Please Let That Be You

Yep, I’m dragging my sorry ass out of the house this evening to catch The Rentals (Myspace) up at Warehouse Live (with Copeland and Goldenboy, neither of which I know a damn thing about; sorry…). And I’m really, truly looking forward to it; believe it or not, Matt Sharp & co. are one of those few bands out there that I’ve always wished I got to see back in the day, up there with the Pixies, Nirvana, and the Clash.

The weird part, though (to some, anyway), is that I’m not really looking forward to hearing all the stuff off of Return of the Rentals (beyond the track I swiped for the post title and “Friends of P,” naturally), but instead am super-freakin’-excited to finally get a chance to (maybe?) hear some of the songs off of the criminally-underrated Seven More Minutes live. My life just won’t be complete ’til I can hear “Hello Hello,” “Barcelona,” and “My Head Is In The Sun” at full rock-out volume, honest.

I’m aware that the above sounds like insanity to some Rentals fans, but fuck it — while I do love Return, it still smacks of “hey, I got a Moog; let’s mess around and come up with some songs!” Seven More Minutes, on the other hand, is the sound of a band (and songwriter, in Sharp) becoming a mature outfit and ditching the gimmicks. Beyond that, the songs are bleak and cutting, a glimpse into the not-what-it’s-cracked-up-to-be life of a rockstar sideman who decides he wants to get the hell away from it all and go somewhere where he can be anonymous and just lose himself (Spain, to be exact). In my book, Seven More Minutes is up there as one of the best, most criminally overlooked followup albums in rock history (right next to Primitive Radio Gods’ White Hot Peach).

This may or may not prove my point, but what the hey — here’re some songs from Seven More Minutes to take a listen to (since, y’know, apparently nobody’s heard the damn thing but me):

• “Hello Hello”
• “She Says It’s Alright”
• “Big Daddy C”
• “Barcelona”
• “My Head Is In The Sun”

Whoop — better get a move on, since the doors opened at 7PM, and it’s already 8…