2016 Music: A Belated 2-for-1 Post

Maybe this blog is just for baseball predictions and year-end music lists from now on. That's alright.

I: The Albums

A bunch of bands I've loved for decades put out new music in 2016, but for the most part, they were replacement level. So from 10 to 4, I don't have much to say. If you like these bands, you will probably at least be ok with these albums.

10. Sum 41- 13 Voices
9. Weezer- Weezer (White)
8. The Pixies- Head Carrier
7. Blink 182- California
6. Green Day- Revolution Radio
5. Soul Asylum- Change of Fortune
4. NoFX- First Ditch Effort

And now, on to the ones worth talking about.

3. Wheeler Walker, Jr. - Redneck Shit


When Birdcloud came to Chicago in June they were opening for one Wheeler Walker, Jr., who is basically a male version of Birdcloud. The title track is breathtaking in just how much profanity one can fit into three minutes, and it just gets nastier from there. "Family Tree" is similarly impressive, but more creative in its disgustingness. And then there's "Drop 'em Out", an ode to boobs that Walker says "is an Oak Ridge Boys song in my head". It's amazing to me that albums like this exist at all, but two years running, dirty country is a genre I've gotten myself into.

2. Against Me! - Shape Shift With Me


I was prepared to wait another year or two for a follow-up to 2014's "Transgender Dysphoria Blues", one of my all-time favorite albums, but I got one in less than three years. "Shape Shift With Me" occasionally dips into the brutally honest space that TGDB inhabited on tracks like "Norse Truth" ("How am I gonna look you in the eyes when I've known you so very intimately?"), but it's generally just an energized punk rock record. The best songs on it are great not because Laura Jane Grace has opened up even further, but because she doesn't HAVE to anymore. TGDB is a prerequisite for this album in that it charted the path for Against Me!'s future, but SSWM sets the velocity for that path. Still personal, still political, but supercharged with brand new confidence.

1. Brian Fallon - Painkillers


All year- except for that month where I was randomly in love with Erasure- "Painkillers" was my soundtrack. While Fallon's music with The Gaslight Anthem took emo-honest lyrics and threw loud punk-grunge-alternative guitars on top, this solo effort is more folk-rock or roots-rock than anything. It still sounds vaguely Springsteen-ish (Fallon likes to roar about cars sometimes), but I'm over that, because I'm obsessed with his lyrics. When I feel like he feels on songs like "Nobody Wins" ("I must have lived a lifetime without you/ You must have ended up somebody's angel") or "Among Other Foolish Things" ("The lights in this town they don't brighten up anything"), I stay in bed all day. When Brian Fallon feels that way, he makes brilliant music.

II. The Songs

As seen above, lyrics were a big thing for me this year. So instead of watching myself type, I'm just gonna put up the Youtubes for my ten favorite 2016 songs and my favorite lyric from each.

10. "Meet me at the station, let's pretend to go somewhere."

9. "Don't let her catch you in the act of throwing in the towel."

8. "You'll probably get hurt in heels and a skirt when you're in the middle of a circle pit."

7. "So sorry but I need your wife I'm breaking in my brand new scythe."

6. "There was this one time when I painted a masterpiece."

5. "I love a lie just like anybody else."

4. "For every Demerol-tercation, they'll have a good Xanax-planation"

3. "They talk boots while they're laughing at you-ou."

2. "A study in sophisticated nuances of putting holes in your lungs."

1. "Maybe someday they're gonna love me back to life."

2015 Music: The Top Ten Songs

The time has come for 2014 Song of the Year winners Against Me! to pass the torch to the next recipient. In the event that said recipient cannot uphold the duties and honors of the station, it will revert to David Hasselhoff until such time as a replacement can be named.

When I can, I like to include ten different bands in my top ten songs, and we didn't really have a dominant album this year. So with apologies to the acts who probably could have had two songs each, here it comes. So long, 2015.

10. Veruca Salt- Laughing in the Sugar Bowl

I love Nina Gordon, and I want you to love her too. But Louise Post takes the lead on this one, and it's easily the best track from "Ghost Notes": Two minutes of joyous alt-rock that I've been sorely missing for the past seventeen years. It's so quintessentially Veruca Salt that I can even forgive the B-52's reference.

9. The Front Bottoms- Plastic Flowers

When I listen to the Front Bottoms, I think of Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers. They're not really alike musically, but I just get the feeling that Front Bottoms concerts are a lot like Roger's shows: a little room full of people drinking beer and/or tequila, all singing along to every song, enjoying the experience fully. "Plastic Flowers" is the song that brings that atmosphere to life no matter where you are when you hear it. It's also got one of the funniest damn interludes I've ever heard. Advice rarely comes so noncommittally.

8. Courtney Barnett- Pedestrian At Best

This was a "love at first listen" song for me. It looks and sounds like something from 1995 that you'd see at 12:30 AM on MTV and then later wonder if it ever really happened. Then it drops through a time rift fully formed, Australian, and utterly out of context in 2015. "I'm a fake. I'm a phony. I'm awake. I'm alone. I'm homely. I'm a Scorpio." You're also alternative as fuck, and I love it, Courtney.

7. The Vaccines- Handsome

It's been many years since I cared about music videos, and this list is about the songs themselves, but the above video happened and I can't not talk about it. Anyone else who's considering making a music video should just watch this and pack it in, saying "Well, someone beat us to the kung fu alien bar brawl with Japanese subtitles. Guess we can't make a video now." But I loved the song before I even saw it, because weird egotistical pseudo-ska songs are a good thing. So on the list it stays.

6. Frank Turner- Love Forty Down

I listened to as much Frank Turner as anything else in 2015, because I had a few previous albums to get to know in addition to the new one. As I said in my albums post, I'm pretty happy with "Positive Songs for Negative People". Frank Turner's not okay with complacence and it's kind of inspiring to me. This song is about testing yourself, and not accepting defeat, to find out if you've improved yourself enough. I think the answer is almost always no.

5. CHVRCHES- Never Ending Circles

Most of the time, I sit down to make these lists and it all ends up looking the same. Punk. Alternative rock. Brit rock. Riot grrl. If any grunge bands put stuff out, they get a slot too. I don't know if this is a trend, a sea change, or just a fluke, but CHVRCHES  had made the list twice in three years with pure electronic pop. If they do this a couple more times, I'm going to have to start considering Lauren Mayberry as one of my all-time favorite singers. The music is what it is, I don't love or hate it, but those lyrics and that voice. I can't get enough. I went with "Never Ending Circles" over the other really good songs from "Every Open Eye" because it was the one that resonated the most with me, but if this does anything for you, just get the album already. It's all this good.

4. Birdcloud- No Worries

After seeing them open for Roger in November and meeting Mackenzie Green afterward, I thought it through and decided that Birdcloud has a plan for me, and it would be for the best if I was open to it. I hope one day all of you can let Birdcloud into your hearts too, and then there will be love and joy. And infinite Miller Lite. Do you like profanity? Are you a binge drinker? How about cocaine, do you like cocaine? Are you really, really, super comfortable with your body and all its parts and functions? If you answered yes to some or all of these questions, then you already know Birdcloud and Birdcloud loves you. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some pamphlets that need handing out.

