Saturday, August 27, 2011

25 Albums. #19 - Ramones by Ramones

Do I really need to say how this album was influential on my life?


Sure, it's lame if a band covers any song from this album, but even if you aren't a fan of the Ramones,
you'd have to be a total dumbass to say that it didn't at least help kickstart a new genre of rock and roll.



I mean, really, do I?

Thursday, August 25, 2011

25 Albums. #20: Americana by The Offspring

Anyone who knows me knows that I often cite Green Day as the band that got me into the music that I'm into today (not to get into semantics, but I'll generally be referring to it as "punk" even though many purists would strongly disagree). While that is kind of true, it's also a lie. The Offspring's Americana definitely came before.
A pretty fly introduction.
Americana is probably one of the best known Offspring albums, due in part to its singles. Pretty Fly for a White Guy, She's Got Issues, Why Don't You Get a Job?, The Kids Aren't Alright... except for that last one they're all pretty campy and dumb songs. But take away all the humorous tracks (including that quasi-cover of Feelings) and what's left is pretty solid.

Overall, Americana introduced me to 90's mainstream "punk" (if you want to call it that). This album may not have been on Epitaph, but it wasn't too far removed from it either. I was too young to really understand the themes of most of the songs (or maybe I was just too dumb) but I understood that I liked how the music sounded. Given that, there's a chance that a year later when I began listening to Green Day that I would've enjoyed it anyway but Americana was still the first semi-punk album that I started listening to on my own, which is how it found its place on my list.

25 Albums. #21: I Am the Movie by Motion City Soundtrack

Motion City Soundtrack gets a pretty bad rep sometimes. I suppose being lumped into the same group as every other young pop group that poses as "punk" will do that to a band.

Unfortunately, I think a lot of people overlook the fact that Motion City Soundtrack, while they most definitely craft incredibly sugary hooks and poppy choruses, is that they owe a lot to the early 90's for their sound. Jawbox, Superchunk, Weezer, Sunny Day Real Estate... you can hear the influence that a lot of these bands had on Motion City Soundtrack. Particularly their first album, I Am the Movie. Having been a fan of some of these bands (Weezer, SDRE, and the Get Up Kids), the influence of 90's indie alternative and pop was something that I could hear as soon as I started listening to Motion City Soundtrack.


When I was 15 or so, I got a gift card for Christmas to a Sam Goody. I think it was a Sam Goody anyway. Either way, I used it to buy the first (at the time, only) Motion City Soundtrack album and it became my favorite thing ever for a few months. But I'm not including it on this list because I loved every track on the album (although it did help when I was selecting the albums). I'm including it because I Am the Movie has a million sounds on it but at heart it still remains a pop album. I listen to plenty of bands who hop around from genre-to-genre but Motion City Soundtrack found a way to meld them perfectly (one could argue that they perfected the sound on their most recent album, My Dinosaur Life, but that's for another time).


Friday, August 19, 2011

25 Albums. #22: Licensed to Ill by the Beastie Boys

This is arguably their weakest album and I'm not even going to try and defend it in that sense. It's also awful that the group originally wanted to title it "Don't Be a Faggot" and, again, I won't even bother trying to defend it. The band members themselves have also expressed dislike for a good portion of anything relating to this album. Did you know that they won't even perform "Fight For Your Right" live anymore? Apparently they haven't since the late 80's.

Brass Monkey, however, remains a highpoint of their entire career.
That said, Licensed to Ill is the album that helped me transition into discovering the world of hip hop. Sure, that's pretty typical and all- given their status as white rappers, but it was this album (and to a lesser extent, Raising Hell), that opened my eyes to a style of hip hop that wasn't what was popular when I was a developing teen (I won't name names, but there was an awful lot of misogyny and hate in many of those songs) (some might say that those things are still prominent in lots of popular hip hop acts today) (and yes, I'm aware that Licensed to Ill is the album that contains the track "Girls" and the irony is not lost on me).

That said, it opened up a new world of music where samples of older music could be used to create brand new music. I still don't listen to a whole lot of hip hop (generally if it's not the Beastie Boys, it's someone on Doomtree or Epitaph or someone who has played on the Warped Tour or something) but I like to think that Licensed to Ill had something to do with it.

