a recent saturday night was my yearly good citizen night.

i help out at the annual pop quiz that is put on to raise funds for my kids school. now, i don’t set the questions or anything as exciting as that, i suspect that the local people of my countryside town aren’t too up on the more leftfield musics, so i cringe and bear it while people try and guess the opening 30 seconds of the worst of the various decades and genres.

i do it for the kids.

however, upon my return to ireallylovemusic hq in my post nectar of the gods state, i am in need for something to watch and distract the annoying earworms, so having flicked around the 30 odd channels and being faced with either the secret history of porn on ukhistory channel or some dreadful competition/shopping channel, i chanced upon a music video by a bunch of tattooed up poster boys. the song had chords that rocked, melody, and an obvious tongue in cheek appeal.

turned out that i was impressed by the emo sensation fall out boy, and their latest single this aint a scene its an arms race. 

i liked it, a lot.

appropriately, the new album was in the review pile, so today i dropped this in the machine, cranked up the volume and cast my previous cynicism to one side.

the band consists of various ex members of the underground chicago hardcore scene, and so ride the wave of sellout accusations in the knowledge that their combination of hard assed riffs and sweet boyband harmonies sell by the millions and will set them up, and their path to celebrity madness in fine designer labelled style.

so powerful is the bands current position, that they love to poke fun at the so-called scene, and so much more besides, through their smile inducing song titles (thnks fr th mmrs), self deprecating videos and general what the fuck looks on their faces.

the album even has a few detours from the stereotypical chugga chugga mtv-protooled up guitar production that can become wearisome across a whole album, this lot seem to enjoy taking their audience on a slightly more ambitious musical journey here and there. though the presence of jay-z isn’t meaning that the band have gone all thugged up (like jay z has any such connotations - if anything he is full on with the hyped up mega selling white boys with guitars scene - see his previous patronage of linkin park for more detail), they have teamed up with babyface for some dance styled production tricks (check the opening sequence of this aint a scene), along with some mega choral parts, possibly indicate a future prog classic is hidden away within the bands aspirations.

while i can’t deny the appeal of the quality power pop songs with amped up production, the music is squarely aimed at those who are about to graduate, get laid, or dumped, and require a suitable soundtrack for the forthcoming joy and pain of early adult life.

did anyone say busted for american teenagers ?

not i.

well, maybe.

more detail : here