3. Idlewild- Radium Girl

In my albums post, I focused mostly on what was wrong with Idlewild's new album, because I hold my favorite bands to a higher standard. In this post, I want to share all that is right with "Everything Ever Written", and here it is. "Radium Girl" is probably in my top 3 Idlewild songs ever, and that's high praise since they were my favorite band as recently as two years ago. I considered using the video of the band playing it at Bottom Lounge and me completely losing my mind a few feet away, but I want you to be able to hear the song itself. You're welcome.

2. Dead Sara- Radio One Two

Dead Sara deserves all the credit in the world for making a rock album in "Pleasure to Meet You" that was diverse, interesting, consistently excellent, and moving. But when a band does punk as well as they do, I can't imagine why they'd bother with proficiency in other genres. Good for them, seriously, but nothing beats punk.

1. Third Eye Blind- Shipboard Cook

So it's not a huge surprise that we have a repeat winner of my Song of the Year in 2015. Local H, Idlewild, and The Wonder Years all put out albums this year, after all. But it's Third Eye Blind, whose 1999 win for "Slow Motion" was preceded by top 3 finishes in '97 and '98, that had my favorite song of 2015. Third Eye Blind, who I last took seriously when I was 18, who I last really enjoyed when I was 21. Third Eye Blind, the band that might break up any day since Stephan Jenkins is sick of making albums, but had enough of their peculiar brand of awesomeness left over to write this one song. "Shipboard Cook" takes all the best parts of what Third Eye Blind has ever done- sincerity filtered through a massive ego, an insatiable need for attention, great choruses, accidentally brilliant lyrics alternating with terrible goth-kid-poetry style lyrics- turns them up to 11, and blows them out like there's no tomorrow. Because for Third Eye Blind, there really might not be a tomorrow. If this is it, then "Line 'em up, boys, here's to your youth/ Sing loud enough to tell the truth" is how I choose to imagine one of the most-loved bands of my adolescence saying goodbye. So congratulations, Stephan. You're a lyrical blind squirrel and you found yourself one last nut. Until I see you again in 2032, thanks for this one.

2015 Music: The Top Ten Albums

Last year, I managed to write a little bit about every new album I listened to in 2014. That's not happening for 2015, because I don't feel like doing a top 55 list. But after casting a wide net (Thanks, Wikipedia!) and giving every one of those 55 multiple chances, I'm pretty solid with a top ten. Well, not quite. The EP at number 11 needs to make this post somehow. What the hell, let's just make it a top 10 and a half this year...

10.5. Birdcloud- Tetnis

...Because there's no way I could leave Birdcloud off this list. Sure, Tetnis is only six songs and about 15 minutes of music. It's also true that neither band member is an especially good singer. But there used to be a void in my life, and Birdcloud filled it. Profane, trashy, twangy, sexy grrl-country about interracial dating, female wet dreams, public binge drinking, and innovative ways to ingest cocaine is something I never have to be without again. And for that, I am eternally grateful. Highlights: No Worries; Boy; I Like Black Guys.

10. Third Eye Blind- Dopamine

As I recently wrote, Third Eye Blind is a nostalgia band for me and all their other fans. I was 15 when they hit it big, but that's not the only reason. So much of their music, even dating back to the first album, is about wanting to go back. With "Dopamine" rumored to be the last Third Eye Blind album, it's to be expected that Stephan Jenkins would indulge his Jay Gatsby persona and give it a good sendoff. "Dopamine" unfortunately lack the barely-self-aware melancholy that made the first two albums so effective. Most of the new stuff comes off as a genre-sampling, vacant, whiny mess. But Jenkins, one of the most baffling, confounding songwriters I have ever explored, still manages to hit a few home runs amidst all the strikeouts. "Dopamine" contains three of the best songs, by anyone, of the year. It also has nine pieces of hot garbage. What can you do with that? I guess I rank it tenth. Highlights: Shipboard Cook; Dopamine; Everything is Easy.

9. Ash- Kablammo!

This is the first band on this list that I discovered on Wikipedia's "new 2015 albums" page, but they won't be the last. Turns out Ash, a Northern Irish alt-rock trio, had been making music for over 20 years before I ever heard of them. I liked "Kablammo!" immediately because it reminded me of Weezer, but with more depth. I kept listening to it all year because it doesn't have a bad song on it. Not everything has to be life-changing, open to interpretation, and worthy of dissection. Sometimes a good rock record is just that, and that's enough. Highlights: Machinery; Let's Ride; Go! Fight! Win!.

8. The Wonder Years- No Closer to Heaven

I badly wanted The Wonder Years' follow-up to 2013's "The Greatest Generation" to be another masterpiece, because if it was, it would be easy to put them at the top of some hierarchy that exists only in my head. Sadly, I have to be aware of nuance here, because "No Closer to Heaven" isn't a masterpiece. Musically, it's right on par with the band's previous work. The verses still sound right at home in a tiny punk club, and the choruses still belong in stadiums. Frontman Dan Campbell's voice is still perfect for his "today-I-learned" lyrics. It also gets profound, if not as often as "The Greatest Generation", where every single song was an epiphany. "No Closer to Heaven" focuses more on social issues than internal ones, but it still gives us gems like "We're no saviors if we can't save our brothers", "John Wayne with a God complex tells me to buy a gun/ like shooting a teenage kid is gonna solve any problems", and, most poignantly, "You were the one thing I got right". Even if it wasn't love at first listen this time, The Wonder Years still ooze wisdom and sincerity, and I'm still into that. Even if I like it better when they don't get their lyrics from progressive news websites. Highlights: Cardinals; Cigarettes & Saints; Thanks For the Ride.

7. Idlewild- Everything Ever Written

As I wrote in my third concerts post, the return of Idlewild was my single most anticipated musical moment of 2015. Like The Wonder Years, it's hard to write about because of the comparisons my brain makes on its own, but unlike The Wonder Years, Idlewild's legacy brings a decade's worth of brilliant albums instead of just one. After their five-year hiatus, 2015 finds Roddy Woomble and friends continuing a progression away from raging guitar rock and toward quiet contemplative alt-folk. This isn't altogether a bad thing. Roddy is monk-caliber at quiet contemplation, and the combination of his voice and his lyrics will always amaze me. Plus, I still get one headbanging song, "On Another Planet", so hey, better than nothing. The downside is, I have Roddy's solo career to fill my need for sincere Scotsmen with stunningly beautiful souls singing Americana-style music. I want Idlewild to take advantage of their instruments that need to be plugged in, otherwise what was the point of reuniting the band? Even if it's a natural and straight-line progression from "Make Another World" to "Post-Electric Blues" to "Everything Ever Written", I can't pretend I'm fine with the new one not sounding like Idlewild. Roddy also loses significant points for ripping off Michael Sembello's "Maniac" on "Left Like Roses" in a pretty noticeable and unavoidable way. That's why this album lands outside of the top five. Highlights: Radium Girl; On Another Planet; Utopia.