Licensed to Ill also brings back fond memories of playing Dynasty Warriors 3 into the wee hours of the morning and this album would be the soundtrack to those long hours of getting lost in the game. I had three characters that I would play with: Mike D, Ad-rock and MCA. What a tribute.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

25 Albums. #23: Hot Pink by The Pink Spiders

When I first heard Hot Pink, I was already well-versed in the first four Ramones albums and the Buzzcocks' Singles Going Steady, so poppy garage rock was nothing new to me. Hell, even the snotty (and, let's face it, immature) lyrics were also nothing new. So how could this album have made an impact if its nothing more than a poor man's Guitar Romantic?

The Pink Spiders are significant to me because they're the first band that I became really disappointed with for "their new stuff" because of a slight shift in sound.

I should mention that I'm not normally disillusioned when a band plays around with that sort of thing; if I like a band enough I'll give a new album enough listens until I can enjoy it. But the Pink Spiders were different. I loved their brand of ripping off the Exploding Hearts (the song Teenage Graffiti even includes a lyrical homage to I'm a Pretender) even if it was overplayed and almost gimmicky at times. But they still had this noisy, sloppy thing about them that called to me.

And then they played the same game as so many bands do. They got signed to a major. They got Ric Ocasek to produce. They made a high budget music video. And it wasn't very good. I'm not sure what it was about Teenage Graffiti (the album) that I disliked, but I think the biggest reason was that four or five songs from Hot Pink were re-done for the album when they didn't need to be touched at all. I know that's kind of petty, but I really liked the originals and the re-recordings were such a huge turn off that I didn't even care to listen to the rest of the album (and on the occasions when I tried to give it a shot I just never cared for it).

These days, I like it when a band that I like has more fans because it means that there will be more people who have heard of them and it's something I can use to bond with strangers. I try to stay away from that whole "major label album = terrible" mindset (for the most part) but I really can't get over how much I was upset by the change that this band made. It wasn't even the "major label" part so much as it was that I just didn't like the sound, but I also know that the change in sound was due to being able to afford a big name producer. I was also really hoping that since they were working with Ric Ocasek and on the same label that Teenage Graffiti would sound kind of like Weezer's Blue Album.


Quite frequently, I'll say that a band's older material is better, but with the Pink Spiders I really mean it.
Above is the Hot Pink version of Little Razorblade (with images of the band post-Hot Pink), while the Teenage Graffiti version is below.



I should say that for the record, I still love the band's first EP and Hot Pink but I just don't care much for the rest of their output. They're one of the very few bands I feel this way about, and I think that says a lot since I enjoy American Idiot, White Crosses and even the Red Album. I guess that this sort of means that it was Teenage Graffiti that has had this impact on my life and not Hot Pink. But nonetheless, they were one of the first experiences I've had with truly being let down by a new release, which is how it got its spot on this list.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

25 albums. #24: A Singsong and a Scrap by Chumbawamba

I think it's a pretty common thing for people to experience some sort of "musical awakening" in college when they begin to listen to lots of protest-heavy folk music. Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Woody Guthrie, you know the drill. Some people have this experience in high school and they usually think they're better than everyone else.


Anywho, I mention all this because I did not have that same introduction to the realm of protest folk music. I had Chumbawamba's 2005 album, A Singsong and a Scrap.
Yes, the very same Chumbawamba that you're
thinking of. Let's please move on now.
During my sophomore year of college, I was beginning to listen to a lot of bands of the folk punk variety but Chumbawamba's A Singsong and a Scrap was my first real folk album. No singing out of key or songs that are only 80 seconds in length here. Singsong is 43 minutes of sweet and soft songs that pack a powerful punch. I had heard similar stuff to this when I first heard it, but it had never really sparked an interest in me until I listened to this album. Filled with flutes, whistles, cellos, pianos, even a few a capella tracks, this was all stuff I had heard before but never in a way that made me want to hear it over and over.

Lyrically the album has a very strong socio-political theme going on- something that Chumbawamba is known for. There are two covers (both a capella, the Clash's Bankrobber and  a rearrangement of the Italian song Bella Ciao). A lot of the lyrics are focused specifically on events that have occurred in Europe, specifically the UK (I wonder what the band thinks about the current riots), so while I can't necessarily relate to the specifics, it did show me a softer side to the revolution that speaks just as loud.




Thursday, August 11, 2011

25 Albums. #25: Turn the Radio Off by Reel Big Fish

This album is almost single-handedly responsible for
teaching thousands of teens to think that ska is cool.
This album. This fucking album. This album came out during the peak of third wave ska's popularity and was (IS) probably one of the biggest things to have come out from that time. Sure, a couple of songs are re-recorded versions of songs from Everything Sucks (which should've been the first indication of what was to come) but it's all just so fun and silly. They sing about how much life sucks but the music sounds so happy! What a wonderful thing to sing about!

