neurological dryer lint

well i just paid off UC. man. in six years i've given them a lot of money. and its gonna keep coming. gah.

picked up the new mxpx. i got really tired of them for the last few years - ever passing moment was a fantastic album, but i listened to it so much i got burned out on it. that's the case with most of the music i own. it's like it's timebombed - it'll hold my interest for a few days, a week at most, and i'll get tired of it. that's why my top five albums of all time have one big thing in common - staying power. i can listen to those CD's over and over again and i just like them more each time.

anyway, i digest. the new mxpx, before everything & after, has sparked my interest again. i relistened to ever passing moment and slowly going the way of the buffalo - another great album when it came out, but failed to keep my interest over time - and figured, why not. the new one is typical mxpx - clever lyrics, evenly bisecting the realms of fun and disappointment, of earthly life and spirituality; but this is a band whose songwriting has improved drastically over time. the first time you hear ever passing moment you think 'wow this band really knows how to play together and complement each other'. they've upped it even more, taking the things they're good at and becoming better. they even stretched themselves to the oft-beleaguered acoustic ballad - and pulled it off with feeling and humor. and the production is as good as any record i've ever listened to.

here's the thing - 'punk' bands (the early 90's ones i grew up with anyway) all pride themselves on not selling out - not just avoiding large recording companies but staying true, musically, to the style they began with. most of those bands begin at a certain point when they start playing (point A, let's say). some bands (green day, the offspring, good charlotte, blink-182, less than jake, the ataris) move to point B, slowing their rhythms down and making more melodic songs that focus on matching the pop formula. some bands (bad religion, rancid, mxpx, face to face) move to point C - perfecting their own style, maybe varying slightly in the content and speed of their music but generally keeping things sounding the same - just better. this is evident in rancid's return to their early 90's style in their 2000 self-titled album, then edging back the other way (towards And Out Come The Wolves but not as expermental as Life Won't Wait) with their new disc Indestructable. or bad religion's excellent Process Of Belief, which is a combination of Stranger Than Fiction melodies and No Control speed.

then there's the last group - bands like pennywise, NOFX, etc. that HAVEN'T MOVED. listening to the new pennywise, man, these guys have been writing the same songs with the same lame lyrics and the same chords for about five albums. a lot of bands do this in the name of 'staying true to their roots' - but i say screw that, you're stagnant. no one wants to hear the same songs on everything you release for years and years. innovate. write something new. it's getting old. you've lost your creative edge, the thing that made you stand out in the beginning. move on.