I Am A Pancreas (I Seek To Understand Me…)

I am a pancreas (I seek to understand me…) – Armalite

There was a time in my youth i was almost wishing diabetes on myself. Like the best hypochondriacs, i saw and inflated every passing irregularity as a symptom, ignoring any sound medical advice suggesting an otherwise. I thought it would be a cool disease to have. That was the life upheaving, potentially fatal chronic disease for me. Not type 2 diabetes, however. That’s for losers. I was gunning for type 1, which i learned eventually isn’t something you can exactly gun for.

I had fancies of keeping my insulin injection pack with me everywhere i went, excusing myself from company three times a day, having a regular doctor, trips to the hospital, getting support from the ADS, watching with some severity what i ate, and just generally being a cool guy with diabetes. What an idiot. I just ate a lot of sugar, which is more a direct line to tooth decay than anything. Fingers crossed i can keep this twenty year streak of not visiting a single doctor going another twenty years. What an idiot.

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Entitled

Entitled – Armalite

It has been a whole year since i last posted an Armalite song, and then i expressed a worried yet suitably defeated hope for a new album or something sometime from them. It has been a year, and not a word or single song. That may be it. It was expected. Busy adults with their many fingers in many pies, punk rock and otherwise – it was expected. We are lucky we received all we did. One really great record, a few shows i never could have gotten to, the excitement of an ex-members of band… So what’s next, you talented people who can’t keep still, with an unmoving collection of people who drool over and await with assured gratification your every output, with histories and connections enough to assure an audience and support for it all, with teeth enough left to make it as relevant, cutting and amazing as ever? I will buy it.

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When Nice People Think Dumb Things, Attack, and Vote

When nice people think dumb things, attack, and vote – Armalite

I seem to have reached a point of repetition, of bands at least. Oh well, who writes about or gives any exposure to this most ephemeral of bands these days? Anything i can do to ressurect their profile and delegate them in my own slight, almost invisible way as a notable at the least, great at the most appropriate, band, i will.

Will i ever hear anything from Armalite again? There always seemed to be this sense of impermanence about them, and that seems to have been fulfilled. Maybe they do still play the odd show, confined to where their lives, schedules, and other responsibilities allow, but what good is that to me? A record sent to the other side of the globe, played to myself in a room, all involvement, benefit and inspiration found in that listening room, is what i need.

I’d like for Armalite to do something more. Who else is going to sing about type 2 diabetes, the French New Wave, growing up and punk rock warnings thereof from a post of being already grown up, the permanence and effect of one’s life set apart from punk’s lofty ideals, being in the system and writing from that perspective, and those moments in life where, separated from punk rock and agreeable company and now in the real world, you find yourself having to deal with the differing, sometimes hard to swallow political views of otherwise nice, compatible people, and the volume of such people in the world becoming more and more apparent to you (as in this song) – all done in the best DC influenced pop punk in the past five years?

Armalite were an older band, i.e. a band full of older people. It’s nice to know no matter how old i get there will still be that older band to look up to and not only make myself feel better for not being as old as i possibly could be, but also have that band with life experience to impart with perspective i don’t yet have. Makes me feel like a kid again. But these four people had already achieved far more at my age than i have. Plainly. They did things.

Oh, look what came in the mail today:

I’m such a loser.

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Other Entertainers

Other entertainers – Armalite

Getting up early isn’t working, but i woke up with this. A fabulous song from a fabulous band, who should probably be referred to moreso as a fabulous side project. A super-grouped side project at that, featuring Dan Yemin, Mike McKee, Jeff Ziga and, the target for most of my teenage awe and devotion, Atom Goren.

With a band with such personnel involved, i guess that they actually released a full length album is more than could often be expected. I wish i could even do that. I am stuck with only side projects and part time bands. It is my own fault i guess, but oh to be in a band who plays and rehearses regularly.

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