's fifty cents a song. Get it.

Turntable

Turntable.fm is pretty the best site ever right now. I've always though that listening to music with other people made it better, and this is a chance for people to listen together. Plus, you can upload your own songs. It's a sweet site; check it out.

http://turntable.fm

2:30 AM thoughts

So, it's 2:30 in the morning, and I'm watching a re-run of Robot Chicken. Well, kinda watching it; I also have Paul Baribeau playing. At any rate, I decided to put down some thoughts I've had lately.

First: Summer thus far, albeit not too exciting, has been fun. I do miss Kyle and Cole a great deal, but, it's nice to have a lot more free time. I've been reading, writing, and playing guitar more. I've been playing a lot of ultimate frisbee too. I guess I've always done that, but, I've gotten much better. Along with the ultimate, I've also entered my way into frisbee golf, which I suck at it. I think I spend more time in the woods than actually playing.

Second thought: I'm super stoked for October. Three days after my 20th birthday, I will be attending my first ever Fest. Anyone who's talked to me know that I've been talking about this forever. Well, i've looked forward to this more than pretty much anything else. Three days of non-stop music, with the coolest people ever. Not to mention that a few bands I've wanted to see forever are playing, like Lifetime, Hot Water Music, and Defiance, Ohio. I'm so stoked.

Third: If you're into music, I definitely suggest reading "Our Band Could Be Your Life". It's a great book, with some cool stories and insights into bands. I'm on Husker Du right now, and I'm pumped to start reading about the Replacements.

On a music review related note (somewhat), I've really been listening to a lot of Motion City Soundtrack lately. I had seen them last October with Greg, Allison, and Ty, but, I wasn't too into them since I didn't listen to them. Half a year later, Pat got me into them. My Dinosaur Life is definitely one amazing album. It's got some great cuts, specifically the last five tracks and track two. These six tracks are some of the greatest pop punk songs recorded. Lyric wise, they've got some fancy and witty word. The lyrics are pretty introspective at times, without losing the fun the band has. If you're interested in that type of stuff at all, definitely check out some Motion City. You won't regret it at all.

Today, me and my mother cleaned my room. Pretty amazing for anyone that's seen how it used to look. To celebrate, we bought a new A-Frame bookcase. It's for all of my records so I can store them properly, and also for extra CDs I have. I've got a lot of CDs recently, and my old rack has become too small. For reference, I can only hold from Against Me! to MxPx, so...a lot of goodies left off the decision field. Tomorrow's plan is to build and organize with Lauren.

That's about everything for late night thoughts.

-Rob

Sorry

Sorry to anyone that actually reads this. I completely forgot about it to be honest. But, I will be back soon but instead of only reviews, I'll start expanding into a little bit of everything. So, stay tuned for new stuff.

-Rob