This isn't about how awesome Rise Against's music is. They're a solid band with some great songs. A solid B effort through five albums is pretty impressive in this day and age so if nothing else, they're consistent as hell. This is more about how awesome it is that Rise Against exists. So bear with me, because I ramble sometimes.

Rise Against was ex-88 Fingers Louie and ex-Baxter up until about 2004 or so. The only reason Baxter was a point of reference is that my first band played in the basement of Extreme Noise in Minneapolis with them-but they never really got outside of the Midwest attention circle. RA's debut record was just "another Fat Wreck" thing from the 88 Fingers Louie guys. Not much fanfare at all and not really a selling point for most people, even though I was pretty into the Totin' 40's and Fuckin Shit Up 10" and a few songs off Behind Bars but even they were a middle of the road band. Rise Against always hit me like a Chicagoan Good Riddance in the school of take Bad Religion and make it just a shade poppier. I was a bigger fan of Propagandhi, Good Riddance and Strung Out and even later Fat mates, Dillinger Four, so Rise Against was again in the middle of a pack. Revolutions Per Minute is a record I never really spent much time with so when they signed to a major, I thought it was weird, but it wasn't a weird "fucking sellouts" way. To me they never struck me as a "big" band in that vein, but fuck it-if I was in their spot after being in bands for close to a decade, I'd do the same thing. It was like Thrice signing to a major. The band never really sank in, but it was a cool move for a band I didn't see as commercially viable so best of luck. Let's fast forward a few years. Two major label records down, friends of mine open for Rise Against at Red Rocks and I still am here wondering, how did this happen? Cognitive dissonance sets in-weren't they just another Fat band?

But now, officially, this summer, I decided that I'm really stoked on Rise Against for being so successful. I actually think I like the idea of a band like Rise Against more than I like Rise Against's music-and I mean that as a compliment.

Their record that came out TWO YEARS AGO just went gold. That's fucking insane for a band at any level these days. 500,000 CDs sold when it's been available for free for that time (and probably a few weeks before that). They're not really doing anything all that different from their first record today. While the records have catchy as shit parts, they aren't "radio friendly" in the Disturbed man-rock sort of way. Their major label debut album starts off with screaming and not the dumb good cop/bad cop shit metal style-I can only imagine the listening session for that when it was delivered and some 60-year old cruising for retirement in D&G glasses heard that for the first impression of their new release.

What's the point of this rambling besides self-importance and anonymous congratulation-besides making an attempt to keep this from turning into a "talking about 90's Chicago punk" thread because I already talk with Stephanie weekly about which Bollweevils 7" was best, how No Empathy was underrated as well as blow people's minds that I saw Trepan Nation three times-one I believe was with Baxter (but I could be wrong)?

Rise Against are proof that people respond to and still care about music that isn't complete bullshit. If you think major labels actually believe in helping Rise Against spread their message or really want people opposing the war, eating vegan/vegetarian or reading Aldous Huxley or Howard Zinn, you're an idiot. Major music is predictable, calculated and formulated by people whose passion for music has been pasteurized years ago. It's the same deal as Rage Against The Machine-sure people who buy the records might not get the point of it all, but at the end of the day, their presence is better than their absence in the world of music and if it weren't for sales and an adventurous A&R guy-no one would want to touch it for fear of alienating people. Majors care about bands because of money and sales and Rise Against has survived for three records because they sell enough records to survive. No band would survive three major label releases with this consistency in songs if people were fucking with their songwriting-so I can say, without knowing the band at all, that they're writing the songs they want to write and judging that they keep recording with Bill Stevenson-their formula isn't getting fucked with by the label.

Rise Against didn't really change for the radio system, the radio/major system went to them. Think of how many bands in the hardcore and punk scene tried to change their style at all costs to get "big." Think of how many bands signed to majors, promising "we'll get to be ourselves" and got dropped after one, maybe two records or their fans chastized them without actually listening to the record and no one outside of the core base ever cared. If Sick Of It All couldn't survive and in the 90's, that should've sent a sign that any band remotely hardcore should steer clear of majors. Beyond that, think of the records that had the right songs at the right time and still didn't get big. 12 years ago, Face To Face had the song "Blind" on their self-titled album. Green Day was huge at the time and Offspring was gigantic as well. Rancid was in the middle of the ....And Out Come The Wolves blitz. There was a precedent for bands like them. I remember buying that record the day it came out and being put off at how "slick" the record was and after hearing that song, it was inevitable that "these guys are going to be huge." To think that song couldn't get radio traction outside of KROQ and a few specialty shows here and there still blows me away. It's an incredible song. It was on a major. It was at the right time. Downloading wasn't an issue. They had an incredible single. But it didn't save the band, who still got dropped after that record. "Nice try, who's next?"

You can't polish a shit anymore and when it comes to music. Trendy bands will come and go, and thanks to the short attention spans and turnover of kids who like shitty music, they come and go quickly, as annoying as they might be. Major labels are becoming more and more obsolete because they have no identity-they have developed sales and marketing systems, but they have no meaning and people can download their way around filler these days. The bands and artists are the ones who have identity in their system.. For bands or labels, evolution isn't bad. But losing your identity makes you another one in a list of shit so you might as well be yourself and roll with the punches.

So I'm really all over the place here, but it's amazing to me that Rise Against has a gold record, and it's even more impressive that they have sold 86,000 for their new record in two weeks. It's a sign to bands everywhere, similar to AFI, Dropkick Murphys or Bad Religion or whomever, you can just write songs and if they're catchy and you get in front of enough people, good things can happen and you can stay at the top of your game for a long time.

So if you're a hardcore or punk band thinking about penning your next "big hit" about how music is your girlfriend, think again because people can choose to not give a fuck because there's more bands that matter where you came from.