I don’t know if it’s some sort of personality disorder or just some sort of mysterious attraction to the underestimated, but for as long as I can remember I’ve always identified with the underdog. When I listen to a band sing about heartache, loneliness, friendships or the doldrums of everyday life, it seems to mean much more to me when the band is working-class and putting their hearts into it. How much can you really ‘feel’ a song like the Police’s “Message in a Bottle” when it’s being performed in front of a stadium full of screaming people?

Lately I’ve become more and more entrenched in sincere and emotional rock/punk. Horace Pinker is a great example of this. “Pop Culture Failure” is a classic album in every respect, full of solid anthems for the twentysomething everyman trying to find a place in the world. J Church is another band responsible for numerous great songs that will never make it to most folks’ ears. Any of the J Church singles collections (”Meaty, Beaty, Shitty Sounding” and “Slanted,” for example) are manifestos of the disenchanted and horrified observers of society’s decline.

I don’t mean to put those words into the respective bands’ mouths, but that’s what I take away from the listening experience. There is no false bravado, needless machismo or unnecessary guitar noodling to interfere with the music, it’s just raw feeling, something that’s sadly lacking in most music these days, which makes these bands and those like them all the more special and significant. These artists aren’t painting with absurdly large strokes meant to appeal to everyone, but instead they are doing what any true artist should do in my opinion: playing to themselves, and if someone else out there gets it, great, but if not, that’s no reason to quit. To sum it up: this shit is for real.

Recommendations:

Horace Pinker - Pop Culture Failure

J Church - The Drama of Alienation

Husker Du - Flip Your Wig

Boys Life - Departures & Landfalls

Squirrel Bait - Squirrel Bait

Oh, and in case anyone out there made it this far, the name “Pop Can Park” is taken from a Horace Pinker song of the same title from their album “Burn Tempe to the Ground.”