6. Sleater-Kinney- No Cities to Love

By the time I discovered Sleater-Kinney, they had already been broken up for five years, and I consumed their music without context. That led to some weird preferences- Give me "Dig Me Out", "Call the Doctor", or "All Hands on the Bad One" any day, but you can keep the rest. I'm happy to report that their reunion album, "No Cities to Love", is nearly everything I hoped it would be. It doesn't try to get art-rocky, and it's not raw to the point of unlistenability. It's just ten sweet riffs with scream-along choruses and the weird but addictive vocal combination of Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker. I would have liked a new introspective quiet song to go along with my favorites "Buy Her Candy", "Leave You Behind", and "The Swimmer", but instead we get a half hour of pure straightforward rock. Ten basic, essential, and most importantly new Sleater-Kinney songs. I'll take it and like it. Highlights: Hey Darling; Surface Envy; Bury Our Friends.

5. Veruca Salt- Ghost Notes

If Idlewild's resurrection was my most-anticipated music of 2015, the return of Veruca Salt's original lineup for their first new album in 18 years was a close second. While "reunited 90's icon of radio-friendly girl-rock" didn't have the same cache for me that "Roddy's back in Idlewild?!" had, I will say that Veruca Salt delivered on my expectations and then some. What impressed me most about "Ghost Notes" is that it feels like they bottled all the momentum they had after "Volcano Girls" became huge, stuck it in the back of a freezer, and broke it out almost two decades later. Nina and Louise still harmonize magically, they still walk that hyper-expressive sexy-confident-powerful-girly-vulnerable-all-at-the-same-time line that made their earlier stuff so successful, and they still write big rock-out hooks that sound even better now that they're not being drowned out by countless 90's bands trying to do the exact same thing. But the nicest thing I can say about "Ghost Notes" is the simple fact that it's my favorite Veruca Salt album. There was a conscious need to stuff as many singles on "American Thighs" as possible, and then there was some filler. "Eight Arms to Hold You" was uneven and edgy in all the wrong places. "IV" doesn't count. "Ghost Notes" replaces all that mess with a security and confidence in who Veruca Salt is. There was no pressure involved in the making of this album, and it shows. Instead of writing songs for the radio, they could write them for themselves and their fans, and that led to an album where the songs all get to be great in their own way, not just the way Q101 would want. Highlights: Laughing in the Sugar Bowl; Prince of Wales; Come Clean, Dark Thing.

4. Frank Turner- Positive Songs for Negative People

Frank Turner was my big musical discovery for 2015, like Against Me! and The Gaslight Anthem in 2014 and 2013, respectively. He's folk-punk, which puts his music right in the middle of my happy place, but there's a lot of cleverness and thoughtfulness in his music that makes each of his albums worth revisiting. I spent the first half of the year obsessing over "Tape Deck Heart" and how it motivated me. The second half of the year brought me "Positive Songs for Negative People", and I embraced that too. It's a little bit lighter and poppier than his previous stuff. "Out of Breath" and "Josephine" still rock reasonably hard, but you'll struggle to find anything punk about "Get Better", "The Next Storm", and the rest. That doesn't make these songs any less brilliant, though. Frank Turner is a narrative songwriter, driven by self-awareness and a constant need for self-improvement. Much of his lyrical content is about hating his own flaws and attacking them relentlessly, and that means I find "Positive Songs" inspiring from beginning to end. Like a self-help book for crowd surfers. Or cult literature for people with tattoos. Highlights: Love Forty Down, Demons, The Next Storm.


3. The Front Bottoms- Back On Top

Here's the second band on the list I discovered because of Wikipedia. "Back on Top" is the band's first album on a major label, which their fan base didn't like too much, but I can only speak to The Front Bottoms I know. They're a rock quartet from New Jersey, and they combine often hilarious lyrics with a few moments of insight, some gleefully delivered horrible lines ("Our love's the only thing that could matter/ Take me up and up and up like a ladder." What the hell?) and an occasional horn section or rap interlude. Needless to say, this was one of the biggest musical surprises of 2015 for me and every time I drafted this list, I just kept moving it up. Even including the two albums yet to come, I don't think I had as much fun listening to anything else this year. Just listen to "The Plan (Fuck Jobs)" or the spoken monologue on "Plastic Flowers" and try not to laugh out loud. But then there's "West Virginia" and "Cough it Out", which are just sad, revealing songs. I feel like I understand this band less and less the more I listen to them. I think I would like to see them live twenty times or so, and maybe then I can decide. Highlights: Plastic Flowers; 2YL; Laugh Till I Cry.

2. CHVRCHES- Every Open Eye

CHVRCHES broke out pretty big two years ago, but I valued that album mostly for the one song, "The Mother We Share". "Every Open Eye" takes the magic from that song, and applies it to fourteen tracks. While the songs are all kind of similar to each other- and after the best five or so, become interchangeable- the lyrics are better than the usual pop nonsense, and Lauren Mayberry's voice is perfect. The result is an irresistibly bright and shiny album that is nothing like anything else on this list. Hell, the last time I rated an electronic album this highly it was 2004 and I was hypnotized by The Postal Service, and I'll take Lauren Mayberry over The Postal Service's Ben Gibbard any day. When I decided this year I was going to have ten different bands/artists in my top ten songs, the hardest cut was which of three CHVRCHES songs was going to make the list. They're all so. Freaking. Good. Highlights: Make Them Gold; Never Ending Circles; Bow Down.

1. Dead Sara- Pleasure to Meet You

2015's best album comes from another band I found on Wikipedia, so thanks again for that, Wikipedia. Dead Sara is a quartet from Los Angeles, with a calling card of Emily Armstrong's raspy, rangy, incredible vocals. The album's center is a sort of blues-rock, but individual songs take it in any direction you could want- "Radio One Two" is a punk song. "Something Good" is blues. "Lovesick" is metal. "Mr. Mr." is a soul song. "For You I Am" is one of the best torch songs I've ever heard. Dead Sara made a rock record that touches so many sub-genres of rock, but holds together as a coherent whole because they're just a damn good band. The track that puts "Pleasure to Meet You" over the top isn't even my favorite song from the album. It's just the most interesting. "Greaser" takes Old Crow Medicine Show, Janis Joplin, and alt-rock guitars, throws them all in a blender, and adds the most incredible vocals I heard all year to make some kind of Americana blues-rock monster. If 2015 showed us one thing, it's that the old guard of rock goddesses aren't dead, but Emily Armstrong is the future. I for one welcome our new Californian overlords. Highlights: Radio One Two; Lovesick; For You I Am

2015 Concerts, Part III: When I Hit The Floor I Don't Cry Anymore

We'll wrap up this series with a short one: my last two shows of 2015, the only ones of the year that fit the mold of $20 tickets, great but not-famous band, tiny room. Those shows used to be all I ever went to, and they're usually all I hoped they would be. I'm thinking baseball comes next- and oh, I have things to say- and I'll do my 2015 Year in Music posts sometime between Christmas and New Year's. Cool? Cool.

