In dire need of entertainment, I somehow found myself on Butch Walker's myspace page( www.myspace.com/butchwalker , how obvious.) Now old Butch isn't above posting some rambling opinions on myspace and except his aversion to food encrusted lips, he made some good points about the state of music and celebrity. In recent years I have been baffled and even insulted at what mainstream, overproduced slop has passed for "punk rock," and Butch put this whole shebang into perspective for me; modern pop-punk sounds like disco. Back in the late '70s, when men were men and women were Raquel Welch, there was disco and punk (ok, dinosaur rock too.) One genre represented a shameless shift to corporate swill, over-production and cheese. The other was an attempted return to grass-roots culture and sloppy Chuck Berry riffs. One disco, the other punk. But today, punk is about as dangerous as driving your minivan to Walmart to buy a Fallout Boy cd.

Speaking of Fallout Boy, they aren't very punk. They are a corporate rock band. They are Nickelback with the de rigueur studded belt, plugs and an "I heart metal" tshirt. Shit, I almost forgot about the eyeliner, that says your sensitive, deep and emotional and not dork who desperately wants to fit in or a 36 year old man who wants to sell cds to 7th grade girls. Is it me or does "Dance Dance" sound more like a Donna Summer song every time you have to walk past Hot Topic? I'm getting off this soapbox now to enjoy this Black Flag video. And by the way, if you find yourself enjoying the hair metal of this nascent millenium know to most ignoramuses as "Emo," go fuck yourself.