Last Blogger

The advertising for My Chemical Romance’s new album refers to them being one of the best rock bands in America. Really? I listen to a reasonable amount of music, largely in the pop/rock areas and I’m now starting to wonder if maybe I just don’t get it anymore. We all reach that point where we’re out of the loop as we get older and I’m just wondering now if I’ve crossed that threshold or if it’s just absurd marketing.

For your own information, I present the following. Go to Yahoo Music and then go watch the video labeled “Helena: Yahoo! Music Exclusive Performance”. Believe it or not, the recorded version of this song is pretty decent. Not the singer singing in key in this version. I like the song because it because it’s a little different. But if this is what they sound like when they play it for real, I have a hard time believing that they are one of the best rock bands in America.

By comparison, their contemporaries would generally include bands like Fall Out Boy and the Killers. Compare a live performance by Fall Out Boy and a live performance by The Killers.

Both of those songs, though not played and sung flawlessly (they are live after all) are miles ahead of the alleged best rock band in America. So from my perspective, they’re not even the best band within their genre, let alone something as broad as rock. But again, this might just be me getting old and out of the loop. Who knows…