Sunday Music: The Vandals – Some Friday Night Party/Funeral Music Requests

You know those songs that just click? Where you don’t scream yes or have to do homework to unpack them, but you go, “Yeah. YEAH. Ok, that’s right.”

Especially the one’s on your CD player from somewhere in the back of the family car. When you have the headphones turned up a little extra, avoiding bass-boost, all while worrying about what you’ll do when the batteries inevitably die. 

13-year-old Matt clicked with The Vandals. Probably because elder-Millenial kids had that mix of Gen X slack and Millennial “let’s do this our way” arrogance. The band captured it just by being a band who would write songs with words like, 

You know every time

You think you’ve got it right

You’re totally wrong

It’s a fact

And when you really try

The efforts misapplied

Or there’s a catch

It’s a fact

When you’ve got a sure thing

You’re sure to f*** it up

It’s one thing you can count on every time

It’s a fact

Middle school poetry worthy, sure, but it still gets me today. Throw this on on a Friday night (and remember Glory Daze?!)

Ps. To this day, I always complete the expression “When in Rome” with “Do As The Vandals”

Pss. I am yet to refute my statement that someone should do an arrangement of “Flowers Are Pretty” to be played at my funeral. PMJ, I’m looking at you. Just look at these lyrics:

Children are lovely before they get ugly,

And learn to do bad stuff.

Flowers are pretty before they get s*****,

And rot and turn to dust

I heard that life is a wheel

And you can’t make it stop

If you try it’ll flatten your head

It’s a circle of s***

We’re in the middle of it

But soon we’ll all be dead

Like everybody else

That ever lived before,

The things you make fall to the floor

And nobody knows how hard you tried,

It’s been that way since the start of time

There was a caveman that did some amazing things

But nobody here gives a f***

And in a thousand years they’ll feel the same

Towards all the things you’ve done

So don’t worry what might give you cancer

Or stay up nights just wanting answers

It’s just a crap shoot, but it’s mostly crap

Things start off they’re so terrific

They’ll fuck up, it’s scientific

Entropy, uncertainty won’t yield to you