Axl and I were joking the other night that we might have invented the phrase “still a thing” as applied to bands/people/trends that seem to have vanished from view but are apparently not just still around but quite popular. Only fitting then that the theme of this week’s Top Hard Music Soundscan charts is “still a thing.” I mean, the molasses-like state of inertia fixed upon modern hard rock radio and the associated bands over the past decade is just astounding to look at; nothing has changed in ten years.
Since there weren’t any notable metal debuts last week to crack the Top 100 aside from those in the Top 10, this week let’s look at all of numbers 1 through 10 on the Top Hard Music chart. Prepare to be astonished and baffled by the “still a thing”-ness of every single band.
Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 at 4:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
Let me begin this post by saying I am not against our armed forces. If you still hold the “You can’t be against the war but for the troops” mentality, this article is not for you. In fact, this website is not for you. Intelligent thought clearly isn’t for you, either. Fuck off.
One of Vince and mine’s closest, oldest friends enlisted on September 12, 2001. Literally. He saw the terrorist attacks and he signed up to go fight bad guys. The military was supposed to pay for his college in return, which was a bonus – mostly, he wanted to be patriotic and do the right thing. Cut ahead to 2007, and the guy’s term of service has been involuntarily extended so many times he’s doing anything he can just to get kicked out; when he finally succeeds, barely avoiding a court martial, the military, needless to say, refuses to pay for his school or his medical care, and he comes home with PTSD. The last time I saw him – which, unfortunately, was about a year ago – he was on meds for his PTSD, but it was powerful he was constantly rocking back and forth in his seat as a side effect. This is a dude I’ve known since I was six years old.
I mention all of this so you’ll know why the following makes me so fucking angry.
Every time I’ve gone to the movies for the past – Christ, it must be the past year, at least – I’ve been forced to sit through one of two “rock videos” that are, in fact, recruitment ads propaganda for the National Guard. One of them is a song by 3 Doors Down, and the other, “Warrior,” is a track by everyone’s least favorite rich kid turned red neck, Kid Rock. Our buddy Anso at Hipsters Out of Metal! just brought it to my attention that the Kid Rock video is on YouTube now, I decided to post it and then, naturally, rant.
Here’s the video. Some random thoughts after the jump.
