Do you ever do that thing where you send an out-of-the-blue text… something like “Check this out!” or “…is this basically YOU?” and then five minutes later you think of someone else apropos, so you copy the text and send it to an additional recipient?
Earlier today I sent “I’m not convinced Viagra Boys aren’t the greatest band of all time,” to Brian, the lead singer of Philadelphia rock band Gene Wildest. Then, I decided to copy and paste that message to Mike, bass player and co-lead singer of The Scrotes. I added, "They're a punk band with sax, and all the songs are about getting too railed to f*ck, or blacking out in a casino."
The track I sent was the opener from their debut EP, a song called "Research Chemicals." It's an outstanding track, but it's probably my seventh or eighth favorite song of theirs. (Ya gotta do that thing when you're recommending a band, where you pick the track that would have the most mass appeal rather than risk the tracks that speak to your heart, since your taste is insane and utterly unrelatable.) (It's borderline irresponsible to be sharing Viagra Boys to begin with.)
I was thinking today about the things I don't have in common with my Dad. He was a very hands-on, attentive father, but I was adopted. My biological father was a self-described "drifter during the 80s." So while my nurture is respectful and hardworking, my nature is shady motherf*cker.
He wouldn't just dislike Viagra Boys, they would actually elicit the rare opinion stronger than, "Eh, it's not for me." And that opinion would be immediate disdain. Did I mention I have nothing in common with my Dad? The things that matter to him most are family and The Catholic Church. The latter, an epistemologically unsound consolation-hospice, is also the Walmart of child-abuse. The former is a culturally accepted bias where people who look like you and have the same last name deserve more of your resources than, say, black children in the inner city. The fact that my Dad is sincerely the greatest man I've ever known does not detract from the fact that we couldn't be less similar. (It actually strengthens that certainty.)
The thing that matters most to me is finding people who share my obsessions. And those obsessions are frequently the subjects of Viagra Boy's songs. Gambling, cigarettes, infidelity, theft, hard drugs, shrimp... These are not all things in which I partake, but they are--generally speaking--the most interesting things. The things I want to hear irreverent music about. And Viagra Boys are catchy as hell for being weird loud rock music about those items which fundamentally keep my Dad and I from relating to each other. Four stars.
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