Most likely, you have heard the single, promoted out the ass by MTV and hundreds of radio stations around the world. A song with a pretty stereotypical choris and the same pop punk "lets go against the establishment but look like glam punk rockers while doing so!" attitude. So normally, i would support the hateful feelings towards the band.

 But, after giving the entire album a listen, my views have changed from "kill all the rock stars" to "I haven't heard anything like this since the 70's". I almost hate to say it, but after listening to the entire album front to back, this might be the best album that has come out after 2000. Does this change my thoughts or views on the band? Not at all, but they are certainly on the right track. With punk riffs and Melodic yet meaningful 70's rock lyrics with a bit of pop beat, you have Green Day, now add an album that has an almost opera-like quality to it and you get 21st Century Breakdown.

 The album starts off with and almost ere static and then opens up to a soft voice singing a catchy tune that sounds like something you would hear being sung at a civil war camp. Then comes a song that un-knowingly sums up what the entire album is about, its almost like a documentation of our generation, only with a slight "what if" twist on it. each song would certainly not stand on their own, but as the album goes on, song after song, they begin to tell a story often giving you that "It all makes sense now" feeling while always leaning on each other. This is a quality that i haven't heard from an album in a long while, and certainly not from a band like Green Day. And while some of you are probably up and arms ready to flame me or try to tell me that X album has that same quality too, all im going to have to say is listen to it yourself, granted if you never really liked any of Green Days' material you most likely wont like this album. But for those of us who can appreciate all forms of music, sit back, close your eyes and enjoy.


Track List:

Act I: Heroes and Cons

1. Song of the Century
2. 21st Century Breakdown
3. Know Your Enemy
4. ¡Viva La Gloria!
5. Before The Lobotomy
6. Christians Inferno
7. Last Night On Earth

Act II: Charlatans and Saints

8. East Jesus Nowhere
9. Peacemaker
10. Last Of The American Girls
11. Murder City
12. ¿Viva La Gloria? (Little Girl)
13. Restless Heart Syndrome

Act III: Horseshoes and Handgrenades

14. Horseshoes And Handgrenades
15. The Static Age
16. 21 Guns
17. American Eulogy (Mass Hysteria/Modern World)
18. See The Light

Highlights:

1. 21st Century Breakdown

2. ¡Viva La Gloria!

3. Last Night on Earth

4. Peacemaker

5. Restless Heart Syndrome

6. Horseshoes and Handgrenades

7. 21 Guns

"Know Your Enemy."

Rise Against released a new vinyl through Fat Wreck Chords not too long ago with two brand new songs.

(note: not for those who hate hardcore)


Sounds like they are trying to make up for the disaster that was Appeal to Reason, now the only thing they need to do to make me happy is to sign back up with fat and release a new record with more of their older style material.

though that will probably never happen.


Edit: Forgot to add the link, you can order it from the Fat store

 Normally, i think that all reviews on music are just excuses for people to talk crap about a band or to try and put them up to super human levels. But this is a special kind of review, I'm not going to use any fancy words to try and describe some special note the guitarist may have used, or point out any stupid meaningless crap like "the drum was off beat in the middle of the song!!!!". This review is just something i wrote out that may or may not be interesting to read to a fan of NOFX or just punk rock in general.

 NOFX Is known for being an unpredictable yet stereotypical punk band at the same time, they dont make albums or play at shows to entertain the audience, and they have expressed that many times in a lot of their songs. They simply play because they like to and they are damn good at it despite what many of the band members may think. Ive listened to nearly all of NOFX's stuff from thier wierd yet funny songs such as "She's Nubs" or "My heart is Yearning" to their political and some-what intellegent take of religion like "Franco Un-American" or "Leaving Jesus Land" and everything inbetween, this album is no exception. With songs like "Blasphemy (a victimless crime)" or "Best God in Show", they are sure to offend some thiests out there, then songs such as "We Called it America" stay true to the politics practiced in NOFX. This album has all of the stuff they are famous for, ska, punk and just sheer awesomeness. Some might say that this album isnt very different from any of their other material, and those people may be right, but in this case that isnt a bad thing. While it may be similar to their older stuff they still stay true to their unique sound that has taken them over 20 years to perfect while still keeping their important lessons that they have adopted in the past 10 years.


Track List:
01. "We Called it America"
02. "The Quitter"
03. "First Call"
04. "My Orphan Year"
05. "Blasphemy (A Victimless Crime)"
06. "Creeping Out Sarah"
07. "Eddie, Bruce and Paul"
08. "Best God in Show"
09. "Suits and Ladders"
10. "The Agony of Victory"
11. "I Am An Alcoholic"
12. "One Million Coasters"

 The album starts out with a fast paced song about how America has lost its glory over the years, it has a pretty homely tey fast melody to it,. The second song is pretty similar only with a diferent tune and message behind it, only the melody behind this song seems like something you can sing along to. The album then changes into some pretty good punk songs that are some-what melodic compaired to the first two. Keeping true to NOFX tradition, there is a slow paced ska song in the middle of the album that kind of calms you down a little until it turns back into angry fast paced punk again.

Highlights:
"We Called it America"
"The Quitter"
"Blasphemy (A Victimless Crime)"
"Creeping out Sarah"
"Best God in Show"
"I Am An Alcoholic"

A pretty good album despite its simularities to older albums and while it might not stand up to some of their classics like "Punk in Drublic" or "So Long and Thanks For All the Shoes", it still holds its own. Very highly recommended to anyone who likes any form of punk rock, But will this be the album to revive all the shit punk music that has been coming out lately? No. But is it a kick ass punk album? yes.

4 Mowhawks out of 5.

"The leaves are weak"
"the leaves are weak?"
"The fuckin leaves are weak?!"
"you're weak."

So its time for a Rise Against update i guess... New song released on Guitar Hero called death blossoms, and unlike their new album, it doesnt suck.
(shitty quality)



kinda takes me back to their older stuff.

So i thought i had it all planned out. Last month i bought Rome: Total war on steam for 10 bucks so i could brush up on my strategy skills (Campaign map skills, not battle skills, Armour and swords =/= guns and cover) it was awesome, i began building up hype for Empire: Total War and started to get really good at managing a huge empire. So about a month passes of me playing Rome: Total War almost exclusively for about 20 or so hours a week and i begin saving up for my one game a month budget that i set up for myself so i dont end up homeless and/or without electricity to play games. I had it all saved up around 80 bucks (to buy the special units version), and today much to my surprise, i open up my bank account online to see what my balance was so i can get the game through steam and there it was, 11.56 USD.............................

I begin to freak out.. Mind you i am the type of guy that doesnt even freak out when his car stalls on some train tracks with an on-comming train (true story). I immediately pull up the account history and i see two charges on my debit card, one for 29.99 and one for 39.99 from a company i dont even know about. I call up my bank and ask them wtf is up and they tell me to call the company that charged me. So they give me two different numbers and i call both of them. The first one was a hispanic lady who immediately asks for the last 8 digits of my card number to varify that im the owner of the account. After going through all that bullshit she ends up giving me the name of the guy who put the charges on the card... My own fucking brother. Needless to say im quite pissed that my brother stole 70 bucks from my account, but what really pisses me off is that i found out he used it to buy a subscription to a fucking porn site. The lady ends up refunding my money and puts my brothers name into some sort of porno black list so that he cant ever buy porn again or whatever (lol). But it turns out i wont get my money back until next week at the earliest. So my plans for awesome game time (which i almost never have anymore) turned into looking for my brother and beating the shit out of him.

So the lesson for today is dont trust family.