That's pretty much Reel Big Fish in a nutshell. Cheery music about how shitty life can be. These guys had the whole early-2000's emo thing down before it was even a thing. Except with horns.

The thing about Reel Big Fish is, that no matter how simplified you can make them seem, they do it pretty well. And when you're a 14 year old teenager who doesn't want to give in to listening to Taking Back Sunday or whatever was popular on Fueled by Ramen like the rest of your peers, ska seems like the next best thing. I spent almost an entire Christmas vacation listening to Turn the Radio Off while playing Mario Kart and it remains a fond memory. It also brings back lots of memories of being at camp in 2003 and 2004, where Turn the Radio Off was one of the mandatory three albums that everyone owned (the other two being Licensed to Ill and Sublime's self titled).

So how did this album have a profound effect on my life?

It taught me (in a way) to have fun with life even if everything does suck. It was an important lesson for me to learn, especially during the height of those angst-ridden years in high school. I don't know how I would've made it out alive if I hadn't (probably by listening to something else, but I like the lessons I learned).

25 Albums Meme

I was looking through my old facebook notes and I found one that I wrote about 25 albums that have had a profound effect on my life. I skimmed through it and it made me want to do another one. Except make a new list from scratch. And write more about each album instead of a sentence or two. There's definitely going to be some overlap between this new list and that old one I wrote, but that's fine by me.

So for the next few days/weeks/months or so, I'll be posting about one of those 25 albums. Maybe if I get into the groove of things, I'll just drop the whole "25" thing and just write about an album whenever I feel like it. 

I decided to put some sort of time restrictions on the list, too, if only because it helped me cut it down to 25 and as of right now, anything that I've been listening to for less than 2 years did not make the final list.

Stay tuned for more!

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

The Copyrights - North Sentinel Island

The Copyrights are one of the best bands in the modern wave of pop punk. They make use of multiple vocal harmonies, repetitive chants where verses usually appear and infectious choruses that are usually chanted as well.  They sound kind of like the Dopamines. Or more accurately, the Dopamines sound kind of like them. The Copyrights formed in either 2004 or 2005, I don't know off hand (I was wrong, Wikipedia says 2002) and went through a period of releasing something every couple of months (be it an EP, a full length or a split album). They've been pretty quiet for a few years, releasing some splits in early 2009 but for the most part focusing on side projects like Dear Landlord and The Heat Tape.

What I love about the Copyrights, though, is that they're essentially the Bad Religion of pop punk. All of their releases sound essentially the same, yet there's something about each one that still makes it completely distinguishable from the rest.

So what can be said about the new Copyrights album, North Sentinel Island, that isn't just something along the lines of "it sounds like Learn the Hard Way meets Make Sound"?

I think there's some sort of underlying theme
about getting away from home or something...
I'm not really sure, to be honest. But at the same time, when it comes to a band like the Copyrights, that might as well be the best way to describe an album. It starts off with Trustees of Modern Chemistry, with a heavy (relatively) riff that seems to be lifted from 90's alt rock and even contains a sense of humor when the band "messes up" (just listen to it). The album then goes to the lead single (I think, it had it's own EP anyway) Crutches, which is classic Copyrights. The album only gets better with the strong bass in Hard-Wired to the chanting of "I'm not homesick; I'm sick of home" line in Expatriated Blues to the energy of The New Ground Floor which would have fit right it at home on Learn the Hard Way.


It's hard to explain why an album is awesome when you've already said it sounds like the last one. Fans of the previous material will know what this means, but newcomers may be lost. So, if you're a fan of catchy, energetic music, I'll say this: just listen to it already.

The Copyrights aren't really breaking new ground here. But broken ground can be difficult to walk on, so why would you want to break it in the first place?

Rise Against - Endgame

I've been sitting on this one for awhile. And by "awhile" I mean a few months now. Like, since it came out. (I don't remember if that was March or April, but I'm pretty sure it was one of those two) (a quick Google search reveals that it was March).

Rise Against is one of those bands that got a ton of praise from the punk and hardcore community at first (with some haters, of course), gradually got more praise while losing some fans and then gained even more praise from critics and new fans, while losing the fans who joined the bandwagon during the previous round of praise and recognition. This cycle has occurred at least three or four times at this point.

