More drinking, more playlist and more stories!!

Started with two martinis tonight, so I'm gonna be honest up front:  I'm going to talk a lot more about each song.  Previously, I've given snippets but, fuck, it's been a hell of a week and I'm ready to explore my feelings...  Ha!  Well, explore some music and bask in the overarching glow that it gives me in my time of need.  And, amen, I'm in need of some fucking music-lovin' tonight.  Might be a strange journey we traverse together, but trust me, it'll be worth it.  I know I'm not the only one that struggles from time to time, so hopefully someone else can also get a little enjoyment out of the randomness that consumes my music listening whilst drinking.  Or when not drinking.  There's too much music and too little time.  Life always gets in the fucking way of enjoying things, so let's fully enjoy this hour of our night with a cocktail, beer or wine of choice and relish in the comfort of some well-crafted musical pieces.  Without further ado, lest I ramble like I always seem to, let's sally forth to the music!!  Just a quick note, though.  Fuck Sam Bradford for playing the game of his life on Sunday night.  Seriously, Fuck off Mr. Deer-in-the-Headlights look who has done nothing but disappoint his whole career.  I don't think he's suddenly great, but man, hell of a good time to play like he's never played before.  I feel like this will be the old "High Fidelity" thing of looking back on this game with reverence like someone looks back on the night their band opened for Nirvana.  He'll look back fondly but never relive a greater glory in his life.  Or maybe he was playing possum because he secretly wanted to get to the same city that housed Mary Richards, the fictional, but still actually coked-out, TV news anchor.  We'll probably never know the real truth, will we, Mr. Bradford?  Oh yeah, no rambling; Music!

1. Dixie Chicks - "There's Your Trouble"

Gotta start the night off easy.  This one is fun and the video is so deliciously 90's.  I loved all those women country artists who crossed over into the pop world in the mid-to-late 90's.  Shania, Faith, LeAnn, Deana and of course, those dang ol' Dixie Chicks.  Sidenote:  I wish Faith Hill was still doing the Sunday Night Football theme...  Carrie Underwood is also pretty to look at, but the new song... Meh...

2. Elliott Smith - "Angeles"

I know...  It's a little early in the night for a tune like this.  But I don't plan these out.  You're living this shit with me.  Welcome to my brain, the theme park ride...  I can't tell you how many times I've played this album and, indeed, listened to "2:45 A.M" at that exact time...  Sometimes depression and insomnia mix ever so sweetly.

3. Rilo Kiley - "Does He Love You?"

This fucking record, "More Adventurous," is some fucking record.  So many great songs.  "Portions for Foxes" is on my all-time-songs-I-love-to-cover-with-a-Rock-N'-Roll-band list.  That's pretty specific, but goddamn, I could listen to this record everyday.  Even the songs the dude sings aren't half bad.  The linked video doesn't sound the best, but man, this fucking song rocks so hard at the end; after Jenny Lewis' character realizes her misguided love.  I often think back on playing this shit (way louder than I should have been) in my shitty apartment in Madison, WI, also at 2:45 A.M., pretending to fall asleep as I tried to hide from my insomnia...  I'm much smarter now, as I know bourbon (or gin) is the answer.

4. Shakira - "Whenever, Wherever"

I immediately bought "Laundry Service" upon hearing this tune.  And, after seeing the video (on MTV, no less.  Yes, children, they used to play music on the Music TeleVision channel), I was hooked "thereover, hereunder."  I could literally (yes, you fucking Hipsters, actually literally) watch her dance in those leather pants and bikini top on loop til I die.  If I wasn't fucking writing this list, I probably would...

5. Nelly Furtado - "Turn off the Light"

One of the guys that I lived with in Madison, WI was a massive fan of Nelly Furtado.  I had originally heard that song about her being like a bird and thought it was OK.  It was kinda different from the other shit I was hearing on the radio at that time but didn't blow me away.  I was intrigued but didn't really follow through and get into it.  He eventually convinced me to give this record a chance.  This is the song that got me.  Her voice wasn't your typical bullshit pop star voice.  She wasn't just another random blonde, white chick.  She was foreign and sexy and shit.  And this song definitely wasn't another boring, trope-y pop song.  There is something happening here that is the combination of a bunch of cool shit and I can't help but love it, immensely.