We start with Scottish/Irish alt rock band Idlewild, at Bottom Lounge. Idlewild and I have a long history. I saw them open for Pearl Jam in 2003, and I knew immediately that this was a band I needed to know. Then they put out the album "Make Another World" in 2007, and I started thinking that maybe they were the best band in existence. Then their next scheduled appearance in Chicago was cancelled when frontman Roddy Woomble broke his collarbone, followed closely by an announcement that the band was on hiatus. So I didn't think this night would ever happen. But there I was, in 2015, ready to see one of my top three favorite bands for the second time- but the first time that I knew their music. I made a bad choice in choosing a concert companion for this one, and it made the trip there and back a toxic nightmare, but it wasn't that hard to find the good in the experience. Being a few feet away from Roddy and his band while they played something close to a dream setlist was, in no uncertain terms, the good. I got "Radium Girl", and "Idea Track", and "Captain" followed by "El Capitan", and I was fanboying as hard as I could. Even in the back of the room, it would have been a religious experience, but I was right freaking there. No, really:

And the person standing behind me was getting video, so if you've ever wanted to see the back of The Everlasting Dave's head while he rocks his face off, it's your lucky day:

But even after seeing my top two bands, crossing a handful of punk bands off my concert bucket list, and being an adult enjoying myself fully at a Dashboard Confessional show, it just wouldn't be a concert year without good ol' Roger. This marked my eight Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers show (ninth if you count The Refreshments), my first trip to Subterranean, my birthday present to my mom, and the first concert where I didn't get to call my dad the next day and tell him how awesome it was. Which is too bad, because I think my dad would have enjoyed the opening act, Birdcloud. I'm not sure I can explain what Birdcloud is, nor why I love them so much. I guess I would call them an explicit, NC-17 country duo. Like Eminem, but twangy, and with lyrics about cocaine, binge drinking, and human anatomy. More on this in my year-end music post, but for now, suffice to say Mackenzie Green of Birdcloud is the most attractive human being I have ever met in person. And then there was Roger. I don't think he knows this, but when "I Don't Need Another Thrill" and "Hello New Day" are both within the first five songs, it's mathematically impossible for it to be a bad show. Also, during the first break in the action when everyone shouted out their requests, I was the lucky winner:

Mediocre sound quality aside, that's "Buffalo", folks. One of the greatest songs ever written, by anyone. And that's the best possible place to end this post.

2015 Concerts, Part II: This Night Is Gonna End When We're Damn Well Ready For It To Be Over

Among the firsts for me in 2015 was attending all three days of a music festival: Riot Fest Chicago at Douglas Park. There was mud, there were insanely long beer lines, and most importantly, there was a lineup of bands so incredible, I bought two three-day passes the day they went on sale. What follows comes mostly from emails I sent to friends and family after each day- so there will be some pics I took myself, but not so much YouTubing. It'll be as much running diary as anything else, as I saw a grand total of 20 bands over the three days. Here's the rundown.

I knew going in that Friday was going to be the best day, as the day ended with an insane four-band stretch that, barring huge surprises, would be the highlight of the weekend. For us, the day started at 2 PM with Fishbone. This started a theme for the weekend: Really good bands given early afternoon slots and not nearly enough time on stage. I'm not all that familiar with Fishbone's catalog, but as a long-time Sublime fan I could appreciate the dirty ska-punk and the cover of "Date Rape". The moment Fishbone left the stage, Living Colour went on on the next stage over, so I went over to the barricade and took this shot:

"Cult of Personality", and a bunch of songs that sound just like "Cult of Personality". Aw, yeah. Anything that reminds me of GTA: San Andreas will always be the best. After that, it was over to the other side of the park, where I paid half attention to Bayside and Every Time I Die while getting the best possible spot for my current favorite band...

That's right, wearing a super sweet "Gender is Over" top, it's Laura Jane Grace and Against Me!. I'm 2-for-2 in getting right up front during Against Me! sets, and I have every intention of making that 10-for-10 or so. They only got 45 minutes, but they didn't mess around- starting with True Trans Soul Rebel into Pints of Guinness Make You Strong into Unconditional Love into Walking is Still Honest. I mean, how do you beat that? Well, maybe by ending with a crowd-sized singalong of Black Me Out, Thrash Unreal, and I Was A Teenage Anarchist. They took me to church. No other way to put it. I consider myself very fortunate that every time I notice I've changed as a person, I luck into finding the band that speaks to what I've learned, as well as to how far I still have to go. The fact that Against Me! is that band for me, right now, is one of my favorite things about myself. After that, I took an hour to eat, drink, smoke- sorry Atreyu and Coheed and Cambria, you just aren't very good- and stake out a decent spot for Flogging Molly. This was Flog show #3 for me, and while I wouldn't go so far as to call them one of my favorite bands, they're consistent, fun, and some of the better performers I've seen. I love Dave King's charisma- constantly expressing his gratitude to be able to do what he does, without ever sounding disingenuous or obsequious- and the way Bridget Regan switches from fiddle to tin whistle and back again, never missing a beat. They rocked every minute of their hour, although I couldn't stay till the end. Another band on the other side of the park was beckoning, and besides, Flog had already played "Tobacco Island", so who cares what else they did? That other band I had to go see? Chicago's very own Alkaline Trio. Now, I haven't re-ranked my favorite albums of all time in a while, and it's possible that this is no longer true, but I think the Trio's "From Here to Infirmary" is still my #1. That album was the soundtrack to my mid-20's, and "Trucks and Trains" is still in my top 3 songs of all time. It was actually my hardest choice of the weekend- do you see Alkaline Trio or Faith No More in this time slot? I study Setlist.fm like it's my job, and I knew that Alkaline Trio wouldn't play a ton of stuff from the album I love, and I also knew that this was probably my last chance to see Faith No More. But in the end I went with the band I like more, and I'm happy with that. I did get Armageddon, Mr. Chainsaw, and- as the closer- Radio. So I was on some kind of high when I trekked back through the mud to the far corner of Douglas Park and the Roots stage, to catch my headlining act of choice: Ice Cube, with "special guests". I was hoping for Dre and did not get him, but there was MC Ren and DJ Yella, and there were a whole lot of white dudes unsure if they are allowed to yell certain words, even if they were just rapping along. I say yes, but honorable folk may differ. Anyway, once the "Straight Outta Compton" part of Ice's set was over, I decided to switch stages- basically turning around and walking 50 feet- and see how No Doubt was. My timing was perfect. I missed all the crappy No Doubt songs- there are plenty- I caught "Sunday Morning" and "Don't Speak", and I saw Gwen climb all the way up the side of the stage to sing "Just a Girl", before ending with "Spiderwebs". All the goodness possible in a No Doubt set, concentrated and delivered in a 20-minute burst. When the lights went out on that stage, I could hear Ice Cube ending his set with "It Was a Good Day". Damn right. It did kind of suck waiting for 80 minutes with everyone else to get on a Pink Line train, but for this night, it was worth it.