I'll admit that I began to listen to them when they released Siren Song of the Counter Culture, which still remains to be my favorite (although Revolutions Per Minute is a close second). I was such a big fan of that album that Sufferer and the Witness was a disappointment to me. It was such a big disappointment, actually, that I welcomed the catchy choruses and melodic verses of Appeal to Reason with open arms. Not that it matters, but I mention this to highlight that my approach to Endgame wasn't "oh, it's going to suck because it's not their old stuff" nor was my approach "Oh boy! Hero of War was such a cool song and I hope their second album is just as good!" It was somewhere in between, kind of like "I used to really like these guys, and they've never done anything overtly offensive to my eardrums, so let's see what I think."

With that out of the way, I'll say this: Endgame is exactly what I expected it to be. I see a lot of people on various websites call out Rise Against for sounding exactly like Nickleback and I used to disagree because the bands don't sound like each other. But then I realized that a lot of these comments were just from idiots copying what someone smart had actually said, and that the original complaint was that Rise Against is like a punk rock Nickleback, in that Rise Against writes generic sounding songs that have potential to become a radio hit, albeit it through a "punk" filter.

Without meaning it as an insult, I do think that this is what has become of Rise Against in the past few years.

This isn't really a bad thing, but it doesn't leave a whole lot of room for evolution in sound. Of course, it does open the doors for a bunch of frat boys beginning to listen to the band while the band's messages go completely over their heads, but that's a risk you have to take with almost any style of music (unless maybe all your song titles are about how much frat boys suck). The songs here aren't bad by any means and they all do retain the same sense of melody as their previous albums and with same humanity-ridden guilt that the band is known for. The problem is, however, the songs have also all been heard before. This album is undeniably Rise Against (save for Broken Mirrors, which I think I've heard on a Green Day album before) (and while we're on Green Day, the intro to Make It Stop definitely brings Boulevard of Broken Dreams to mind), and I think fans of The Unraveling and Revolutions Per Minute (and to a lesser extent, Siren Song) will just need to accept that the band has found a comfortable place with their music.

Lyrically, the band is as vigilant as ever. The lead track, Architects, is a musical response to Against Me!'s I Was a Teenage Anarchist, believing that you can still grow up from punk rock and hold on to the same ideals once you're an adult. I think both bands make a point but it needs to be remembered that while both bands have seen a rise in popularity, the negative backlash that Against Me! has received has been a lot more harsh so it's understandable why Tom felt compelled to write a song about no longer being the kid he used to be.

I think the lyrical high point of Endgame is definitely Make It Stop (September's Children). Yes the intro sounds like Green Day and the chorus of children (Bill Stevenson's children- I might add) might come off as borderline cheesy, but the song really hits hard once you realize where the song's title comes from. While the band plays and the children sing their "whoas" Tim McIlrath speaks the names of several children and their ages. If you paid attention to the news at all last year, then you'd know that September is when America saw a sharp rise in suicides of young teenagers after being bullied for their sexual identities. The names that Tim speaks are the names of those teenagers. It's disgusting that there are so many when it shouldn't even have to be a problem in this day and age. The band released a music video for the song depicting several scenes of homophobic bullying, the tortured teens considering suicide, before realizing the impact that they can have on society, gay or not. It was released as a part of the It Gets Better campaign and you can see it right below (they're all scripted acts, but just knowing that they're based in reality makes it hard for me to watch without feeling sick to my stomach):



You can say all the negative things you want about Rise Against's music, but one thing I have always liked about them is that they actually mean what they say. Plenty of bands will talk the talk, but Rise Against will also walk the walk, and that's something I respect them for.

I've been flip-flopping pretty hard on this album for a few months. It's far from my favorite Rise Against release and it does sound pretty similar to their last few albums, but I just can't say that I hate it- even if it's because they'll stand up for causes that they believe in. (Also, I enjoy Bad Religion a lot so it's not like I can say a band sucks for putting out the same album 5 times in a row). It's nothing special, but at the very least you can put it on as background music for a party and no one will be upset by it except for maybe homophobes and "tr00 ponx." But they don't really count as people anyway.

Direct Hit! - Domesplitter

Domesplitter came out yesterday. It came out officially anyway, it leaked awhile ago and the band decided that if people were just going to download it, that they'd also offer it on their bandcamp for free. At least that way more people would be joining their mailing list. If you do go to their bandcamp and decide to download it for free, at least buy a T-shirt or go see them live or something.

