Rule of Three – Rearview
You probably find it hard to even get off the couch. The television’s set on some shopping channel where they’re trying to move ugly silver chains, and you’ve no mind to go looking for the remote. The only thing that you can do when you get home from work is skip through TikTok videos using your eyelids, and crawl on your hands and knees toward the fridge for a slice of cold pizza.
Don’t feel ashamed! There are plenty more who feel just like you, and who’d like some kind of recipe for success, or, at least, someone to pretend to want to save them. And, frankly, from similar personal experiences, I’ve not been able to find anything, at least not legal, that beats punk-rock music. It doesn’t even have to be angry punk, but the sweet sounds of Rule of Three.
The fact is that Rule of Three fights half the fight for you. The band promises pop-punk good times and invites you to peek around the corner. The band does it with a well-structured single, “Rearview,” riffs that have fallen off the Blink/Green Day truck and a kind of hopefulness that is rare nowadays. And, just so you know that this ain’t no AI Good Luck-fest, some beautifully nasal, wonderfully off-key vocals are thrown in so that you know you’re dealing with the real thing. I don’t know about you, but that’s enough to make me want to close the TV and wash the tomato sauce stains off my chin.
90’s Winona – My 9 Year Dilemma
Most bands that manage to lure enough fans to their music are constantly having to play a part similar to the father of the bride forced to make a speech at the daughter’s wedding. They have to get up in front of everyone and speak some words of wisdom. They know that people are expecting this, and should they fail to deliver, they imagine that everyone will leave the event unfulfilled. But do they really have anything to say?
In a time when most pop-punk bands, especially the ones who’ve delivered their best work years ago, feel obliged to write songs about how they see the world, it’s refreshing to hear that the pop-culture-loving 90’s Winona like nothing more than to shuffle through their repository of memories. And, as it turns out, sometimes just telling a truthful story about yourself reveals more than a geopolitical analysis ever can.
“My 9 Year Dilemma” is a fun and occasionally bittersweet pop-punk tune about your parents misjudging what kind of movies are appropriate for a toddler. The singer of the 90’s Winona describes being creeped out by watching a horror flick starring Billy Zane (surely not “Titanic”?). It all feels fun and childish because, well, it describes a childhood memory.
And, it all feels like the perfect angle for a song by this particular band. They write about what they know. But the weirdest part is what happens once “My 9 Year Dilemma” is over. Doesn’t it make you wanna call Mom & Dad to look over some old childhood photos and maybe threaten a lawsuit over their decades-old treatment of you?
