{"id":6837,"date":"2003-05-25T20:12:00","date_gmt":"2003-05-26T01:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2003\/05\/25\/6837\/"},"modified":"2018-08-01T16:11:34","modified_gmt":"2018-08-01T21:11:34","slug":"6837","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2003\/05\/25\/6837\/","title":{"rendered":"I Don&#8217;t Want To Hang Out With You Any More, Rob"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Far be it from me to step into <a href=\"http:\/\/www.musicpundit.com\/\" target=\"new\">Aimster&#8217;s<\/a> territory (that is to say, blogging about music while wearing a snazzy bikini top that shows my smooth, albeit slightly convex, belly&#8211;normally I blog about other things while similarly attired), but Rob, I have got to tell you I am not buying the new album from Matchbox Twenty, or matchbox twenty, or Matchbox 20, or MaTcHbOx 20, or however your keyboard fluctuates this week.  The album, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/tg\/detail\/-\/B00006OFTZ\/ref=m_art_li_1\/102-8476617-6652960?v=glance&#038;s=music\" target=\"new\"><i>More Than You Think You Are<\/i><\/a>.  More than I think I am?  I don&#8217;t doubt it.  I thought I was a music fan, but obviously I am your therapist, and I am not a good one, because we&#8217;re not making progress.<\/p>\n<p>Rob, you have been coming to me for almost seven years now since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B01K8N0D8M\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;creativeASIN=B01K8N0D8M&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=stlbrianj-20&#038;linkId=eb4f7f241d34531fc0900294af7b15f1\" target=\"new\"><i>Yourself or Someone Like You<\/i><\/a> came out in 1996.  On that album, we covered your bad relationships (&#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.geocities.com\/bentmatchbox20\/lyrics\/push.html\" target=\"new\">Push<\/a>&#8220;), your lack of connection to reality (&#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.geocities.com\/bentmatchbox20\/lyrics\/realworld.html\" target=\"new\">Real World&#8221;<\/a>, a wonderful exercise in free-association, don&#8217;t get me wrong), and apathy (&#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.geocities.com\/bentmatchbox20\/lyrics\/hang.html\" target=\"new\">Hang<\/a>&#8220;).  I listened to that album and I really connected to you, man.  I was 24 years old and enjoying some late adolescent angst as well.  We were commensurating with experience, bub.<\/p>\n<p>Four years later, in 2000, you came back and described a similar set of misery with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B00004SVM8\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;creativeASIN=B00004SVM8&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=stlbrianj-20&#038;linkId=e64607e6f20fc9d115f6dde63fb22e6b\" target=\"new\"><i>Mad Season by matchbox twenty<\/i><\/a>.  Your relationships remained co-dependent or self-destructive (&#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.geocities.com\/bentmatchbox20\/lyrics\/crutch.html\" target=\"new\">Crutch<\/a>&#8220;), your relationships had gone bad (&#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.geocities.com\/bentmatchbox20\/lyrics\/reststop.html\" target=\"new\">Rest Stop<\/a>&#8220;) and you were in denial (&#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.geocities.com\/bentmatchbox20\/lyrics\/angry.html\" target=\"new\">Angry<\/a>&#8220;), which understandably led you to a sense that something&#8217;s not right (&#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.geocities.com\/bentmatchbox20\/lyrics\/bent.html\" target=\"new\">Bent<\/a>&#8220;) that you want to project to lunar cycles or something (&#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.geocities.com\/bentmatchbox20\/lyrics\/madseason.html\" target=\"new\">Mad Season<\/a>&#8220;).  Okay, I listened, and I felt bad for you.<\/p>\n<p>But dude, it&#8217;s 2003.  I haven&#8217;t bought your latest album, and I probably won&#8217;t.  I mean, you&#8217;re telling me via the radio about your same old girl problems (&#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tophitsonline.com\/lyrics\/m\/matchboxtwenty\/disease.htm\" target=\"new\">Disease<\/a>&#8220;) and how that still makes you feel &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tophitsonline.com\/lyrics.php?songid=30\" target=\"new\">Unwell<\/a>&#8220;, but listen, Rob, I have grown up, gotten a job, and bought a house whose lawn I procrastinate mowing.  I have a lovely <a href=\"http:\/\/angelweaving.blogspot.com\" target=\"new\">wife<\/a> and several <a href=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/category\/cats\/\">cats<\/a> to take care of.  I cannot keep spending long nights in bars and coffeeshops listening to you mumble into your beer or caffe su da.<\/p>\n<p>I mean, come on, life&#8217;s not so pathological as you make it out.  Maybe if you revealed a more playful or optimistic side more frequently (remember &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wowlyrics.com\/s\/santana\/110.htm\" target=\"new\">Smooth<\/a>&#8220;?).  I mean, yeah, it&#8217;s an existential world out there, but why not describe a sincere love ballad every once in a while.  Even Trent Reznor, the Dark Lord of NIN, explained the depth of his love for his significant other in &#8220;Closer&#8221;.  Why can&#8217;t you capture more of that spirit in your work?<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s just what I am saying, man.  Listen, I am going to finish up this Moosehead lager and then I am going to head out.  You&#8217;ll be all right?  Good.  See you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Far be it from me to step into Aimster&#8217;s territory (that is to say, blogging about music while wearing a snazzy bikini top that shows my smooth, albeit slightly convex, belly&#8211;normally I blog about other things while similarly attired), but Rob, I have got to tell you I am not buying the new album from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3334,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3334"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6837"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21175,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6837\/revisions\/21175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}