6. My Bloody Valentine - "No More Sorry"

I fucking love this band.  I can't get enough of them.  Did they kill Creation Records?  Maybe, but if "Loveless" is the cause of that, then fuck it, it was worth it.  This song and their first full album "Isn't Anything" isn't quite the masterpiece that "Loveless" is but I quite often find myself often returning to it.  Songs like this one plus "Sueisfine," "Lose My Breath," "I Can See It (But I Can't Feel It)," etc. are brilliant and would be celebrated much more had they not somehow found another gear (the way in movies there is always another "magic" gear that somehow only the protagonist uses as they drive past the lesser characters and the villain of the piece) and blown everyone's mindgrapes with "Loveless."

7. The Mountain Goats - "Sept 16 Triple X Love! Love!"

One of the biggest disappointments in my life was narrowly missing out on opening for a solo John Darnielle/The Mountain Goats show back in 2005.  I was living in Madison, WI (God, Wisconsin must be on the brain tonight) and Jake and I were performing acoustically as Tyger that Sleeps.  We were trying to get a show at this place just off the UW-Madison campus called, well, I don't remember what the fuck it was called, but it was on State St.  (EDITOR'S NOTE:  It was the Catacombs Coffeehouse)  They liked our demo but wouldn't let us play the John Darnielle show since it was a 21 and up show (Jake and I were 20 and 18 respectively).  Such a let down.  We even went so far as to contact the Mountain Goats booking manager to see if they could get us on the bill.  No dice.  And, to top it all off, they wouldn't even let us in to watch the show...  I hope that place burned to the ground.  Or, I think it might've become a Subway; a fate much worse than death.  Either way, it wasn't even the most disappointing time I couldn't get into a show that year.

8. Great Lake Swimmers - "I Saw You in the Wild"

Cafe Montmartre, Summer 2005.  It was late summer, maybe September.  It had been hot most of that day but the clouds weren't looking particularly pleasant as the day transformed into night.  The show was first come, first serve and, as it turns out, Andrew Bird was much more popular than we thought.  It was Jake, my girlfriend at the time and me.  We excitedly headed over to see a Tony Dekker solo show.  Jake and I were hopelessly in love with the Great Lake Swimmers eponymous first album and were beyond excited to see this man at such an intimate venue.  Only we miscounted the men, Liz.  We got in line around 8pm, with the show at 9pm.  Shortly thereafter, it started to rain.  Slowly, the rain got heavier and heavier.  As we stood there getting soaked, amongst the other 50-75 people in line, the venue kept telling us they would let more of us in, in just a bit.  Turns out they also miscounted the men, and after standing in the pouring rain for the better part of an hour, we were told there was no more room.  The show was officially "sold out."  Dejected, drenched and thoroughly denied the aural pleasure we so desired, we headed home.  Jake headed back to the apartment.  My girlfriend at the time and I, already wet, walked to the JMP (James Madison Park) and swang on the swings in the rain, watched the fish and ducks in the rain, and generally acted like little children, splashing in puddles and running amok (we so rarely get to "run amok" as an adult).  When we got back to my apartment we were wet, muddy, tired and I had almost forgotten about my disappointment in missing the show.  And, at the end of the night, I still got laid.  So I have that going for me, which is nice...

9. Jens Lekman - "Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo"

Remember when Pitchforkmedia.com was a reliable source for introducing and critiquing new music?  I recall buying everything they gave an 8.5 or higher rating and just fucking loving it.  They never missed.  They brought so many new artists and albums into my life, like Jens Lekman and his collection of brilliant pop tunes called "Oh You're So Silent Jens."  I played that shit like it was the cure for cancer.  I loved it.  I cherished it.  I gave away the only physical copy I've found just so another human could enjoy Jens' songs the way I did.  So, needless to say, I was pumped as fuck when I found out Jens was releasing a new record.  I had built up "Oh You're So Silent Jens" so much in my head, I didn't think anything new would hold up.  But it did.  I love this album and this song is by far my favorite; probably my favorite Jens song altogether.  Definitely my most played.  And trust me, that's saying a lot.  It's just so goddamn fun...

