When I was a little kid there were three bands that at various times occupied the top spot in my little heart; Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine and R.E.M. By the time I was finishing high school I had discarded all of these old favorites as sell outs and held up Operation Ivy as the pinnacle of music history. My conversion to punk was particularly hard on my relationship with R.E.M. All the hours I spent as a little kid jamming out to my Green or Automatic for the People tapes were dismissed as a youth misspent and reflected on with embarrassment. My dalliances with Pearl Jam and RATM were self-justified because at the very least they were still heavy as fuck, R.E.M. was just slow and boring and shitty. In the past two years as I become more and more heavily entrenched in this thing called adulthood I find that the tables have turned once again and R.E.M. is now my favorite childhood obsession to revisit. I blast Monster in my Bronco on the regular and unselfconsciously scream all the lyrics to What's the Frequency Kenneth? You may ask; "What does any of this have to do with Dead To Me's excellent new release Moscow Penny Ante?" Well, the point is I think I'm kind of over punk bands. They just don't get me excited anymore. Whereas three years I ago I would have been drooling over the prospect of a new release from The Have Nots, now I find myself yawning. I still prefer independent music but you have to bring something more to the table than three chords and a catchy chorus to keep my attention. Dead To Me is the only straight forward punk band that matters anymore, and their third release, Moscow Penny Ante brings the heat.Despite numerous lineup changes Dead To Me have put out three full lengths and one fantastic EP in the past five years and proved that you can still hammer on a guitar at a blistering pace and not be boring or cliched. The poetry in their lyrics won't blow you over with profoundness and the choruses won't get stuck in your head all day, but there is just something fucking solid and relistenable about them.
At this point I a better writer would tie this all back in to the R.E.M. rant but I really don't have anything for you. I guess all I can say is that some music ages on us better than others and reflects back on us in different ways. While I can't guarantee that I'll ever feel the need to listen to my Rudiments or 88 Fingers Louie CDs again I do know that in 30 years I'll be able to drop the needle on my copy of Moscow Penny Ante and feel secure knowing that when I was twenty-seven I had good fucking taste in music.
9.5/10
2011 Rankings:
2) Dead To Me - Moscow Penny Ante
3) Mischief Brew - The Stone Operation
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