However, every now and again, whilst nestled into a sweaty armpit on a packed Underground train, a song will come on that grabs me by the metaphysical balls. This happened a few days ago when for the first time, I came across Streetlight Manifesto.
My love of skate/ska/SoCal punk is well documented and whilst I don't profess to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the genre, I could bore people for several hours if required. Streetlight Manifesto are a new one on me, so when If Only For Memories from their latest album, The Hand That Thieves, started playing in my ears I was intrigued. Think NOFX-plays-mariachi and you'd be getting close.
I stopped shuffling and decided to play the album in its entirety, and I've been pretty much doing so for the last five days. I fucking love it. Massive singalong choruses, huge skanking riffs and a brass section; this is so far up my street it's untrue. If you like Mad Caddies, Less Than Jake, Voodoo Glow Skulls, you have literally no option but to listen to this band immediately.
It transpires that Streetlight have been around for a decade and have released five albums but this is their final release on Victory, a label with whom they have a serious amount of beef. As a band, they recently released a statement saying they're slowing down their touring schedule and reading between the lines, it looks like they'll be in officially packing it in over the coming months.
So in essence, my new favourite band will soon be no more, and I doubt I'll ever see them play live. The technical term for this is 'a right pisser'.
M
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