Takin a break before I do some other shit for the night. I've been sitting on this post, and a few other posts (reasons why Minneapolis is the home of independent music and my blog in friendly disagreement to AP's 10 Year Class Reunion for 1998-how they include a Hum record even Hum didn't realize came out in 1998 is beyond me, yet they leave off Dillinger Four and Saves The Day-SCOTT! WHATUPWITDAT?).

Now, let me start out with an intro in the 2nd paragraph. Writing that, it made me realize that Crime In Stereo starts "Terribly Softly" with "This is the start of the second part of a song that you'll never hear" and that's basically what I'm doing by giving an intro in the 2nd paragraph-it's not really an intro anymore.

I hate when people feel the need to say (or write on messageboards) "I don't listen to only hardcore or punk." I usually assume MOST people don't listen to only hardcore or punk and if you do-there's not a goddamn problem with that. So this post goes out to those who just listen to music, hardcore and punk being one of them.

The guy up above is not an English teacher. Well, he might be. He might have a day job. But I doubt it. It's Rocky Votolato. He has become my summer soundtrack for the last three years and I felt the need to write about it recently. I moved to Boston over two years ago, and anytime I hear any song off Makers, I remember driving that moving truck with my fiancee and dog and listening to that record (and Iron Maiden Somewhere In Time) a lot. Last summer, the Brag and the Cuss came out last June right around the time of when I got married and was on my honeymoon. Again-lots of long drives (Boston to Cincinnati-where my wife is from) with this record as the soundtrack to that summer. I have a pretty specific memory, and I think most people can go back into their past and tell you what the soundtrack to every summer was (1998 was Dillinger Four, Disembodied, Harvest, and Saves The Day), but 2006, 2007 and by default, 2008, have included Suicide Medicine. Makers. and The Brag And Cuss in heavy rotation.

The crowded, bland-sounding, and overly-hypenated genre of "folk-inspired country-tinged music by a former post-hardcore/indie-rock band" aside, Rocky is probably one that would even keep me away in my heightened, self-important musical snobbery-but I'm glad my defenses were down and I let this one slip through the cracks. In a way like Matt Skiba or John Samson can (in different genres and different ways), he has a way with using simple words, simple metaphors, and seemingly simple song structures and making it sound much more advanced, and in that, it's honest and relateable.

I guess the point of this is it's nice to know that you can turn into a bitter, jaded fuck sometimes, and things can still come along and envelop you unexpectedly and become a staple of your musical rotation for years straight. I'm not going to post mediafire links for you to download the records. Do yourself a favor...all his shit's on itunes and all of it is available in stores. And he's got a kid. You want to steal food from a dude in his late 20's trying to feed his child playing music? Jackass. Rocky's Myspace Page.