David

3/11/09

“History of a Boring Town”; Less Than Jake; Hello Rockview; 1998

Less Than Jake is a punk rock band formed in the early 1990s. They have seven studio albums to their name, and Hello Rockview is their third studio album. Less Than Jake is not a big household name, but by ska/punk standards, they are pretty famous. They have been featured in the media a few times, and have toured with big-name bands on big-name tours.

“History of a Boring Town” is more or less the story of my life. “A boring life in a boring town / With the same old crowd. / When I used to say, that I'd never stay / But I'm rotting here today. / With that same old crowd / That's always been around. / And I always thought I'd be the first to go.” These lyrics strike close to home when I live where I do. Even though I’ve moved once before right before middle school, I’ve lived in Howard County all my life, and even then it’s always been near Columbia, since my old house is less than half an hour from where I currently live. I’ve always been interested in places outside of Maryland, and even more outside the U.S. I find the place I live now extraordinarily boring (I live in a cul-de-sac run by old jerks that don’t like fun…) and this song makes me want to get out and travel, especially to places I’ve visited only a few times like Kansas, London, or NYC.

This song holds another place in my heart, being one of the songs that originally turned me onto Less Than Jake. It’s been years and I don’t know exactly where I first heard it, but this song was like many of the other songs on my Life as a Playlist papers, and one I fell in love with. Like many of their other songs on this records or others, this is a somber song with a deep meaning, a song that seems more like alternative-rock-influenced punk than pure punk or ska. I place Less Than Jake on my top five favorite bands because of songs like this one.