I'm sure it's not a surprise I have a TON of friends who play music. I'm a record nerd, usta be in bands, and was part of the "scene" or whatever, but there came a point where I mostly gave up making music. Like, I still care, but now I'm grown and real specific about my tastes and how I spend my time—if I cared to rock and/or roll, I'd prolly still be at it.

However, a lot of my old friends (high-school era, natch) are still in bands. Some have "projects" or are in newish bands either trying to have fun or (gulp) trying to make a living making music. I fully support them playing, but occasionally I get asked for my opinion of their new band. Ugh. Their bands are routinely mediocre. I remember when being pointedly underground meant evolving and progressing to the NEW, but most of my friends lost that thread years ago and they've ended up remaking the same boring indie rock or sorta-punk something they were tryna play in 1987. Making shit worse, now they've gotten "good" at playing guitar so there's ZERO immediacy. So to be nice, I lie and say nice things about their band. Smiling and saying, "Uh, yeah, you guys sound kinda like Dag Nasty" while slowly backing away is cool, right?

Okay, RANT OVER. Thanks for listening, Slog Out.