Dillinger Four - More Songs About Girlfriends and Bubblegum (1997)

Dag, yo. I guess I was sixteen when I first heard Dillinger Four and although at first I couldn't stand the singer who my friend said "sounded like a fucking girl" in-between choices like Fenix TX and Showoff in his car, this band gradually changed my life. Every aspect about that first record not only grew on me, but changed my opinion on the matter at hand. For example, at first I thought "man, this record sounds funny." At this point, I think all records should sound like Dillinger Four records. They sound perfect. At first I thought "man, those guys don't sing so good" and now I think people should only sing exactly like that, and bands that try to can't pull it off.

I guess the most interesting (read: uninteresting) thing about my discovery of what punk rock could be is that while Midwestern Songs... did completely change my life, this 7" is what made me realize what a great band Dillinger Four really was. If it was still available, I would suggest everyone listen to it as a crash course in the band. Like a real punk band, they cram two songs onto each side. One side is sung by Paddy, who if you're unfamiliar sounds like a bear who has been up all night drinking and smoking. The other side is sung by Erik, who if you're unfamiliar sounds like a tenor choirboy who has been up all night drinking and smoking. On this record in particular, his voice sounds at it's best - more pop-punk than squealy, more Billie Joe than "a fucking girl." The guitars, basses and drums sound like they've been bombed by an analog tape squadron and they explode just off-time enough to make it feel like it's real people playing the best rock and roll you've ever heard.

Dillinger Four makes a lot of astute points about politics, economy, social stereotypes and religion on this 7" without ever feeling like they're telling you what to do with your life, and fuck, man... at this point in my life it was about time I heard a band talk about things that were important to me without being dicks about it. There is a ton of this now, but I feel like in the mid-90's it was very hard to find a good punk band that wasn't either sucking the teat of major labels or so anti-establishment that they lost the idea that punk is about connecting with the disaffected youth, not alienating them even further.

And this is why Dillinger Four are the proper heirs to Minneapolis wunderkind the Replacements. The four songs on this record, despite all that was mentioned before, are four perfect pop songs. Like the Replacements, their live shows can be train wrecks, on record they still sound like they could fly off the rails at any second and they can tackle heavy subjects like your friends at the bar instead of like your professors. And like the Replacements, they really don't sound like anything that came before it, which is ironic because there are a ton of bands that are trying to do the Replacements thing now and completely failing. I guess the problem is that their trying, and people who are as ahead of their time as Dillinger Four was in 1997 just kinda do it.

It's also worth mentioning that this was one of the very first 7"s I ever bought and I'm very sad to say that I can't find it anywhere now. Even sadder is that a 7" I bought around the same time turned up out of nowhere the other day, and that was the Social Climber 7" by Civ. Sometimes life ain't fair.