A couple months ago I was sitting next to a window at Inn-N-Out, pissed about my cheeseburger (they put nothing I wanted on it and everything I didn't.) My friend James is telling me a story about his band, Guns of Autumn, playing a show with the Arrogant Sons of Bitches. I'd never heard Arrogant Songs of Bitches and I was so upset about my cheeseburger I could've cared less. He went on to tell me that Arrogant Sons of Bitches had broken up and one of the guys from the band, Jeff Rosenstock, had started his own solo project called Bomb the Music Industry! He told me the tale about how the first song was recorded in a hotel room on a laptop, that the song was sung completely out of tune, Rosenstock did his own backup vocals, and made the beat for the song on his laptop. He had captured my attention, if only momentarily. The next day, bored at home watching Spinal Tap, I remembered James had told me that Bomb the Music Industry! has all their songs on their page to download for free, so I did. To my surprise I loved it and Bomb the Music Industry! fast became one of my favorite bands.
Rosenstock had released two albums in 2005 (Album Minus Band and To Leave or Die in Long Island) that have now become classics in my collection. I can now add a third album (Goodbye Cool World) to my masterpiece section as well. The album was released on Quote Unquote Records, the first as far as they know, donation based record label, website last week along with the lyrics and explanations of the songs. The explanations make Bomb the Music Industry! more personal, to understand the stories behind the songs, you can get much more of a feel for Rosenstock's experience. Goodbye Cool World is the product of Rosenstock's life in Queens, New York, on the road, and with numerous neuroses.
Goodbye Cool World's sound is like putting the catchiest punk, ska, pop and 8-bit video game tunes into a blender and putting it on puree without the lid on, letting it splatter all over the room and creating a masterpiece on the same level as Picasso. Previous Bomb the Music Industry! albums have been messes with very little production done. Goodbye Cool World feels much more neat than its predecessors, yet it still maintains the same beautiful splatter effect. The lyrics weave clever stories, for instance in the song "Side Projects Are Never Successful" Rosenstock sings "A billboard is the only thing preventing us from blindly crashing." and discusses the irony of living in America and being in a punk band telling kids that "Corporate rock is for suckers."
Bomb the Music Industry! does not always play music for drunk people to wildly flail their limbs about to which is very typical of the band. In the past Rosenstock has written songs that have brought more than one emotional fan boy to tears. Goodbye Cool World is no exception. On the track "All Alone in My Big Empty Apartment" Rosenstock belts out a melancholic story about being able to afford nice things, like a big apartment and 100 movie channels, but still being all alone. He asks his audience, "Who cares about size when it's big and lonely?" while accompanied by a ukulele, drums in the form of a laundry basket, and a bag of pasta. Other sad songs on the album include, "5 Funerals," a song about Rosenstock almost killing himself only to find out about the deaths of 5 people close to him. As well as the track, "Grudge Report," about being ready to give up on life.
It all comes to an end with a cover of Tom Waits', "Anywhere I Lay My Head." Rosenstock does his best to impersonate Waits' unique voice that reaches hilarious, but respectable heights. The song is a wonderful conclusion to the album. It comes to an end with the sound of fireworks exploding in the background and Galaga being played. The finale leaves the listener feeling cheerful and fulfilled regardless of the ridiculousness of the whole thing.
The combination of some of the catchiest tunes available for free on the Internet - legally - and some of the most sorrowful, Goodbye Cool World is a great album to help introduce yourself to the summer. It is a novel idea to give music away for free and Rosenstock should be taken notice of. If not for the talent he displays as a songwriter, than for his revolutionary quest to win back the soul of the music industry, or destroy it.
All of Bomb the Music Industry!'s music is available for download at their website, I encourage everyone to at least give it one good listen, I mean it is free, what do you have to lose other than hard drive space?