Anyway, even though I've had it for about three weeks I haven't written about it because I've been too blown away by it to even think about trying to write about it. That's only partially true. It's also because I've been busy with real estate school and security school and turning 23 and laying around thinking about girls my girlfriend and how much I miss being in college.

Maybe if blink-182 didn't really sound like blink-182 and
sounded more like if Andrew WK got a Johnny Ramone
haircut and sang some early Thermals songs.
The album, in short, is wonderful. Like everyone already knows, Domesplitter consists of ten songs taken from the band's five EPs/demos, chosen by fans, re-recorded specifically for the album. I would try to describe how they sound in my own words, but the band does a pretty good job at it themselves by saying "Andrew WK meets Ramones meets the Thermals."  Some people might say they sound a bit like Latterman, which is kind of true I guess, if Latterman wrote about more pressing issues like werewolves and outer space. I've also seen comparisons to blink-182, which isn't really true outside of the fact that they both write some catchy songs.

I had a discussion with a friend about Domesplitter, and the worries that came along with releasing an album full of songs that have already been released. I didn't want to admit it at the time, but I was a little worried that it would take away from part of the album's charm. However, I thought about what the band members had said about this release and how the songs would sound different due to changes in the line up and whatnot, and I decided that it would still rule. And holy shit, does it still rule.

The most noticeable thing about the songs is that they're all played faster. Which is totally cool because singing a slow song about blowing up a building or a zombie attack would probably suck even though the critics (Pitchfork) would eat that shit up and call it a metaphorical masterpiece. But Direct Hit! isn't trying to be Bob Dylan or Connor Oberst. They're trying more to be The Thermals if the Thermals wore leather jackets and partied hard. And they do what works best for them. Other than being played fast, the songs keep the same lyrics and same general sense of being upbeat as all hell.

There are some changes. As most people have noted (even by those who love the album) the opening statement of "Fuck You! Get Pumped!" (from here on referred to as "FY!GP!") is a tad weaker than the FY!GP!'s of EPs/demos past. It's still barked with the same intensity, but something about it just doesn't compare to the "FY!GP!" found on #4. I chose to use #4 as an example since its lead track, Snickers or Reese's (Pick Up the Pieces), is also the first track on Domesplitter. The mid-song scream of "Snickers or Reese's" is also weaker than the original's. It's sad because the rest of the song is still awesome as fuck. Can I even say that or is that only to be used to describe Green Day from now on? However, once you get to track 2 (or if you've never listened to the band before Domesplitter), the album only goes uphill from there.

As almost every other review that I've read has mentioned, the new drummer is a beast. He throws in all these little fills and is a total powerhouse. This guy has potential to be the next Dave Grohl if he doesn't mind fronting his own band while drumming for everyone else (I hope he doesn't read this and take offense to that statement. I mean it only in the sense that Dave Grohl hits hard and is always playing for a million bands).

I personally find that the songs that improved the most from being rerecorded are the tracks taken from the first three EPs/demos (I still don't know what to call them). The whole thing is awesome, no doubt, but the quality of those earliest recordings is vastly inferior when compared to Domesplitter. I don't think that the originals were shit or anything, but it always bugged me how the songs on #3 sounded like they were blasting full on into the red on the control board.

In summary, Domesplitter by Direct Hit! contains short burst of energy after short burst of energy, only taking a rest during the mid-album sample of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York and the time it takes you to press the play button again once the album is over. The songs are about zombies, monsters, Satan and space and there are keyboard solos. It's just fun music from a time when every punk band is trying to sing about serious issues. If you don't like it, you're either lying or you don't like fun.

FY!GP!

Top 10 Descendents Songs (About Girls)

The very first thing I wrote in this blog was an entry about the Descendents since their song "Cheer" is where I got the name of not only this blog, but also my tumblr. There, I made a list of my 10 favorite Descendents songs but since it was my first entry I didn't really have a sense of direction or idea of what I was doing and I think the final result is pretty sloppy. 

Not that I've gotten any better at blogging or anything, but I'm going to attempt another list of Descendents songs. This time, I've decided to only include songs about girls. Songs about girls has always been a popular lyrical subject in music, but the Descendents did it at a time when punk bands were mostly known for being highly political and particularly aggressive, and they influenced generation upon generation of punk (and non-punk) bands to follow suit. So this is sort of a tribute to them for doing that. (A slow one, too. It's seriously taken me almost a week and a half to write this one! Every time I started to write something, I'd get distracted or another project would take priority. But now it's done, finally!)