10. The Prodigy - "Firestarter"

I can't believe this wasn't the first song I put on a drinking playlist.  Two things:  First, I remember hearing/seeing The Prodigy on MTV2 late one night shortly after it was released.  "Breathe" was the first song I heard from them.  I don't know if I missed "Firestarter," or they actually released "Breathe" first in the States, but either way I fucking hated it.  My 11 year old brain couldn't figure out what the hell this was or why anyone would like it.  It was so fucking weird.  The two singers were all sorts of not-from-rural-Southeastern-Wisconsin and didn't quite compute in my tiny, still-evolving brain.  BUT, I couldn't stop thinking about it.  Shortly after, I saw/heard "Firestarter," once again on MTV2.  I still didn't like it, but once again, I couldn't shake the images and sounds from my head.  Then I saw the video for "Smack My Bitch Up" and I was in love.  It was such a dramatic music video and such a statement at around the same time shit like THIS was happening.  I bought the cassette, never told my mom about it, for fear she would take it away, and listened to it religiously on my Walkman while vacuuming the house or mowing the lawn.  At the time, I alternated only two tapes, "Fat of the Land" and Boyz II Men's "II," in my Walkman.  That was until "The Slim Shady LP" entered my world and I found the second tape I wouldn't tell my mom about...

Second, any Prodigy song always reminds me of one of the best nights of my life and how The Prodigy were the undisputed high point of that night.  My girlfriend and I were visiting my family back in Wisconsin and stayed for a couple of nights in Milwaukee.  We were close to Old World/3rd Street area.  We found a piano bar on 3rd that was a hoot and half.  After meeting another couple, one of whom was a former Canadian Metal Singer (the husband), we set off on the nights journey.  We tried a couple more bars before running into some random guy whose buddy was a bartender at another bar that had a DJ and dance floor, or some shit like that.  By that point of the night, dancing sounded like the best fucking thing ever in the history of the world, so we hopped in a cab with "random guy" and he made good on his promise.  He not only got us some free drinks, but brought us to a dance floor.  The DJ was awesome and dancing filled the rest of the night.  The floor was packed and people were in good spirits.  After a while, I mentioned to my girlfriend that it would probably be the best thing ever if he would play some Prodigy.  She urged me to ask Mr. DJ.  I was going to when I realized it was probably advantageous to our position should a pretty girl make the request, as he would, therefore, be more inclined to acquiesce.  So she ran up and chatted him up a bit.  I'll never forget the look on his face the moment she must have said the words "The Prodigy."  They were having a good little conversation, she had obviously complimented him, when suddenly, he was taken aback, in a good way.  He smiled and I knew then that we were in business.  He then did play some Prodigy ("Smack My Bitch Up") and it indeed was the best thing ever.  What more in life could you want besides a pretty girl, the Prodigy and a dance floor?  Fucking seriously...

11. Iron and Wine - "The Trapeze Swinger"

I've made it this far without mentioning the sentimentality bug.  Well, fuck...  I could regale you with interesting (or sort-of-interesting, depending on your own personal level of narcissism) tales about this song, but I could write 10,000 words on what this songs means, and has meant, to me.  This song defined a time, a place, a relationship, a bout of depression, A New Hope (ha!) and the way that I think about music and the notion that certain songs can actually soundtrack our lives.  There are quite a few records and songs I think of this way, but few are more integral and embedded than this one.  I won't go into it now, but suffice it to say, it was sad.  And happy, in remembrance.  And hopeful.  And truthful.  And long.  Somehow the experience, feeling, emotion and scars lasted longer than this song...  And that's a feat as there's nineteen thousand verses in this song.  And each one is better and sadder than the last; just like life...

Well, goodnight y'all.  I've barely the competence to speak, let alone write, so I'm out.  Til we meet again...

New Music Sucks, Part I. Mumford & Sons Ruined My Will to Live. Well, Almost...

New Music Sucks, Part I:  Fuck Mumford & Sons...