Day 2 was a shorter day for me, as we arrived later and didn't stay for the headliners. In fact, I probably would have sold my tickets to day 2 if it wasn't for one thing: Rancid was set to play "...And Out Come The Wolves" in its entirety as their set. The Everlasting Dave of 20 years ago would be so proud of me. We arrived too late to catch The Ataris, Gwar, The Joy Formidable and The Dead Milkmen, but we were just in time for Babes in Toyland, who I was unreasonably excited to see. I mean, Sleater-Kinney wasn't in the lineup, but Babes in Toyland are kind of like the bad-acid-trip psychotic version of S-K, right? I think they are. After that was Pennywise, another punk band I should probably know better than I do, but whatever. I can sing every word to Same Old Story and Bro Hymn and I'm not sure anyone needs to know more than that.

 

After this, I called an audible on my initial plan. I intended to see Echo & the Bunnymen, Bootsy Collins, and Merle Haggard all in a row- just to say I did exactly that- but it wasn't until ten minutes before Echo went on that I realized I knew zero songs and gave zero craps about any of those performers. Pennywise had me feeling the punk, so instead of that trip down someone else's memory lane, I caught half an hour of The Lawrence Arms and then staked my place at the tiny corner stages to see CIV. I knew just the one CIV song, but I like it, and the band has a pretty good reputation, so I talked myself into CIV being a rarer opportunity than the three acts I was blowing off. Maybe I was right, maybe I was wrong, but man, CIV rocked the tiny little group of people who were there to see them. The fun, the energy, the laid-back attitude with real punk rock behind it- this probably ended up being my third-favorite set of the whole weekend. Here's the part where Anthony Civarelli (far right) invited the women in the audience up on stage for "Set Your Goals".

After this, I did in fact set my goals: to be front and center while Rancid played the best album of the 90's in its entirety. I caught the end of Alexisonfire and the entirety of Drive Like Jehu while staking out my spot, but I don't remember a thing from either of them. What I do remember is how I felt when this happened:

Yes, that's just a guy doing a sound check, but that backdrop had just gone down, and it became real. I love a good headbang, and I enjoy a little folk rock as much as a person should, but there's nothing like a whole crowd of people singing along to punk songs so loud it drowns out the band. I was surrounded by people who love "...And Out Come The Wolves" just as much as I do, and it was a damn beautiful thing. It was also the end of our Day 2. After the Pink Line debacle of Day 1, our conclusion was that none of the headliners- Iggy Pop, Taking Back Sunday, or System of a Down- was worth that extra standing-and-waiting time, so we called it an early night to rest up for Sunday.

Now, the final day of 3. By this time every inch of Douglas Park smelled like a cow pasture and there was nowhere to walk without ankle-deep mud threatening to eat your shoes. But hey, bands were playing, tickets were bought and paid for, so why not? I made it a point to get there a little earlier on Sunday, because there was a solid list of bands I wanted to see. That list started at 2:15 with Hum, a 90's grunge band I remembered solely for their one modest hit "Stars".

It turns out most of Hum's songs sound exactly like "Stars", and that suited me just fine. After that came De La Soul, who spent just as much time demanding audience participation as they did performing. 

Then I slogged my way across the park to catch Less Than Jake, a ska-punk band I know mostly for their covers of other people's music. This was fun, though. I failed to get a good picture of it- I have no idea how- but Less Than Jake has a mascot. This is a guy in full costume who looks like a Bart Simpson/ Calvin/ Dennis the Menace hybrid and spends the set flipping off the crowd, grabbing his mascot crotch, and blasting the crowd with squirt guns. I was entertained. My pic, however, just shows the band. Sorry about that.

At this point, I had half an hour to kill, but since I decided not to drink on the last day I didn't have to stand in a beer line or a port-a-potty line. So instead I just turned around to the stage behind me, and was in a fine position to get a face full of sun and Kongos. I guess everyone knows their song "Come With Me Now", but I was more impressed with their "Come Together/ Gin and Juice" mashup.

Turning back around- It's truly amazing how long you can stand in one place when you don't have to buy beer or pee every 45 minutes- I got to experience something I never knew I needed: a live performance by Andrew W.K. 

The over-the-top energy, the ninja-girl backup vocalist who spends most of the set shadow kickboxing, the band's full commitment to not recognizing their own painfully obvious ridiculousness... Frankly, I loved it all. I didn't go out and fill up iTunes with Andrew W.K. music or anything, and in fact I would be fine if I never heard one of their songs again, but this was a fun way to spend 45 minutes. My next stop was across the park, where my plan was to move gradually forward throughout Cypress Hill, listen to the Airborne Toxic Event from the next stage over, and be in perfect position for Snoop Dogg, who was set to play "Doggystyle" in its entirety. Phase one was harder than expected, but I got it done, and Cypress Hill was awesome:

Phase two was also easily accomplished. I was dead center in front of the stage Snoop was set to take in just an hour, and I could hear the Airborne Toxic Event and see their big screens from the next stage over. So that was fine. With about twenty minutes before Snoop was scheduled to go on, my whole area was subsumed in a big ol' pot cloud. Everyone got good and stoned... And then Snoop was late. And then Snoop was later. If it hadn't been for THC, there would have been something approximating a riot, and as it was, there was still plenty of booing and angry chanting. Half an hour past his scheduled start time, an intro by Lady of Rage only made things worse. When Snoop finally took the stage, he blamed Riot Fest for not having his videoboard working, and instead of a full performance of a seminal 90's album, we got a medley of bits and pieces from across his career. The kind of thing you'll see if Snoop is playing regular Vegas matinees in 20 years. They cut his mic after about 25 minutes so headliners Modest Mouse could go on one stage over. Before that night, I had no idea it was possible to be stoned and indignant at the same time. It was a crap way to end an incredible weekend, but it could have been worse. I could have stuck around and watched the "classic electronica" of The Prodigy, or the general awfulness of Modest Mouse. I guess leaving on a bad note was going to happen no matter what. But they can't take Against Me!, Rancid, CIV, Alkaline Trio, or Andrew W.K. away from me. No, they cannot.

2015 Concerts, Part I: Praying That The Taps Will Keep The Holy Water Flowin'

[Note: What follows was mostly written in October, before a series of unfortunate events prevented me from writing for two months. The MLB Wrapup series I started with my last post is now pointless to finish, Winning the Winter is overdue but in the pipeline, and posts about 2015 music demand to be written at some point over the next two weeks. What follows is the start of the latter.]

This is the "something completely different" I mentioned a couple months ago: The year 2015 in the concert life of The Everlasting Dave. It was a year worth writing about, as I crossed a few bands off the top of my must-see list, saw some bands I hadn't seen in many years, and saw my two favorite bands for the second time each. Some people go to church every week. I go to a rock show every couple months. Best I can tell, there's no difference.

