Samuel Mangold-Lenett: The Most Punk Rock Thing You Can Do Is Be Normal

New Found Glory, an alt-punk band from Florida, released their debut EP entitled “New Found Glory” in December 1997. “It’s All About the Girls.” And it sounds exactly how one would think a punk band’s first recorded release ought to sound — rough and chaotic.

The extended play’s initial track is “Shadow,” It gives listeners an overview of New Found Glory and provides a crash course. The video opens with one member of the band utterly ignoring the 20th Century Fox theme on his wind instrument, before bragging about never having done it. “one lesson” Before Jordan Pundik, the vocalist, begins to Lament His existential despair and personal frustrations led to his depression.

“Starting at my shadow, I see the world around me / Never felt as if my existence reflects these walls so proudly / Intentions of the past defined so quickly it’s hard to change myself.” 

While New Found Glory’s production was improved with subsequent releases of their album, they maintained the same whimsy, chaos, and enthusiasm. 

“Shadow” Would continue to be “Hit or Miss,” Which would be the band’s first single on their debut album? “Nothing Gold Can Stay” (1999) — released on the independent label Euology Recordings — and would later be remastered and rereleased on the band’s self-titled album “New Found Glory” (2000).

The self-titled album According Steve Klein, the songwriter, said that it is “Just about relationships and growing up — things everybody knows about. This is a record about looking forward to new things and moving forward in your life.” It is this fact that is highlighted in both the song and the video. Lyrics This is the album’s cover artwork, which prominently displays colored latex condoms along with an Atari joystick. 

“The needle on my record player has been wearing thin / This record has been playing since the day you’ve been with him.”

New Found Glory’s unique mix of lyricisms, high energy and whimsy was hugely popular and would continue to dominate alternative music in the late 1990s, early 2000s. As it made its way into almost every home via the cultural phenomenon known Warped Tour and the on-the-spot music festival, New Found Glory, the unique combination of lyricism, energy, and witsy would be heard at nearly every household. soundtracks Films such as “American Pie 2” And “The Benchwarmers.”

Their peers — notably Blink-182 — experienced a similar effect. 

The first track. “Carousel,” Blink featured on the debut album “Cheshire Cat,” Tom Delonge, founder member and co frontman of the band, opens Singing: “I talk to you every now and then / I never felt so alone again / I stop to think at a wishing well / My thoughts send me on a carousel.”

Blink-182 released songs such as “The Last of the Summer” early in their careers.Dammit“About the decline of romantic relationships, and how it affects personal development. “What’s My Age Again?” Particularly, about the frustrations resulting from being an emotionally impure man-child.

Shoes to Fill 

Both bands would be hugely successful as they would share relatable topics, such as personal flaws and frustrations, with the irreverent humor that is necessary to keep existential dread at bay.

They undoubtedly had a mate. profound effect on and paved the way for the artists who would follow them, such as The Story So Far (named after a New Found Glory song), The Wonder Years, and others whose music — which started to gain traction in the years following the 2008 financial collapse — prominently featured the existential frustrations of living in a world seemingly bereft of sincerity.

2011 saw the release of The Wonder Years “Suburbia I’ve Given You All and Now I’m Nothing,” The song is featured “Local Man Ruins Everything,” Which vocalist is Dan Campbell? Professes, “I’m trying to hold it together but irony’s found cracks in the foundation / And you know I try so hard to be some great white hope / But I can’t shake the feeling that tonight I’m gonna end up shaking in bed alone.”

The Story So Far’s 2nd studio album. “What You Don’t See,” Opens with the song “Things I Can’t Change,” Parker Cannon, the singer, is featured in this recording Bemoaning Frustration with ostensibly interpersonal communication problems 

“This twitch in my fingers / Love/hate, it lingers / Sent it direct but the point must have missed her / Gave up and lost ’cause of timing and pressure / And now I’m gone.” 

It’s not like New Found Glory and Blink-182 have the sole right to boyish charm, or that they are immune from sorrow.

New Found Glory, Blink-182 and other organizations are equally responsible for assimilation “emo” As they are meant to perpetuate, they fit into the wider spectrum of 21st century punk Oral-sex jokes that are painfully complex. 

Songs like “Blink-182”Adam’s Song“, “Stay Together for the Children” is about teenage suicide and a child going through the divorce of his parents. The lyrics are more serious than the usual stoic tomfoolery of tour performers. New Found Glory’s “It’s not your faultMany believe “is about a young couple having a miscarriage.”

Growing Up

These more somber recordings were made — it pains me to say — over a decade ago. They also show that artists who are stereotyped as purveyors for the immature can become mature and reflective craftsmen as they age. Blink-182’s seventh  — and Grammy-nominated — studio album, “California,” New Found Glory’s most recent acoustic record, “Make The Most Of It,” This is what epitomizes it. 

On “California,” Blink explores topics like anxiety in middle age (“Bored to death“), paternalistic prideHome is such a lonely place“, and ambivalent nostalgic at the The passage of time. 

“Beige little boxes in a row / Neighbors and friends that you don’t know / Here’s a form, go wait in line, can’t you see I’m doing fine? / It’s what I’ve always wanted / Two little kids out on the lawn / Once we had love, and now it’s gone / Good things haven’t happened yet, I’m as empty as a movie set / It’s what I’ve always wanted.”

On “Make The Most Of It,” The song is “Mouth to MouthThe band members share their feelings and emotions as they go through a difficult marriage and rediscover and treasure love in middle-age. 

“Mouth to mouth you save me / Heart to heart you change me / Hand in hand we walk through fire / Now side by side / The Rest of our lives / We’ll never take a thing for granted / Don’t ever take a day for granted.”

And what do you do?

Modern music is, as we have already noted, a suck. It is filled with algorithms put-on. Copycats and hypocrites who were cynical and sold out to become The Man.

It is easy to produce generic rock that can be played in a bank lobby or at a religious gathering. It is both moving and humbling to see bands like New Found Glory and Blink-182 accept their place in life and make art that reflects this.

Consider that one of Blink’s most beloved gimmicks, a Music video In which the band members run around Los Angeles naked. New Found Glory was known for having their obese bassist play with no shirt. It is refreshing to see them dealing with everyday life’s ups and downs.

These men are successful “made it,” Instead of becoming neurotic crybabies They are constantly trying to be the best they can, and they age gracefully without losing the energy or whimsy that made them successful in their previous endeavors. 

2023 will see the greatest increase in global population. “punk rock” The only thing that makes someone genuine is their character.

Samuel Mangold-Lenett works as a staff editor for The Federalist. His writing has appeared in The Daily Wire and Townhall as well as The American Spectator and other publications. He is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. Follow him @Mangold_Lenett on Twitter

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