Somewhere South of Here – July
Genre: Punk, Pop Punk, Emo
Similar artists: PUP, The Menzingers, The Wonder Years, The Gaslight Anthem
Working-class rock n’ roll gets a really bad rap. Serious rock fans look upon it with superiority and disgust. Yet, it’s the tunes supported by the working classes that play the biggest role in keeping guitar music alive. And besides, someone has to represent the silent majority.
The majority remains silent because, for all intents and purposes, pop culture has opted to forget about it. Rock music and regular working people have been deemed unsophisticated enough, unsexy enough, or, perhaps, just an unprofitable market. Pop culture has no stories to tell if they’re not going to make someone money in the process.
Somewhere South of Here’s July is a true blue break-up song designed to speak straight and provide the courage that people who need this may need. In many ways, this is the most outstanding quality of the working-class rock influences that Somewhere South of Here amalgamates here. It’s music designed to act as a truthful friend when most entertainment works very hard to deceive you.
Track Five – Hold You
Genre: Punk, Pop Punk, Alternative Rock
Similar artists: Green Day, Blink 182, Sum 41, Offspring
How would you explain pop-punk to someone who has lived their whole life in the jungle and is now making a great effort to understand pop culture? You couldn’t. It’s not something that can be explained or understood without understanding the context in which it exists.
Sure, I am certain that you could start with pop music and tell them that it’s condensation and tell them how the rhythms and happy jingles make people smile and move. You could then explain rock as a faster, more aggressive form of that. And, you could then tell them about punk as an angrier reaction to rock. But then you’d have to tell them that pop-punk wasn’t really angry but heavy on the jingles. It’s enough to make any jungle-man confused.
Track Five’s Hold You, however, finds a band that is entirely direct and straightforward about its intentions to mix hummable riffs with romantic lyrics about one’s six-string. It’s honest, and it’s fun. And, if the jungle dweller has any doubts, just tell them that playing and hearing this kind of music simply makes a lot of people very happy.
