No point in living in my adolescent dreams.

I have a few favorite bands. Two of my three released new music this month, Live and Guster. Live cut their teeth in their 1994 sophomore album, Throwing Copper. Everyone knew Live’s music even if they didn’t know the band’s name, and for good reason, that CD rocks.

A couple years later, Live released a third album. Fans wanted another hard rock tribute to crashing lightning, placentas, being all over you, and making money off fans; what they got was insight into Ed Kowalczyk’s spiritual journey. The album was personal and much darker than its predecessor. Surprise surprise, the album saw little success.

From Secret Samadhi, Live continued to produce music and change their sound. They tried to send a more uplifting message to their fans, but in my opinion, their new goal only served to cheese out much of their work. You can usually find a couple good songs on each CD, but overall, the music has lost its creativity to me.

Guster is different. Like Live, they change their sound with successive CDs. But unlike Live, their music is free of self-importance and over simplified themes. Guster simply sings and plays about life in general, happy, sad, depressing, odd, cool, anything. Every CD is a new adventure. It’s like a book by your favorite author or movie by your favorite director. Well, MY favorite artists that is. You never know what they’re going to say or how they will do it, but you can trust it will be quality.

I guess everyone isn’t like me. Change and improvement make my life worth while. I guess I should be happy I’m the oddball. Otherwise, bands like Guster would be even more popular than they already are and liking them wouldn’t be cool anymore.

Guster’s latest album is what I call an “end of the day” CD. Similar to R.E.M.’s Automatic for the People (in overall vibe, not sound), Ganging Up on the Sun is good for sitting back after a long day and remembering that life is still full of…well, life.

Right now, I’m thinking a lot about the past. Ryan Miller echos

I wanna pull it apart and put it back together
I wanna relive all my adolescent dreams
Inspired by true events on movie screens
I am a one man wrecking machine

I often find that to understand the present, I must reconstruct the past. I have to rehash my decisions and relive old experiences. Yes, mister Miller, I understand exactly how you feel (I just wish I had your range.)

One Man Wrecking Machine - Ryan Miller