Reviews

Something Corporate: we all know they made it big, but they certainly haven't gotten me convinced that they're rockstars of any sort. They drive their own gas-efficient cars, ride on Amtrak trains, strike up conversations with Amtrak employees and go bowling. They get their hair cut locally, forget to bring drumsticks to their shows and plainly suck at talking to the cameras. In essence, they're a bunch of super dorks from California that play rock music, and while that music certainly isn't in everyone's taste, it can't be denied that they do it pretty damn well.
 
The boys of SoCo opened up this DVD with a classic from "Leaving Through The Window," called "Hurricane." Frontman, Andrew McMahon, makes playing the piano a status symbol: he's got "cool as fuck" written all over his face as he pounds down on the keys with one hand and sings in key (a tough thing to do for most pop punkers) into his mic with the other hand. Everyone in the crowd either wants to do him or to be him.
 
For the old school fans, SoCo belts out "If I Die," and "Walking By."  For the newbies, "21 and Invincible," "Only Ashes," and "Ruthless," all from the new album "North." Songs I hate were of course on this DVD, such as "If U C Jordan," a catchy yet positively atrocious diddy that hates on redheads, like myself, and "Punk Rock Princess," a song that makes the band seem completely immature and if I were only to hear this song and no other, I'd be permanently turned off.
 
Technically, the DVD looked pretty good. The lighting was clean and on beat but a little monotonous and redundant, the sound was miraculously clear for a live concert and the angles captured some great moments. The crowd was alive, and while it was full of pre-pubescent tools, it was entertaining and fun.
 
They're the kings of making young girls cry, a seemingly pathetic group of sensitive guys with deep feelings and cute hair. But hey, that's what the public wants right? Something Corporate never changed the way they made music, or the sound they created in order to get signed to a major label. They got big on who they are, and what they've always done, so the only crime they're guilty of is playing the music they love and letting other people love it too. Isn't that what music is all about? I could sit around and crack jokes on these boys for hours, but when it call comes down to it, they do what they like to do, and I have a deep respect for that. 
 
These guys have done what hundreds of bands would love to do, and that's reach a million people with their cute rhymes about broken hearts and feelings on life and happiness that every damn person can relate to in one way or another. I'd say that Something Corporate has become my guilty pleasure, but the fact is, I'm just not guilty about it. Three stars, it could have been better and featured some better songs.