I’ve been a huge fan of Jeff Rosenstock for almost two years now, I had heard of “Bomb the Music Industry!” before but I really got into his music with “We Cool?” eventually I dug deeper and deeper into the stuff that he’s worked on (ie: ASOB, The Bruce Lee Band, BTMI, etc) and I fell in love with his lyrics and the way he makes punk records. Punk is really not an interesting genre to me anymore, there are punk bands here and there that I fall in love with like Ceremony or Joyce Manor, but Jeff is totally different, the way Jeff writes music really inspires me as an artist. Take the song Festival Song, it’s written as a pop song but has really intricate guitar riffs and basslines. It’s refreshing to hear something new on a modern day punk record.
The first half of “WORRY” is pretty slow, it’s loud and the songs are abrasive but it’s not what I expected on first listen. Jeff put out 3 singles for WORRY; Festival Song, Wave Goodnight to Me, and Planet Luxury. Planet Luxury was my favorite of the 3, it’s around 30 seconds long and it’s just a pure punk song, Jeff’s lyrics are almost inaudible but if you read into what he’s saying on this song, he sings about broken promises, the American dream, and wanting more. The second half of this record is crazy, it starts off with “Bang on the Door” then goes thru a few punk and ska songs, then the song HELLHOOOOLE starts up and goes back to back with the last 4 songs on the record, hearing it live was indescribable. There really isn’t a song on this album I dislike, my favorite is “To Be a Ghost…” and if I had to pick a least favorite I’d say “Staring Out the Window at Your Old Apartment”.
So here’s a little bit about me; I'm in two bands, Dollhands is my band and we’re a garage rock band, but im also in another band called Dollar Signs (which is a pop punk band) and Dollar Signs actually got to open up for Jeff on the WORRY tour. Opening for Jeff was a surreal experience for me because almost a year ago to the day I was asking him to sign stuff for me. We played for a pretty packed out Duke Coffeehouse and it was really fun, our set was pretty tight, and then Katie Ellen played after us. After our set I went outside and just laid on the ground, I was pretty freaked out the whole night. Hard Girls went on after Katie Ellen and both of their sets were awesome. Then Jeff started setting up, their set was incredible and it ended up being a really good night. We (Dollar Signs) celebrated with Cosmic Cantina, otherwise known as the best Mexican restaurant I’ve ever been to.
9/10