            Sitting here, enjoying a fine glass of Scotch(Glenmorangie, if you’re wondering, even though you probably weren’t.  It’s the nectar of the gods, brought down to earth for our sipping pleasure and is surely the finest beverage available to a mere mortal) and ruminating on why I hate new music so much, I have come to a few different conclusions:  One, music today IS actually much more terrible than it used to be(my most likely candidate, but all in due time, my dear, all in due time).  Two,  is what I call the “Bitter Old Man Syndrome.” In this scenario I have been completely jaded by my Classic Rock upbringing(Thanks Mom! Seriously though, that is not meant to be sarcastic.  I actually am thankful I had her Vinyl to flip through instead of obsessing over Blackstreet’s “No Diggity,” which I did do in equal measure to be honest.  And, man, nothing gets a party going like “No Diggity” and “California Love.”  I am all-encompassingly a child of the Nineties).  And Three,  maybe, just maybe, it’s actually pretty good and I would like it if I gave it half a chance, which to be honest, maybe I haven’t…  Well, maybe I have,  fuck, I don’t know.  I totally fell for the Arcade Fire’s first album “Funeral” as a savior of modern Rock N’ Roll(as proclaimed by Pitchforkmusic.com, now just pitchfork.com, which has gone the way of Popular Music and sucks my hairy, sweaty nutsack, but more on that later, if I still have the strength, which I probably won’t), the heir apparent to Bruce and all the Holiness that He stood for, the record that I, as a Rock N’ Roll purist, have been waiting for, for many years.  I used to walk around Madison, Wisconsin with my Walkman/Discman, extra CD’s in the pouch of my Green Bay Packers hoodie, listening to “Funeral” over and over again as I walked through James Madison Park(or Tenney Park since it had footbridges which seemed very poetic and beautiful to me at the time, though, Tenney Park was usually my Bob Dylan’s “Love and Theft” walking route).  Full disclosure, the other CD’s in my aforementioned Packers hoodie pouch were the Stars “Set Yourself on Fire” which I loved for the romance and nostalgia it brought to High School and teenage relationships(being eighteen at the time,  they were of the utmost importance to me as that was all I had in regards to women) and Death Cab for Cutie’s “Transatlanticism” which had the song “We Looked Like Giants” which was was sort of an anthem at the time seeing as back in the tiny shit town I grew up in, the only places to make-out proper with a girl were parks and scarcely driven country roads, so, we spent a lot of time in the back of whatever shitty car we could buy with five hundred bucks, trying desperately for a lay, though in my case, mostly settling for some good tongue and a tit grab, such is life… 

            So, anyway, let’s start with Theory One:  Music today IS actually much more terrible than it used to be.  To forewarn you, this is not going to be a rant about Justin Bieber or Miley Cyrus, we’ll save that for another day as there have always been crappy pop artists being exploited(and having their lives thusly destroyed), though handsomely rewarded as well, by music industry types for third quarter returns and bottom lines etc. etc. and on and on.  This is going to focus a bit more on the bands that are supposed to be “Good,” the new generation’s “Dylan’s” or whatever the fuck and so on and so forth…

Up until about 2007-2008 I really believed in the new generation of bands, they brought such hope and beautiful music to my little lonely world, which was now based out of a tiny, dirty 400-500 sq. ft. one bedroom apartment which I shared with my girlfriend at the time and a good friend of mine, who unbeknownst to me, was a bit of a Hippie(read:  didn’t use deodorant, didn’t clean a whole lot, liked to cook couscous at two in the morning, pass out drunk and leave the rest under his bed til the flies got so extreme in the apartment we left the windows open in the wintertime so they would leave of their own volition because you couldn’t possibly kill them all, you’d die trying, which I almost did on several occasions) which I wasn’t a huge fan of to say the least, in New York City.  My favorite bands at the time, not counting what I call the “Givens”like Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles,  etc., were the Hold Steady(about whom I nearly creamed myself every time I got to see them play live in the City or in Brooklyn), Iron & Wine(who also introduced me to Band of Horses when I saw them open for Iron & Wine at the House of Blues Chicago.  I promptly fell in love with Band of Horses first record “Everything All the Time,” only to fall back out of love by the second.  Oh, all those crazy, drunken one-record-stands, I loved you all) and Bonnie “Prince” Billy/Palace/Palace Brothers/Will Oldham.  A little side note here, I listen to music in a bit of an OCD type way:  when I hear a band I love, I immediately go out, buy all their records(I remember hounding the guys at B-Side records, the best record store in Madison, WI, for “Days in the Wake”for weeks and weeks until they finally got me a copy, probably just to shut me up) and listen to them non-stop for months and months on end until I know every lyric, every riff; or until I find another album to carry my fancy for the time being.  I’m also terribly easy to distract.  I moved around a lot back then, so I could only manage to carry with me, in my fourth-grade, personalized gym bag, with “Brad Wik”sewn on the side next to “Horicon Marshmen,” our team mascot(which is not nearly as cool as it might sound, or could be.  One might imagine some awe-inspiring mutant created from the swamp, I mean marsh, that would rip your spine out Mortal Kombat II style just for kicks on a Friday Night.  A being so wretched that  all those who might dare cross it would be filled with and learn the meaning of true terror...  But its really just a man standing next to some cattails),  a select few CD’s.  There must have been a two year span where all I listened to was:

1.              “Boys and Girls in America” – the Hold Steady, I couldn’t get enough of this.  Thin Lizzy type heavy riffs, a guy from the Midwest, stories of being bored and doing drugs, it sounded a lot like my childhood.  I loved it…

2.              “O” – Damien Rice, a beautiful record.  My favorite memory of Damien Rice is when he finally came to the States to tour.  I remember watching the opening band and me and my buddy were so enamored with this girl just sitting on a wooden chair on the side of the stage.  We made countless lewd comments, as boys are meant to do, about her throughout the Frames’(opening band) set wondering why she was sitting on the stage and not our cocks, etc., etc.  Then when Damien came out we realized it was Lisa Hannigan, which we knew from the liner notes and photos in the CD jacket; and also because she was singing with Damien Rice.  Lisa became the pinnacle of womanly beauty for me and my buddy for years after that.  Not because of her beautiful, sensual voice, it was mainly for her looks…

3.              “The Creek Drank the Cradle” and “Our Endless Numbered Days” – Iron & Wine, my obsession with Iron & Wine was not unlike a steamy romance:  there were years of unbridled love and passion, then I suddenly realized it had become everything I hated.  “Kiss Each Other Clean”is complete shit and I wish I could have my twelve dollars back and wipe that record from my conscience.  I’ll never forget what we had when it was beautiful, but I will never forget the damage that was done in the later years either…

4.              “Grace” – Jeff Buckley, I can’t even begin to describe how beautiful this record is or how much it means to me.  In my more drug-addled days, the bad ones, not the good ones, I kept hoping “Hallelujah” could save me.  And, in a way I suppose, it did…

5.              “The Low End Theory” – A Tribe Called Quest, I was late to the party with this one, but could not get enough when I finally made it there…

6.              “Set Yourself on Fire” – Stars, which was my main “depressed” listen throughout the 00’s.

7.              “Y’s” -  Joanna Newsom, I am still not sure why I became immensely obsessed with this record but I did and I love it to this day.  I’ve even pilfered some lyrics from this for my own music…

8.              “The College Dropout” – Kanye West, maybe it was because he was from the Midwest too, or maybe just because the songs are fucking awesome.  I’ve loved this record since the day I heard “Through the Wire.”  I particularly love the memory of going to LA with my other buddy from Wisconsin(the other member of the “Lisa Hannigan is the best thing that ever happened to Women, and therefore all Men who are lucky enough to have seen her” fan club) and just blaring this album, and reciting lyrics and just generally being obnoxious to the point that our LA friend’s shitty, coked-out, ridiculously good looking neighbors(he lived in West Hollywood) hated us…

So, you see, I owned and loved, many records from this Millennium and was all about the future of Music.  Seeing as I myself was a musician, this was also very self-serving, but nonetheless, I fully believed that music was “Getting better all the time.”  And though there was still the terrible Good Charlotte, Shitty Older, political Green Day, Puddle of Mudd, Nickleback, Creed(fuck, there was a lot of shit back then) of the early to mid 2000’s, the new millennium had brought us the height of Radiohead and Bjork and Wilco, dominating the radio and print.  Rolling Stone was actually reporting on good music for once, not just giving the new Britney Spears record three and a half stars.  These were exciting times.  I actually enjoyed life for a few years, instead of being a bitter, old twat and only speaking of things that I hate(like now, if you haven’t noticed).  Then, it happened…  In 2009, my world was turned upside down, I couldn’t even figure out what had happened at the outset, but I knew it wasn’t good.  The terrible thing which could never be undone, and which ruined everything for me(until it was ruined even further a few years later…More on that to come) happened… I am talking, of course, of the first time I heard Mumford and Sons…  For the record, I am not sure I have ever heard an entire Mumford song start to finish, but that certainly doesn’t negate it’s inherent shittiness; I have never watched an entire game of soccer but I am 100% sure that its terrible, and is poisoning our youth with lies of mediocrity, kicking a ball hither and yon for 90 minutes with NOTHING INTERESTING EVER happening, but, alas, we’ll probably get around to soccer another day, we’re not quite there yet.

