My 20s in Music, Part 2

2001

Moment – Songs for the Self-Destructive

Circa 2001. Doing the Southeastern Massachusetts Pop-Punk / Emo Circuit thing with my band Greenwell. Boston was the big bad city where all the cool shit was really happening and we were on the outside looking in. Moment were the icons of the scene. An enigmatic and slightly psychotic singer, two excellent guitar players one of whom was doing double-duty in There Were Wires (icons in their own right), a soon-to-be legendary drummer and an insane and mysterious Russian on bass. Needless to say, we worshipped them.

Moment and this record are usually described as “pop-punk”. This always pissed me off because, while accurate, the term failed to capture what the band was about. Pop-punk riffs and rhythms and chugs form the tiles from which the band constructs elaborate and complex, albeit, brief mosaics. The average song on this record is under three minutes and is composed of maybe eight distinct movements. Themes are revisited but rarely does a traditional verse-chorus pattern emerge. Not exactly Blink 182.

Singer Jon Howard’s lyrics felt personal and intimate and immediate, as if the events he was writing about were transpiring as he transcribed them. He painted a picture of a dark scenester world full of back stabbers and heart breakers and botched operations and poverty: “FUCK this is for everyone who handles more money in a day than their last months pay combined”. He portrayed being in a rock band as a blue collar job: “I don’t see most bands working as hard as they should be. Fucking cowards! Leave this shit to me!” The words felt stream-of-concious but were eminently sing-alongwithable. They were honest but never sentimental. Dramatic but rarely melodramatic. Most of all, they created a mystique around this man and this band and this city that I relive everytime I hear this record.

Other Contenders:

2001 was a very big year for records and I had a hard time choosing my favorite. Here are some of the others on the short list.

Saves the Day - Stay What You Are

This is the masterpiece from one of my favorite bands of all time and also the record that taught my brother how to play bass. The “the nightingales are singing out” part of Nightingale is some of my favorite lyrical imagery and Firefly might be my favorite STD song.

Thursday - Full Collapse

My favorite record to crank at 3 AM until the neighbors shut the power down.

Honorable Mention:

Radiohead – Amnesiac, The Strokes – This Is It, Bjork – Vespertine