Chris Earley's Write-up of "Some People"

Chris Earley started an awesome blog where people can write about (or around or in or through or with) their favorite songs. I have written a few posts for it, and I plan on writing more soon. You should, too.

You can go here to read and listen (better yet, just click the title of this post):

http://www.songotheday.com/?p=2694


Or you can download all our songs for free here:

(Check our first posts on this blog.)

Or you can read here:







“And why should it change before the last trace of our worst days becomes erased?
Why should it change anyway?”

I think that anyone that truly loves rock or rap music beyond their 20s eventually is confronted with queries as to why (assuming they haven’t) he or she has never become a musician. It is a fair question. But there is a nagging, underlying message to it. I think it insinuates that unless you are a musician, rock and other pop music, is reserved for the young. That you are no longer invited to the ‘party’.

Now, I know that that sentiment is changing as years go by, but is it really changing that much? Do we really have to stop being a fan of bands? It is no wonder to me that record store clerks are so jaded. They find themselves having to profess to liking bullshit like Vincent Gallo just so that they can feel validated or justified in liking music they actually enjoy. They have to go fringe or snobbish beyond belief so that they carry some bullshit-like panache that makes them liking popular music okay.

That’s pretty stupid.

[On a side note from my diatribe, one of the funniest Onion headlines I ever saw was "37 Record-Store Clerks Feared Dead in Yo La Tengo Concert Disaster"]

I am going to be 40 this year, and I still get psyched as a ritalin fed fuck-up when I hear a rock band that I like. Why should I be stigmatized because I still feel joy at hearing something that sounds as good to me now as it might’ve when I was 15. Should I only like My Morning Jacket or Wilco or something else that fits my age group? Do I really have to like stuff that makes me feel intelligent…some NPR endorsed shit? I can appreciate Animal Collective, but I don’t like them. I understand that some truly cool people do like them, but I think you have to admit that part of their popularity is due to the cognoscenti saying they are okay to like because they have a sound that is supposed to possess some kind of New Yorker-reading sophistication. Same for the Vampire Weekend. No, I ain’t buying it.

I was walking on 16th St. in the Mission last night and at the corner of Valencia there were two twentysomethings playing some serious rock shit. The drummer was amazing and the guitarist sounded like he was both axes of the Buzzcocks. There was a crowd. Rock!

Now, if you actually are one of the readers who breaks the mold and, crazy enough, listens to the song featured, you’re maybe going to yourself….old man, this song ain’t rock. Well, technically it is, but I hear you. Thing is, this is a song by my favorite local band. Sure, the lead singer and songwriter, Andrew Gomez (to whom I apologize for any embarrassment this may cause), is a contributor to this site (he writes under gmezzy) but I didn’t know him before I heard this song. His friend- my friend now- Dave Murphy (wordjunkie on this site) posted this song in January of 2007 and I have had a hard time getting it out of my head since then. That isn’t a bad thing.

I’ve seen the Cons three times since then and at none of the shows did they perform “Some People”.

No matter.

What they did play was amazing- rock shit!- and it had been a long time since I have gotten truly excited about the release of a local act’s new album- one that actually performs in their own city. I know the Cons are close to a new one, but I don’t know exactly when. I can’t wait to hear it.

I don’t need to be a musician. It is a craft I have so much respect for, one that brings me such pleasure, that I am more than willing to let the creativity of others bring me joy in the form of music. I’ll invest my creativity elsewhere. Oh, I’ve tried my hand at it…and I found the work that goes into getting a song right, the repetition, drives me a little crazy. I wonder how many musicians hate their own work just because they have to revisit old works so often. It occurs to me that maybe gmezzy is sick of “Some People”. It occurs to me that it isn’t just chicks and drink tickets. A filmmaker makes a film and moves onto the next thing. He still gets the same kudos. The musicians we like, they do some work. And then do it again.

But this song, on a personal level- what it means to me… it will be a song that resonates with me in 20 years and make me think of that cusp of darkness that the mid-aughts (2000s) were met, hopefully, with something that we will look back and scoff at. There were times when the general feel of the decade felt so awful that it seemed like things might be messed up for good…that when you heard any glimmer of hope, you clung. I think we Americans collectively got weak in this decade, and anything that even broached the subject of our helplessness was an example- and forgive me for sounding cheesy because I mean what I say- of something to take solace in. One day we will look back at the first eight years of this decade and be embarrassed, if we haven’t and been already, and this song, for me, will be featured on the mix that I make when I’m trying to comprise musically what it felt like to live through this decade. It is a song that expresses something equivalent to what I imagine a dog feels when lost in the rain. Bad weather and discomfort, seems will last forever. Shook down. Not surrendered, but just a little hope in at least you can acknowledge what it is you’re experiencing. Wet, stupid, lost and sad.

I hope you listen to this song even if you are accustomed to not listening to these songs of the day (Rat, wfg, Slim, Loren- writers as well as readers, etc.) The lyrics, the production, the tone of the lead singer’s voice together comprise to me a song that captures that elusive nearly-perfect feel. I hope you enjoy it.

You can check out The Cons at http://www.myspace.com/theconsmusic

I love these lyrics:

Leaping from buildings with regrets in midair.
There’s the same change of heart everywhere.
Some people steal babies.
Others toss theirs in the trash.
Some people yearn for love.
Some can’t be had.
A marvel of science grows cancer in your kids.
Progress has always come with certain risks.
And why should it change before the last trace of our worst days becomes erased?
Why should it change anyway?
Working a new bad job, it’s a dead end in disguise.
What else can you do but sympathize?
You told all the worst parts.
You doled my secrets out.
Some people just don’t know when to shut their mouths.


----Chris Earley