Our story begins in June with my first-ever trip to FirstMerit Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island to see suburban white girl rapper K-Flay, godfathers of emo Dashboard Confessional, and creepy uncles of emo Third Eye Blind. It rained hard all day and night- that's bad!- but they had reasonably priced Budweiser tallboys- that's good! I spent part of K-Flay's set in line to spend 40 bucks on a Dashboard Confessional hoodie, and I'll just call that time well spent, because "suburban white girl rapper" is not something I'm interested in in a post-Iggy Azalea world. I mean, K-Flay isn't nearly as bad as Iggy from what I saw, but better safe than sorry. I was only there for the Dashboard, a band I've been hot and cold on over the years as their catalog is wildly inconsistent. It's been several years since their last new album, and that's given me the time and perspective I needed to figure out that Dashboard Confessional was a big part of my college years and their music has aged much better than I ever expected. I listened to them semi-ironically when I was 20-ish and happy, I listened to them when I was in chemo because I needed something mellow yet meaningful, and I listened to them when I was getting ready to drop out because nostalgia. I love sincerity and soul-bearing in the music I listen to, and that's 100% of what they do. I'll say this for frontman Chris Carrabba, too- not only is he really, really, ridiculously good-looking, he also knows everyone who loves his band fell in love with them because of their first two albums. Too many bands and artists peak early and spend the rest of their careers running from it. Half of Dashboard's set came from that early stuff, and apart from my standard "I hope they play this random song I know they won't play" song, I got most of what I was after. Dashboard was one of the top bands on my concert bucket list, and they didn't let me down. Here's the last three songs, with special guest vocals by the dude filming it. The last one, "Hands Down" (10:00), is their best song by a mile. I'm one of the poncho people on the left.

This is something that only gets admitted on a blog with no readership, but there was a time when the night's headliner, Third Eye Blind, was my musical triple crown winner: favorite album, favorite song, favorite band. Hey, I was 16, and like everyone who's 16, I was self-absorbed and convinced my problems were unique, important, and without solutions. 3EB was four adult men whose music supported that conclusion. I've seen them several times, and one great thing about having a shameless narcissist as your lead singer is the concerts are always energetic, moving, and unintentionally comedic. As they took the stage to strobe lights and a partial cover of Underworld's "Born Slippy" (more nostalgia!), I got my dose of comedy. Lucky for me, as I saw them for the first time in fifteen years, they were touring on a solid album and a dream setlist. Some of the highlights of the new album, but not too many, mixed in with a murderer's row of great songs from their first two albums. In fact, my biggest complaint would be the absence of a new song you'll find on my year-end top 10 songs list, possibly at the top. Well worth the rain. Here's part of a new one, "Dopamine", followed by the aforementioned favorite song of 16 year old Everlasting Dave, "Motorcycle Driveby". 

So many memories in that song. Depressing, adolescent memories. So that was EmoFest. 

Our next stop takes us to Grant Park for Taste of Chicago, where Saint Motel opened for another 90's alternative rock radio stalwart and band on my concert bucket list, Weezer. (Side note: I assumed I had seen Weezer at some point in the late 90's. I had not. I did see a band pretending to be Weezer at a Halloween show in 2004, though.) Saint Motel is one of those poppy, slightly funky, not-quite-rock groups whose songs are on commercials. I enjoyed their set, but I didn't need any more than the 40 minutes they got. Weezer, though... Oh my god. I would have been in for a three hour Weezer set. They clearly love playing together, the set was a compilation of 21 years of hits, and frontman Rivers Cuomo kinda looks like a pre-cancer Walter White. Also, like Third Eye Blind, they were touring on a  surprisingly good new album. I don't even know which vids to add from this, as every song was good. I'm gonna go with two songs that came out in the decade-plus I didn't care about Weezer, but now appreciate as I should. I missed out on two decades of good shows by not caring about this band the way they deserve. Oh, and on this night, the rain waited until Weezer was almost done before it started to come down.

A few weeks later, I found myself in Wicker Park for one of those Chicago streetfests, full of overpriced craft beer, random food, arts and crafts, a surprising number of dogs, and one big name band who inexplicably agreed to play on a tiny stage on a closed-off city street. This time around, that band was Veruca Salt, who I had just seen for the first time a year before. More so than Weezer, but less so than Third Eye Blind, Veruca Salt played a role back in the 90's in making me the person I am today. Nina and Louise brought the fire on this night, never more so than on the new stuff like "Prince of Wales" and "Laughing in the Sugar Bowl". Of course there was also "All Hail Me", "Volcano Girls", and a stopped-and-restarted "Seether", but for me, gaining a full appreciation of the new album "Ghost Notes" was the point. So here's "Laughing in the Sugar Bowl".

I'll finish this post with what was probably the second-best concert day of 2015 for me: Fat Wrecked for 25 Years, featuring NoFX, Lagwagon, and a cavalcade of other punk bands on Fat Wreck Chords. I bought my tickets for this August concert the day they went on sale, and when the venue was changed from the Aragon to the House of Blues, I had mixed feelings. The HoB is smaller, so I would be closer to the stage for my first time seeing NoFX and Lagwagon, but my experiences with the staff, crowds, and bars was always better at the Aragon. On my previous trip to the HoB, I was nicotine-deprived halfway through the opening act because there was no re-entry. At least they fixed that for Fat Wrecked. So that ended up being about 6 hours of beer, cigarette breaks, and good punk rock- and by the time we showed up, we had already missed the first 3 hours. A few of the bands paid tribute to No Use For A Name and their deceased lead singer Tony Sly, the highlight being Strung Out's cover of "Soulmate". Thanks to HoB's recording policies, we'll have to settle for the performance from Toronto.

Since I'm not really quite a punk diehard* I was mostly there for the headliners, and they were damn well worth the wait. Lagwagon played their album "Trashed" from beginning to end, and NoFX covered both Rancid and Tony Sly. Lucky for this post, that performance is on YouTube:

That's the summer in concerts, and we're roughly a third of the way done for the year. If the next post isn't about baseball, or the music that actually came out in 2015, it'll be a detailed account of my first three-day festival experience.

*: When I get into a band, I get into them all the way, but I don't usually go for "You enjoy _____ so you might like ____." . So while Rancid, NoFX, and Against Me! are all effectively a part of my religion, I don't have that encyclopedic knowledge of obscure bands that is the barrier to entry to the punk community. I also listen to scornworthy pop-punk on a fairly regular basis because I was 12 years old when Dookie came out and it will always be awesome for that reason. But hey, two years ago I didn't know a single Against Me! song, so maybe this is something that changes gradually. Maybe by the time I'm fat and bald and embarrassing to see at a punk rock show, I'll know my stuff. If not, I don't care. I'll wear my Green Day hoodie to any damn show because it's comfy, consarnit.

The Best Songs of 2014

The albums post gave away plenty of what's coming here, but that's not going to stop me from doing my twentieth annual top ten songs list. In that spirit, let's flash back and show you what my number one song was way back in 1995:

Yes, Blues Traveler fended off challenges from such luminaries as Sponge, Bush, and Silverchair to take the title. Not that this is dated or anything. Since the days of that homemade mixtape, everyone from Jewel to Local H has had their year at the top of my list. Now it's time for The Wonder Years to pass the crown to 2014's champion. Here we go.

