[mp3]http://media.epitaph.com/timarmstrong/80491-apoetslife/holdon.mp3[/mp3]

Hold On
From A Poet’s Life

One of the most difficult questions for me to answer in recent years is What’s your favorite band of all time? There are a lot of bands who have had a lot of impact in my life. As I get older, I gravitate toward a much easier sound. The bands I have followed for the last decade or so are downright soft. A couple of these softer bands not only get regular rotation, but manage to create music that I identify with better than any other music I’ve ever listened to.

But one band started the whole thing. My music addiction can be traced directly to Operation Ivy.

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[mp3]http://www.archive.org/download/ABSOLUTExclusive/01_Sheep_In_Your_Head.mp3[/mp3]

Sheep In Your Head
From Miss Your Face

My first thought when I heard this: Woah. Where did that come from?

This album is shockingly good for a band that doesn’t get national attention. These cats just know how to make solid rock and roll. It’s just a bit harder than your run-of-the-mill indie rock and less pretentious than modern emo. It’s not ground-breaking, but it isn’t trying to be. It’s just good, new-fashioned rock. When we’re old, grey, and thinking about retirement, the “classic” radio stations will play music that sounds just like this.

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[mp3]http://www.southern.com/southern/band/EVENS/sounds/19660-06-No_Money.mp3[/mp3]

No Money
From Get Evens

I’m on a permanent Fugazi kick. Every once in a while, I’ll put on In on the Kill Taker or 13 Songs because I just can’t find anything else to listen to and I’ll end up listening to only Fugazi for three days. I don’t follow the band like I used to, so when I found out the Fugazi kids are on indefinite hiatus, I was torn between a basic feeling of loss and the thought, “Hey, they deserve it after 15 years of touring.”

I heard that they were on hiatus when I learned that Ian MacKaye got together with Amy Farina of The Warmers to create the Evens. More than being a departure from the Minor Threat/Pailhead/Fugazi sound for which MacKay is famous, the Evens bears almost no resemblance whatsoever to his former outfits (other than his signature voice). Maybe I’m getting old, but I found it totally refreshing.

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[mp3]http://www.burningheart.com/_lib/util/stream.php?p=/34/163/1442.mp3&f=Refused-New%20Noise.mp3[/mp3]

New Noise
From The Shape of Punk to Come

This is the best punk song ever recorded. More than being the culmination of all punk music before it, Refused simply destroyed the future of punk music by pushing it as far as it could possibly go before it had no choice but to evolve into a new genre.

I was roundly mocked when I said that in 1998, but 8 years later I still think I’m right. New Noise delivers exactly what it promises: a new noise. Using every punk trick in the book combined with just the right amount of modern production, no other band has been able to create anything quite like this song. Newer punk outfits like (+44) have to settle for sounding “old school,” modern hardcore has evolved and is now refered to almost exclusively as “metal,” and even the kids at Victory Records are wearing make-up. With The Shape of Punk to Come and particularly with New Noise, Refused drew a line in the sand and marked the evolution point in the entire punk movement.

The reason this song sounds surprisingly modern 8 years after it was recorded is not because Refused was “ahead of their time.” Put simply, Rufused is the time.

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