I'm a 36 year old guy and My Chemical Romance is definitely not targeted towards me, but I actually bought this CD three days ago which is the first music "purchase" I've actually made in a year or so. Like Todd mentioned in one of his 'what's happenings' long ago in regards to Green Day, I usually just virtually take a trip to China and find my music needs, and if something just really, really piques me, I'll buy it just to check out cover-art and such, and because they actually 'deserve' my money.
I was familiar with these guys a bit from their previous charting stuff, 'ghost of you', 'helena', 'I'm not okay' - the video for the latter I caught with one of the kids on MTV, and kind of perked me that they might be something to watch for the future with it's humorous take on the teen movie preview. Here it is:
(See, there's my movie connection for the mov-ay message board.)
Well I guess the future is here cuz I've been listening to The Black Parade almost exclusively for the last three days. Shades of Queen, of course, but also Pink Floyd with a sense of humor, Motley Crue without the biker dickheadedness. And need I mention Liza Minelli?
The last two years have seen this Emo label applied to everything, but this particular CD, really stands on its own for me regardless of its time and place in history.
Reading some of the reviews on Amazon of the people that hate it is sort of funny because they mention that the kids these days have no taste in music and need to be listening to truly great music like Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana and Pearl Jam, all of which sound pretty 'Emo' to me. Funny, because being an oldster, I can recall when those bands came out and jerk-offs saying that the kids had no taste in music and needed to be listening to early REM and early U2. And, I can remember, the days of early REM and U2, and the jerk-offs of that generation saying that the kids had no taste in music and needed to be listening to Floyd and Zeppelin.
So, what else did I do? I confess, I went on-line yesterday and bought tickets to their show that's coming here in April. Me and a bunch of emo kids, imagine that! What's funny though is that all the "good" tickets are general admission. No Thanks! Bought me some balcony tickets way up above the fracas. You know you're getting old when you purposefully buy the shitty seats!
Anyway, I know it's not movies, but there's a small, thoughtful bunch here and I just wanted to see if I'd be pelted for liking this album and band so much.
I am a self proclaimed prententious music snob. I'm the guy who will tell you to go listen to the Pumpkins and Nirvana. The step down in music quality over the last 5 years or so is undeniable. No bands have staying power anymore, we will not be hearing anything from Taking Back Sunday, Switchfoot or any of the other top 40 shit today five years from now, and they are all interchangable. To get truly great music anymore, you have to look for it. Word of mouth usually cause it ain't on the radio anymore.
HOWEVER, after hearing The Black Parade, which I think is the first single, I went out and bought it. It sounds like a modern mix of David Bowie and Queen. I really dug it. There are a couple other stand out tracks as well. Not too shabby, and I'd be the first person in the world to hate this. That said, there is much, much better out there.
So I head to the myspace music search... and basically type in stuff....
my favorite type of search is usually picking a random word and then inserting a "the" in front. FUNNY how many bands actually have the word "the" in front and some are pretty good.
ie "the Skips, the zones, the trips, the hips, the dukes" I think you get the idea...
I mean if you dying for new stuff and bored... gotta do it.