I listened to Siren Song of the Counter Culture all the way through for the first time since probably 2007 a little while ago, and tbh, there’s little on the record I would call filler. Some songs do less for me than others, so I’m not gonna say it meets “All Killer” criteria, but I was surprised by how much I was enjoying the deeper cuts.
In fact, it surfaced an embarrassing memory for me. When “Paper Wings” came on, I was reminded of a little light plagiarism I committed as a shitty 13 year old. We had discussed the use of enjambnent in “The Red Wheelbarrow”, and were told to write a poem with an emphasis on structure as much as meter or rhyme. Being (as mentioned) 13, shitty, and confident that Rise Against was not in my English teacher’s rotation, I basically just copied and pasted lyrics from that song and incorporated odd line breaks and punctuation.
Had I a modicum of self-awareness at the time, I’d like to think I’d have made different choices, but that’s high school, baby!
I listened to Siren Song of the Counter Culture all the way through for the first time since probably 2007 a little while ago, and tbh, there’s little on the record I would call filler. Some songs do less for me than others, so I’m not gonna say it meets “All Killer” criteria, but I was surprised by how much I was enjoying the deeper cuts.
In fact, it surfaced an embarrassing memory for me. When “Paper Wings” came on, I was reminded of a little light plagiarism I committed as a shitty 13 year old. We had discussed the use of enjambnent in “The Red Wheelbarrow”, and were told to write a poem with an emphasis on structure as much as meter or rhyme. Being (as mentioned) 13, shitty, and confident that Rise Against was not in my English teacher’s rotation, I basically just copied and pasted lyrics from that song and incorporated odd line breaks and punctuation.
Had I a modicum of self-awareness at the time, I’d like to think I’d have made different choices, but that’s high school, baby!
My musical awakening was just too late to pull that kind of nonsense in school but I absolutely feel that