MP3 OF THE WEEK – DRIVING HOME BY HOT WATER MUSIC
The other day when I was at Wal-Mart, I ran into a punk rock kid from the old Carlisle scene. Some of my friends dismiss my clothing with patches as bullshit posturing, but it sure is a great mechanism for starting conversation. We reminisced about the old Carlisle scene and all the great bands and shows that we had gone to. He also told me about a record store in Mechanicsburg. Yesterday, I had a chance to check out the record store, and it is indeed as cool as he said it was. It’s called BeSides and it’s right next to Market Street Music on the main drag in Mechanicsburg. Check it out. They deal primarily in punk, indie, and hardcore, and vintage vinyl and have a nice selection of both CDs and 7″s from those genres. I can imagine a parent walking into the place asking for a Britney Spears CD and getting their head bitten off, a scene straight out of Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity.
I ended up buying two great CDs: Bitter Tongues by Richmond punk rock outfit Ann Beretta, and No Division by Gainesville gods Hot Water Music. Both CDs are excellent in their own respect with Ann Beretta playing the straight-up danceable punk rock (reminiscent of One Man Army) that I love and Hot Water Music playing moody, intense music that blends hardcore, emotional, and punk rock together into a hard-hitting package.
The song I’ve selected for this week is Driving Home by Hot Water Music. Some of my friends really dislike girttier, hardcore influenced music, but I contend that there are some situations that cannot be described and some emotions that cannot be expressed by four chord power pop or by rock and roll guitar solos. This song is the perfect example of this. This past quarter has been the singular hardest period of my life, and this song captures the feelings of self-doubt and anguish that have plagued me over the past few months. However, in the end, the message of the song is overwhelmingly positive, which is really what I need: someone to say “yeah, I’ve been through this”, but also “we can make it”. The song is here and the lyrics are below:
i know the sink and the rot gut feeling, “is this happening to me?” and i know what it’s like to want to end it all driving home between the lines in the road, i swear that i’ve been through this before when nothing makes much sense except for doing yourself in razor blades are hard to hold when we’re hit in th heart with problems that won’t shift. it’s hard to admit that we’re afraid when we’re hit in the head with unanswered questions that repeat, “how could I ever live after this day?” we can take the hits and grow tougher collect ourselves to live longer and find there is no need to be afraid because we all have more to offer when we struggle to cope with whatever it takes to make the days we all have what it takes to make it home