To put it simply, and relatively mildly, in my opinion at least, I FUCKING HATE MUMFORD AND SONS.  But seeing as I rarely put anything simply, or mildly, let’s go into it further.  First off, I would like to clarify that listening to, and liking, Mumford and Sons does not make you a bad person.  After extensive soul searching, and in a great effort to better myself and generally become less angry and cynical, I have forced myself to finally ascribe to this realization.  I used to spend hours and hours hating people who liked shitty music/movies/books/art etc. and it was a grand waste of my very limited amount of time, emotion and energy on Earth.  Plus, it generally just made me a douche.  So, there you go, I have accomplished at least something with my life, however small and meaningless, seeing as it was something I never should have done to begin with, but there it is.  I DO, however, believe that the act of liking something as shitty as Mumford and Sons is ruining music today, at least what little is left of music, with the record companies killing most of the industry already.  But more on that in a bit, first, let’s focus on Mumford.  I have an all-encompassing, indescribable(even to myself) emotional repulsion to this band(I’m sick of even just typing their name, so I’m going to stop).  They have somehow come to villainize everything that makes me sick, everything I hate about new music and just everything in general that displeases me about the world in relation to music and hipsters and the whole lot of it.  Now, there is no way to accurately quantify an emotion, which is the main reason why the whole thing remains shrouded in mystery even to myself.  But I knew, from the first note of whatever terrible excuse for a song it was that I first heard, that I could not stand this band, that they shouldn’t exist in this world and do so only to torment me with all their terrible music and faces and banjos.  I suppose, that if I really wanted to, I could choose to live in an alternate reality(as we all do in our own way anyhow) in which, since I almost never read music news or pay attention to pretty much anything happening in the world around me anymore, Sports excepted, M*mf*rd *nd S*ns doesn’t exist.  I rarely, if ever, go to bars that might play one of their wretched songs, associate with no one, since everyone I know has undoubtably heard me rant and rave of my hatred towards them,  who would dare mention them(fearing I would launch into it once again) and could generally live a very M*mf*rd *nd S*ns -free life.  But I don’t.  I instead, and probably unwisely, force myself to deal with it, and by deal with it, I mean just be angry about it all the time. 

           One of the things that has always interested me is our ability, as humans, to immediately identify things that we dislike.  It happens all the time, and on a wide variety of topics.  We meet people, whom we’ve never seen before, and immediately don’t like them, based on nothing real, at least not yet.  We see food that instantly turns our stomach.  We identify books and movies we won’t like without ingesting any of the content.  But how?  And why?  It seems the consensus of people much, much smarter than I, not that that is a terribly difficult accomplishment, but nonetheless, is that our brains are far more capable than we give them credit for and are able to instantly process thousands of bits of data, weigh them within the context of our past experiences and likes/dislikes etc., and come up with an answer before we have even begun to actively “think” about whatever it might be we are forming an opinion of.  It’s happened to me many times, and I’m sure its happened to you as well.  You meet someone, instantly disliked or even hated them, only to find out that…  You were right.  They are indeed a terrible person, who is abusive, a drunk, a cheater, a liar or even just generally a douche, like me.  It happens when you try new foods, like oysters, which I knew I would hate, until I tried them, and then I really fucking despised oysters.  Now, some people like to think that I am predisposing myself to react unfavorably, but I know in my heart of hearts, that I am being true to myself and that, yes, oysters are just terribly disgusting.  This is all somehow trying to explain what has happened in regards to that band which I have learned to loathe.  Maybe, it was because I immediately heard the strum of a banjo, which drives me absolutely fucking insane(banjos are not inherently evil, they can be used for good.  Go see a good bluegrass band or Steve Martin or Steve Martin playing bluegrass, which is actually quite good.  But if you’re just too lazy to learn how to properly play the banjo then FUCK YOU, don’t play it).  Maybe it was the whiny, terrible, trying to be affected and therefore sound sadder than it really is, bullshit voice which sang whatever crappy song I first heard.  Maybe it was the poorly written, lazy, awful lyrics that I was hearing.  Maybe it was the dumbass stomping I was hearing.  Chances are it was all of it.  And I knew, even before I knew that I knew, that M*mf*rd *nd S*ns was the worst thing to happen to music…  And that we could never, as a society, both musically and socially, sink lower than this…  That is until I heard… Fun….  (To note, the first period is from their stupid fucking name, the other three being an ellipsis, and seeing as I didn’t go to school for writing I am not completely sure if I am supposed to factor their period in and just add the proper punctuation at the end or count it as part of the ellipsis, but either way, fuck them for their ridiculous fucking name.)


          Part II to follow soon...