10. Counting Crows- John Appleseed's Lament

"Come on Adam, tell me, what the hell is wrong with you?" is probably something Adam Duritz has heard a lot in his life. When he echoes those words from a significant other in this song, it's just part of a self-portrait of a crazy guy who isn't entirely unhappy with being crazy. Ain't no matter where you find the circus. The circus is everywhere.

9. Sons of Bill- Bad Dancer

For me, "Bad Dancer" was the main bright spot on the new album from Virginian band of brothers Sons of Bill. This one track provides 100% of the rock on an otherwise super-mellow country album, but I'm just happy there was one song that reminded me of their unbelievably perfect record, "Sirens", from 2012.

8. Against Me!- Osama Bin Laden as the Crucified Christ

Everything about "Transgender Dysphoria Blues" is ambitious and explicit. This comparison of the treatment of trans folk to the treatment of war criminals ("You're gonna hang like Benito from the Esso rafters") is a standout among standouts. I don't think I totally got it until I was right in front of the stage as Laura sang it at the Aragon Ballroom this year, and then something clicked for me. The emotions and statements this album makes are not fun or easy to process, but I can't stop thinking that they're important. All that aside, it just rocks harder than almost anything I heard this year.

7. The Dollyrots- Love Ya, Love Ya, Love Ya

In some worlds, both the last song and this one are considered punk, but that's pretty much where the similarities end. This is bassist/singer Kelly Ogden and guitarist/singer Luis Cabezas at their shiniest and happiest. The video contains lethal levels of cute, as well as some random attempts to show their edge. It just makes them even more adorable.

6. Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers- Ain't Got the Words

Clever yet honest lyrics? Check. Roger singing like he means it? Check. Solid rock and roll, RCPM style? That's a big check. With the only really special track from "The Independent", one-time "Dave's song of the year" winner Roger Clyne lands in the top ten yet again.

5. The Gaslight Anthem- Dark Places

The Gaslight Anthem is just the latest in a long line of bands that resonate completely with me. The easiest way for a band to impress me is for the singer to sincerely bare his or her soul in song form, and "Dark Places" does exactly that, just as "The Backseat", "The Patient Ferris Wheel", and "Great Expectations" did last year when I became obsessed with their old album "The '59 Sound". 2014's "Get Hurt" delivered more than a few songs that measure up to that standard as singer/songwriter Brian Fallon continues his life's mission of putting too much blood on the page.

4. Against Me!- Black Me Out

As I said in yesterday's post, "Transgender Dysphoria Blues" is essentially an album about pain. Its stunning final track, "Black Me Out" takes all the pain, sorts it out, and puts it where it belongs. The pain of growth, of positive change? Keep it, it's powerful. The pain of decay, brought on by outside sources? It's useless. Let it out and let it be. As an autobiographical piece, this is Laura Jane Grace acknowledging that she's at the center of her own personal maelstrom, but at least she's still standing. As a statement for the fictional pseudo-character of the album, as well as all the amazing people who have died young, are dying young, and will die young because they had the bad luck of being born in the wrong body? It's a eulogy.

3. Local H- Team (Lorde cover)

I've heard Scott Lucas cover dozens of songs in my life. Good ones, bad ones, it doesn't matter. Coming out of him and his drummer, or just him with an acoustic guitar, they all sound incredible. This song is the reason I had to include the word "Almost" in my entry for #8 this year. This song melts faces, takes names, then gives those names to other people. Whose faces it then melts. For much of the year, I had this one holding the top spot. My current working theory is that Scott's from the future, wrote "Team", then gave it to Lourde so he could cover it. Think about it. Who has more right to say "I'm kinda over getting told to throw my hands up in the air": a 44 year old kinda-famous rocker from Zion, IL, or a precocious 18 year old from New Zealand (Or possibly Randy Marsh)? Yeah. I thought so.

2. The Gaslight Anthem- Mama's Boys

I've made a lot of mistakes in my life, but every now and then I'm just the victim of really bad timing. In April, I decided to give up binge drinking. I swore off liquor, stopped keeping beer in the house, and started drinking only when I went out, usually at concerts. So what happens in August? That's right, the greatest cry-in-your-beer song of all time is released as a bonus track on the new Gaslight Anthem album. And I'm never drunk enough to fully appreciate it. Like "Team", this is another one that held the top spot on this list, basically from its release on August 19th through to today. But it's not the winner. It can't be. Not this year.

1. Against Me!- Paralytic States

We wrap up 2014 in music with the penultimate track of Transgender Dysphoria Blues, the part of the story right before "Black Me Out", the part that puts us in the shoes of that transsexual prostitute on New Year's Eve as she loses her battle with gender dysphoria in a cheap motel room. The song is bone-chillingly terrifying to me, especially the verse that begins "Nighttime at the hotel...". I've listened to this song and every other song on TDB probably a hundred or more times this year, but "Paralytic States" never gets any easier to listen to, never loses any of its impact. I don't think it ever will. Typing those last two sentences convinced me that, with apologies to Local H and The Gaslight Anthem, this was my number one song of the year from the first listen. Nothing else ever really stood a chance.

The Albums I Listened To In 2014

It's that time of year again- everyone's got a favorite something of the year, and mine is always music. I'm going to do an albums post today with a top ten songs post (with some bonus songs) soon to follow. I'll be brief and try to avoid words like "soundscapes" and "post-romantic" so as to not want to punch myself in the mouth. And finally, nothing is more subjective than this. I'm embracing that and telling you how I feel about these albums instead of what they sound like. We all have YouTube, after all. 2013 had a handful of good albums and a few great songs, my favorite in both cases coming from The Wonder Years. 2014, everything was kicked up a notch. A big crop of very good albums and one great one, and I still have 2015 to look forward to, with new albums from Idlewild, Local H, Veruca Salt, and Sleater-Kinney. For now, two bands I've just recently fallen for provided more than enough awesome for one year, and they were supported- sometimes ably, sometimes not so much- by a bunch of old favorites.

I. The "Oh, that's too bad" Division

17. Beck- Morning Phase. The goodness of Modern Guilt, Beck's previous album, only serves to make this one more disappointing. Was anyone crying out for 12 versions of the same mopey, sleepy song from a guy who was at one time a genre-hopping avatar of funk?

16. Thom Yorke- Tomorrow's Modern Boxes. I forgot this album existed for long stretches of time. I'm still not sure if Thom Yorke is good at music or not. What I am sure of is that he's gonna milk that Kid A cow until long after we're all dead.

15. Smashing Pumpkins- Monuments to an Elegy. The howling, manic Pumpkins of the mid-90's are no more, and "Monuments" is every bit as tepid and forgettable as 2012's "Oceania". If I graded on a curve this would be dead last, because getting a Pumpkins album without anything remotely aggressive and challenging is worse than getting no Pumpkins album at all.