This is probably one of their more "generic, by-the-books" punk tune but it's done so well. Lyrically it's about being in that "best friend in love" position, and by the mid-90's that was pretty typical content for a pop punk band. But after all the odd experimental stuff  they tried on ALL (not to mention the several year hiatus), putting out an album of standard four chord songs was new and exciting for the band. Not that I was even listening to the band when this album came out, so when it came out doesn't really make that much of a difference to me. I'm the One doesn't do anything to break the mold, but it does showcase the band's ability to write a great two minute song about a girl.



Enjoy! is probably my least favorite Descendents album even though it has some of their best songs. Their cover of the Beach Boy's Wendy is solid, but I think that Get the Time is much more poetic. The opening line "When I get the time I'd like to sit down and write a little rhyme for you" perfectly sums up how I feel when I want to write a song for someone- except it never comes out nearly as sweet as it does in this song. 



This one is much more bitter than the others on the list so far. The imagery of dirty bed sheets lends itself really well to the subject of an unfaithful lover. What I enjoy is that, while the song is a song about a break up, it's not one that necessarily wishes harm upon the ex. I grew up in an era where most of the alternative bands would sing about a girl who broke the singer's heart and the singer wants to know that the girl is feeling as much pain as he is. So when I discovered the Descendents, hearing a song that deviates from that typical pattern is refreshing. Also, it's a song about dirty sheets. Not exactly a metaphor when the song is about a cheating lover, but it's certainly not the image that most songwriters go with when they do sing about that sort of thing.


07. Good Good Things

Good Good Things is one of their softer songs that comes from the extremely moody and depressing Side B of I Don't Want to Grow Up. It's actually one of the more lyrically upbeat songs from that second half of the album, being about rekindling a love as opposed to one that's fallen (or falling) apart. I guess that's still a love that's fallen apart, but from a different angle. The verses are pretty quiet, the choruses are (relatively) louder and the song is all good.


06. Hope

A classic punk song. It has the speed and aggression of early Black Flag or Minor Threat (maybe a tad bit slower than Bad Brains) and lyrics that would go on to define almost an entire genre and generation of young men in tight pants and stupid hair who are angry at their ex-girlfriends. But that's besides the point. In Hope, Milo knows that the girl who left him will return to him one day once she realizes her new man is terrible. In that aspect, it's much like I'm the One but more aggressive.


05. Bikeage

One thing I haven't mentioned about the Descendents is how sad of a picture some of their songs can paint. Bikeage is one of those songs. The song is about a broken girl who turns to alcohol and other drugs, the narrator of the song (assumed to be Milo, although Bill Stevenson wrote the lyrics) wants to save her but at the same time the thought of what she's become "makes [him] sick." Not all songs about wanting to be romantic with a girl end with a romance.


04. Christmas Vacation

This is another depressing one. The song itself isn't necessarily about being lonely on Christmas, but being pushed away and left alone by person you love. Do yourself a favor and don't listen to this song during the winter holiday season, especially if you just got out of a relationship.


03. Nothing with You

Move aside, Bruno Mars, this is the best song about wanting to be lazy and do nothing. This one comes from 2004's Cool to Be Cool and it's definitely one of the band's best songs about being in love. After all, who doesn't like to just sit around on the couch with somebody to snuggle with?


02. Cheer

Another break up song. It's definitely more on the sad side than Nothing with You is, but I like the positive connotations it has. That being, even though the narrator is sad about the previous relationship that fell apart, he's (I'm assuming that it's a "he" considering it's another Stevenson-penned song) found someone who can possibly help take him out of his funk and "cheer him up."

Fun fact (as if you didn't know), both of my blogs (blogger and tumblr) are named after the chorus of this song.


01. Silly Girl

This is probably not just my favorite Descendents love song, but just one of my favorite love songs in general. I don't think that's much of an argument among Descendents fans. I'm not sure if I can really explain why, it's just a really sweet song about being scared and in love. (And long distance.) (And more scariness.) I haven't quite been in this situation, but switch the perspective of who had to go away and who didn't, and then the song sums it up a bit better.

And so ends another list of mine. Go ahead, tell me which songs I missed and why I'm an idiot for doing so.