Defending Regretable Taste

Its really not my style to do two music posts in a row, and yet, here we are. You see, I'm not exactly qualified to be a music writer because theres a lot of music I probably should have heard and haven't. Its hard though, as a lot more albums are made than movies or TV shows. Whats your album to DVD ratio? I don't fancy myself a music guy and think I have a pretty decent movie collection, and mine is probably still 3:1.

More importantly, my DVD collection is solid. Endless Oscar winners, cult favorites and critically acclaimed indies. My album collection has its quality, for sure. All the essential classic rock, enough metal, indie and rap to speak about them and maintain credibility, and enough ironic choices to win the "whats the worst thing on your iPod contest?"(either Unk's "Walk It Out" or the entirety of Napalm Death's 1987 grindcore opus Scum).

But there are quite a few horrible albums on there as well. For example, I don't own any movie thats as bad as Buckwheat Zydeco's Taking It Home is an album. Though for some reason, its on my iTunes. I don't know if this is a fair comparison. No one who has had iTunes/Windows Media Player/Whatever for more than a week knows exactly just how certain things got there. Typically thats an excuse when people see that you have the entire Yeah Yeah Yeahs catalog, but in my case, it leaves me wondering why I have The Bodyguard soundtrack. Its also made worse by the fact that people seem to illegally download a lot more music than movies. Unless you're on a plane a lot, or just couldn't be less interested in what your college professor is saying, you probably aren't watching movies on your computer. But everyone has an iPod in their pocket or car. You just have more use for music, meaning you're going to need more of it. So you just download anything and everything building your collection even if you aren't particularly passionate about it.

But for arguments sake, lets assume this isn't the case. Its safe to assume that the overwhelming majority of music you have is something you like or something very much like what you like because you bought/downloaded it because of someones suggestion. Or in a scarier situation, something you used to like and are now horribly ashamed of.

Sadly, this is the case for me. I'll out myself now.

I'm young, and like most young people we find it easy top get swept up in trends. Especially when you play music and are in high school. So like many kids who were in high school in 2005, I have a sizable emo collection.

You probably do too. So shut up. More importantly, you might still believe Armor For Sleep was a great band. Thats when you've taken your immediate nostalgia too far. Like the Holocaust, as soon as it ended, no one was willing to admit they were involved in emo. Even as it was big, no one wanted to be called "emo". They'd say pretentious things like "I think its ridiculous to pigeonhole us like that, we're a rock band."

MC5 were a rock band, you have song titles like "Lipgloss and Letdown". Lets not kid ourselves.

But there was nothing wrong with that, it was the style at the time. I'm happy to say that I never had bangs, dyed my hair or had a lip ring. And with the exception of some pictures in me in band shirts, theres no proof of any kind that I was ever an emo kid. Except for the albums that I own, and in a few cases, still enjoy.

Sometimes you need to abandon preconceived notions about what something is or isn't. To say that you love Finch isn't an opinion, its a sentence. It means that no matter what you say from that point forward people will say "He's still into emo, what the hell does he know?". I'll use my uncle as an example. He was over today and his phone rang. His ring tone is "Hot and Cold" by Katy Perry. My uncle is 49 years old, gay but potentially asexual in my opinion, and his main source of pleasure comes from picking fights with liquor store employees. He probably has very little idea as to who Katy Perry is, and being gay hes not into her because of how she looks. He just likes the song, unaware of the stigma that being a fan of that song carries for someone who considers himself as cool as he does. Its admirable, in a way. If someone told you that Linkin Park had just recorded the greatest song of all time, would you even give it a chance? Or would you dismiss it as rock radio bullshit right away? I think most people like myself would do the latter.

This was my part of my childhood though. It might not be the best genre of music thats ever existed, but theres some quality. There were some terrible choices, and I'll get into them. But first, the embarrassingly enjoyable....

Taking Back Sunday - Tell All Your Friends:

It has its moments where its kind of cringe inducing, lyrics such as "the truth/is you could slit my throat/and with my one last gasping breath/I'd apologize for bleeding on your shirt" that make you ashamed to own it. But when you really get into it, its a solid album. Its catchy without being to poppy. Not the most talent musicians of all time but John Nolan did an excellent job with arranging the songs and his back up vocals make the album for me. Its no wonder why they never did anything else as good without him, even if the subsequent albums all charted higher.

Brand New - Deja Entendu

I was never into Brand New in high school and I'm not quite sure why, I've only recently rediscovered the album and I really like it. The song titles are a little much. "Good To Know If I Ever Need Attention All I Have To Do Is Die" is a bit much, if you ask me. But otherwise, there are some stand out tracks that I'd put up against anything from this decade. "Sic Transit Gloria...Glory Fades", apart from being one of 20,000 songs from this era to reference Rushmore has an outstanding, simple, infectious bassline and "Okay, I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don't"(another unnecessary song title) is the best song lyrically. Its very minimalist, just a guy and a guitar for the first half, but not in an emo acoustic way. Rediscover it like I did.

Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American

While most would defend this as a pop-punk album, they were lumped into the emo group like so many bands that without the existence of the word "emo" wouldn't have been(Side note: It is extremely strange that Matchbook Romance, Avenged Sevenfold and Gym Class Heroes shared a lot of fans, no?). The title track is a blistering rock cut, "A Praise Chorus" has my favorite lyrics of any song that could possibly be mentioned in this column. "The Middle" had enough cross over success to be performed by my high schools show choir. Its strong from top to bottom and is by far the bands best work.

But there is the bad too. And my is it bad. I avoided most of it, but sometimes I got sucked in. I don't think in depth descriptions of these albums are necessary, but I'll list some of whats on my iTunes...

Underoath - They're Only Chasing Saftety, Matchbook Romance - Stories and Alibis, Senses Fail - Let It Enfold You, Silverstein - When Broken Is Easily Fixed, Atreyu - Suicide Notes And Butterfly Kisses, and worst yet, From First To Last - Dear Diary, My Teen Angst Has A Body Count.

If these are guilty pleasures, its okay. But expect to be endlessly mocked if you openly admit to liking any of them.

Theres one omission from the bad list that a lot of people were probably hoping to see, Hawthorne Heights - The Silence In Black and White. Yes, I did buy it. Yes, I hated it after the first listen and never uploaded it. I should have for ironic/nostalgic purposes, but my friend smashed it against a wall. Thus was ever thus. But to remember it, heres this. And this. And...this.

In the end, I think I can live with myself. I'm not ashamed of what I like, for the most part. We all have a musical past, some worst than others. But we all make mistakes, and if you're lucky, you made decent mistakes, and all can be forgiven.

Unless you liked Boys Night Out...