14. Sons of Bill- Love and Logic. If I could forget that this is the same band that made 2012's "Sirens", maybe I'd be able to enjoy "Love and Logic" for what it is. I can't do that, though. It's not a total miss for me, but I don't like monotonous, sleepy albums and the changes of pace are too infrequent.

II: The "Meets most expectations but exceeds none" Division

13. Jack White- Lazaretto. If Jack puts away the extraneous instruments, weans himself off his vaguely old-timey affectations, and goes back to garage rock, I'll take him back. But referencing White Stripes songs does not a White Stripes album make.

12. Bush- Man on the Run. Bush put out an album in 2014. I listened to it. Maybe even more than once. It's far better than I would have thought a new Bush album would be. Also, The Meat Puppets, Pearl Jam, and Mudhoney put out albums in 2013, so just like in 1995, Bush is late to the grunge party.

11. Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers- The Independent. Apart from the sneering "grown-up Banditos" vibe of the first track, "The Independent" is about as bland and generic as RCPM has ever been. It doesn't even have Roger's trademark borderlands flair, opting instead for predictable mid-range rock with a little bit of country thrown in. It's not fun for me to type this, but it's what I hear.

10. Rancid- Honor is All We Know. This was my most anticipated album of 2014. I really wanted to love it, but it feels a little thrown together, a little like Tim Armstrong wrote the entire album in the same amount of time it takes to listen to it. It's been 11 years since the last Rancid album that sounded inspired and fully committed, which is a bummer. But hey, we'll always have ...And Out Come the Wolves.

9. Mike Doughty- Stellar Motel. Mike Doughty has developed a habit of releasing his albums at their most half-finished. Stellar Motel is equal parts shiny alternapop and baffling, why-was-I-born-with-ears rap. I don't understand Mike Doughty at all, but I don't really care. As long as there's a few gems mixed in with the one man inside jokes, I'm still on board.

III: The "Pleasantly surprising" Division

8. Lagwagon- Hang. In the nine years since the last Lagwagon LP, Joey Cape has apparently crossed over to the dark side and embraced his metalness. Normally I'd grit my teeth and complain about the general lack of punk on "Hang", but there's just something about Cape and gallows humor that works for me. Plus, come on, first full-length Lagwagon in nine years. It could be an exploration of the medium of farts on snare drums and I'd still find a way to defend it. Instead, I get to tell you to listen to "Reign" or "Burning Out In Style", the punkest songs on this metal-ish record, and just rock out.

7. U2- Songs of Innocence. Nobody else seems to have anything nice to say about this, so I'll say something nice. Hey Bono, thanks for giving me free music instead of making me steal it off the internet. Also, you know what, the music you gave away was pretty good. "This Is Where You Can Reach Me" might even be great. "The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)" and its iTunes commercial might have become grating after the third viewing, but the song in its entirety definitely doesn't suck. But again, even if it did suck, it was free and I could just delete it if I wanted to. So no complaints here about getting more than I paid for.

6. Weezer- Everything Will Be Alright in the End. The theme of this album is "It's fun to be in Weezer making rock music.", and that's fun to listen to. Conscious of its time and place, "Rockin' out like it's '94", delivering Eulogies For Rock Bands, ten tracks of Weezer sounding like Weezer and a brief three-track coda make this album easy to get into and just as easy to put down.

5. Foo Fighters- Sonic Highways. The more I listen to it, the more I think this might be the band's best album to date. It sounds just like every other Foo Fighters album, except there's a commitment and an urgency to each and every song that's impossible to ignore. This is a good rock band trying to make a great album, and they came pretty close. I just wish there was more of it.

IV: The "Oh god yes" Division

4. The Dollyrots- Barefoot and Pregnant

I describe the Dollyrots as "What would happen if Barbie came to life and started a power-pop band". Usually the combination of overly familiar riffs and Kelly Ogden's baby-talk vocals make it so I can't listen to them all the time, but "Barefoot and Pregnant" sees them at the top of their game. Better hooks, better lyrics, great bonus tracks, same sparkly adorableness. I've yet to get sick of it. There's no depth, pain, or catharsis here. Nothing to take seriously or think about very much. Just a pretty pink bubble you can float around in for a while.

3. The Gaslight Anthem- Get Hurt

What I love about Gaslight Anthem is the blood in their music. Singer/lyricist Brian Fallon writes and sings from the heart, and that always comes through. "Get Hurt" isn't the most consistent album, but the lows are no worse than average and the highs are the kind of lyrics that help you make sense of the least sensible parts of life. And you know every line throughout was something he had to open a vein to write.

2. Counting Crows- Somewhere Under Wonderland

Speaking of blood in the music, I've been a sucker for Adam Duritz's charmingly unstable lyrics since I was about twelve, but "Somewhere Under Wonderland" is completely unhinged. He counts in one song with "One. Two. One, two, buckle, dang." He stumbles over rhythms because what he wants to say is just a beat or two too long, and none of it makes a lick of sense. In "Dislocation" he openly rocks out his issues with Dissociative Disorder and even Borderlines like me can totally get it when he says "I don't remember me." It's like having a 40-minute conversation with the nicest, saddest, off-his-medsest homeless man you could ever meet. And even though you find yourself laughing at the most ridiculous parts, you still come away from it knowing the depth of honesty that's always been Duritz's money maker is still there. It might not be as simple as storming through the barrio with Mr. Jones anymore, but hell if he doesn't still mean every word.

1. Against Me!- Transgender Dysphoria Blues

 Punk rock, at its heart, is about alienation. Gender Dysphoria is in large part about the same thing- but instead of being alienated from society, your government, your family and friends, or your significant other, you're alienated from your own body. That takes all those other alienations and grows them exponentially. The result of making a punk record on the subject is, in a word, devastating. Laura Jane Grace, the trans woman who fronts the band, does what every great concept album writer does: she uses the real emotions of her real life when telling a semi-autobiographical story. A bottom-rung-of-society transsexual prostitute instead of Laura herself just makes for a more compelling main character, and it's nothing if not compelling. The record seethes and boils with pain, profoundly sad lyrics like "Making yourself up as you go along/ who's gonna take you home tonight?" and "What's the best that you can hope for?/ pity fucks and table scraps" assaulting you into empathy, dropped like bombs in a scorched earth campaign, so constantly and thoroughly you'd think they were throwaway punk rock lines until you pay attention to each one and realize that Grace isn't trying to sell rage to us consumers, she's just trying to let it out. There have been three times in my life when I let a rock album change me as a person. When I was 15, sad, and stupid, I thought Third Eye Blind's debut was the most incredible thing ever, even though- or maybe because- it was just emotional egomania. When I was 23, sad, and stupid, I discovered Alkaline Trio's "From Here to Infirmary" and let it become the soundtrack to years of self-destruction because going down in flames was something to celebrate. I was about to turn 32 when I got Transgender Dysphoria Blues. I was still stupid, and I still am, but just like with the previous two, I feel like I understand my stupidity just a little bit better now and I'm not that sad anymore. We don't learn until it hurts not to learn. TDB makes it hurt. I want everybody on the planet to hear this record.