mp3: "Middle School" - Hardly Boys
Much of "Middle School" is brash, loud and unruly - in a way it reflects the reckless up and down of adolescent hormones, the angst of going to school, figuring things out and growing up. Hardly Boys last shared "Low Power Mode" with us, the first taste of the upcoming Dear Diarrhea album. This track is completely different, a mash of seemingly angry guitars, thwacks of percussion and hollered vocals lamenting feelings and memories, threatening to "tear someone apart." It's the headache inducing anger you feel when you just can't forget someone and you're so eager for them to leave and "remember to take out the trash." And when they finally depart the dynamic changes completely, Hardly Boys shifting into hyper speed, declaring with ooo's and a shout that someone is simply no longer needed in their life. It's a kiss-off to someone bad, a throwback to when you were a teenager and you made quick work of scratching out the name of your heartbreaker on your notebook.