john dedomenici yelled at me one time when i was 14

I’ve been trying to get into Jeff Rosenstock’s solo stuff recently. Since BTMI!’s departure, he’s pivoted towards a similar yet less manic anathema-based rock that has made him even more famous, which I’m happy about. If anyone deserves it, Jeff is the guy. He is one of the hardest working men in music, a testament to the power of the hustle and a creative mind wracked with ideas ranging from ska to punk to pop songs to cabaret. His latest works, while praised by many outlets, are also the safest art he’s ever produced, which bores me, and also begs the question; why the fuck did Bomb (and Arrogant Sons of Bitches) never get their credit?

Jeff Rosenstock and his music is weird because he is an endlessly optimistic-pessimist who also happens to live in Brooklyn. Brooklyn is not a place that you usually write earnest, sappy, heartfelt punk — that’s usually reserved for places like Philly and Portland and the greater Midwest. Brooklyn is a place for cool indie to influence the rest of the culture (be detached! be ironic!) and while sometimes tedious the music is usually good. New York is a fucked up place though, and it takes an emotionally drained lunk to write truly good guitar music about the realities and goings-on. It’s no artifice shit, all bells, whistles, kazoos, and keyboards climaxing with Rosenstock’s bluster splattering all over the track. Without question, the best punk of the century.

BTMI! have 5–7 albums (depending on your views of To Leave and Die in Long Island and Adults!!) and 6 EPs plus a bunch of compilation appearances because Jeff and the crew are madmen and never stop making music. Even though the periphery members of the band are critical to its success, Jeff is still the engine and the music revolves around him and his experiences. There is an overarching string between each of the projects despite the varying musical nature — Album Minus Band and Goodbye Cool World projecting his manic impulses contrasted by Vacation’s wistful sentiment. It always comes back to the existential crises Rosenstock is constantly privy to, shared in his adoring audience through tireless touring.

Yet it is unfair but telling that all of the music press for Rosenstock’s music has come after his beloved stint with BTMI!. The band’s last show was treated as this mecca for an era of DIY punk, covered by all the local institutions who had so mysteriously forgotten they were a band throughout their existence. Maybe a band built on not taking yourself so seriously wasn’t going to get the clicks I suppose. No Pitchfork profiles sponsored by Spotify™or Fader cover stories or 3-star reviews in the back of Rolling Stone. The same thing is happening right now to Jeff’s cohort Laura Stevenson, who sure has notoriety given her commonalities with the current female indie rock wave but just isn’t cool enough apparently. Cool is the operative word here, and I don’t think Bomb ever professed to be cool or wanted to be.

I’m speaking from an indie perspective here, and glowing reviews in Alternative Press and Punknews aside, a LOT of punk has gotten swept under the floor in the music media landscape. Glowing praise of Cap’n Jazz and Fugazi belie the ignorance of contemporary bands who broke ground in this era or earlier, due to guitar music not being in vogue (the Brave Little Abacus, Gospel, Dangers and Machine Girl come to mind). Punk might be corny and overwrought and too self-serious but it is really transformative shit for a lot of people, and to dismiss these aspects in criticism or not address it at all is a damn travesty. BTMI! is all of these things and it existed because of, not in spite of, punk’s crudity. So please, run Rosenstock and gang his credit. Bomb was a studio monster, a labor of love to music and against rotted capitalism, and produced one of the greatest DIY fanbases ever. He goddamn deserves it.