On Saturday, we were hanging around the Black Cat in DC.Outside the venue, a skinny vegan kid in a red hoodie and underage X's on his two hands was passing out fliers about a hardcore benefit show happening downtown tonight (Monday).Today, as I was driving to work listening to the new Fall Out Boy record--okay, you want an explanation?hahafine. Basically, there's been hype about the record and I really just wanted to see what's up. Keep informed.And as I was driving in, I started thinking about what was actually in my stereo, and the awesome advantages of this digi age.As wrong as this may sound,you don't even have to buy a record to understand its (anti)philosophies. You don't have to au revoir your hard-earned to taste the flavor of something so talked about.Essentially,you don't have to commit to it.Like,I,audrey mogger,am not committed to Fall Out Boy. I don't want to marry and have the hot bassist's guyliner babies. I don't fantasize about the guitarist all-of-a-suddenly showing up at my house to play a just-for-me show complete with guitar-move windmill things or something that little girls pretend might happen. I don't wish the lead singer would become manorexia and slim down so he'd maybe be superhottz and emotactular too.I am not 14 and I've most likely got other less romantic agendas.So what does F-o-B have to do with me?Right?Sowhat I do want when I listen to this recordis mass perspective.I know what sort of music FoB's extensive team of promotionalizers produce. I know what I'm getting into and what I hear (on the surface) when I when my speakers feed Infinity on High to me. I've accepted what they (again) *essentially* are - which, without getting complicatedmeans (to me) that they're radio music. (For the sake of time and not lengthening discussion,I'm not going to tangent or define radio music.)What I want to DO want to LISTEN for is if they're worthy (yes, possibly) of more and why the old men with extensive record collections are letting their ears take mention of this bandand why these fall out boys who post their privates online (get with the celebu-gossip) are worthy of having a dubbed-"strong" record.And, on the band-commitment and record sampling tipI also wonder if that's one of the things that used to divide a lot of these genres and groups and scenes pre-P2P networking.Before the access was that easy, people were forced to choose what records they could afford to hear, and therefore they couldn't "get" the whole perspective of a band. You literally could NOT have or be a part of both scenes because you didn't have money, exposure, or access.You couldn't be indie and Metallica. You couldn't be a whuddup gangsta and credit NSYNC...or something opposities. You know?Like, a few years ago, I might be sitting here telling you why Fall Out Boy is not worthy of your money.But now, that rant is totally irrelevant.I still think today's radio-rap music suffers you from brain damage ("chicken noodle soup with a soda on the side")but I don't have to tell you not to spend your hard cash on the stuffbecause you don't have to.I can link you a youtube clip so you can listen and see why I'm saying what I am. And hey! maybe you feel like damaging your brain for the moment! You can always flip back to that vid.You know? people have different agends and emotional places.Right.Sowe KNOW FoB does not deserve your money...Oh, but then even so--do they?Now that we have the luxury of previewwe have the chance to say that their slick production is beside the point of their music,and that their molded sound is not how their music might be relevant to ME, a 22 year old supposed to be college grad who is pretty much over the bratty rebellion of teen school.But then, too, what if you might really discover something more complex than the gloss?Now that I can preview this flashy presupposed negativeis there more to gain from these over-chorused and lacking in lyrical content songsby some fashion punks?Besides the fameis there some rooted philosophy that sends hundreds of little girls to the supermarketscrambling for a black dye and midnight eyeliner so to stencil themselves teardropped fantastical pattern on the face to express their cry-insides?Why are these 25 year old guys sporting FoB tshirts? To attract the cuted out girls into this sort of thing? or because they feel something in the music.I get to see whyand I don't have to commit to this bandand thereforeI don't have to spend my energy hating, either.Right?There is less a wall I have to put up andI can let myself pretend, 'yeh. This ain't a mf scene. It IS a gd arms race. betches'with out too much consequenceother than getting hyphy over a cause.Unless I'm concerned about letting this type of band thrive, instead of harvesting other "worthy" bands.But that's why I didn't commit. I don't have to be THAT concerned. (do I?)Yeah, and granted, every genre has its roots in something in-credibleand that's where the baggage comes for people to say something negative about iti.e.The F-o-B genrethis third wave corporate emo powerpop punkluv *whatever* it's called is not the type of music I'd spend my energy critiquing because its structure is seemingly all hook, all look, all high school, no hurry.No hurry to run in circles about work stress or superfluous matters. No hurryto worry.Butbecause I do not have to commit to it any longeris there something wrong with what they are?I think maybe I'm choosing F-o-B, too, because they do seem to have a sense of humor, or at least something more genuine than a lot of these snotty bands.And that's why they're becoming successful, because at least, if that's not WHAT they are- if they're not really sincere -they do have this capability to fool people into thinking they are.I have hundreds of stuffy over intellectualized records in my closet.I also have hundreds of moods seeping in me.What if I just want to pretend I'm fifteen and get caught up in the romance of an overhooked and epic up-crescendo song?I don't, butI get the perspective.You see what I'm saying?And plus, the music. Is it well made enough for me to get caught up in? Is that the point?And really, I can't see myself ever listening to this record beyond wanted to rebel from all the intellectualishness and just forget and feel stupid and funwhich might be like, once a moon.But the option is there.Damnit, I wasn't trying to write an entry about this band. I want to write about this DC Hardcore show tonight and if I should go or not.It's not like, about this BAND, though.It's more about the discovery of music and disconnecting the hatred between genres. Do you get at all where I was trying to go with this?Anyway.You know, I need to refine this idea and write an article for it in a 'zine. I'm just wailing off the top of my head right now, and the argument is sort of nooked and messy.I wonder what's up with Andrew and Akina in cali and where they went with that. I still want to start this. I just need to sit down and write some articles.Anyway.I'm still going to talk about this DC hardcore thing. I just wonder what's new in the scene. I was googling and I came up with this band, who is not hardcore at all, but reminds me of DC / College Park bandThe Dismemberment Plan.I guess they're called Darts. I don't know if they've been blogged about because I haven't been keeping up with that, butthis is their Myspace.http://www.myspace.com/dartsAnd then there's this band, who IS hardcore, and is playing at the show tonight.Danke.They're really not bad, I'd say. Maybe miming their influences and a bit abrasive and too directional with the yelling, but:http://www.myspace.com/dankeYeah, so that's what I have, so far.I really need to start that 'zine.