I was reading Stuff You Will Hate earlier today and saw a post about their current podcast featuring the drummer from Downset. This, of course, got me thinking about Downset, specifically about their 1996 album Do We Speak A Dead Language, a shining example of mid-90s SoCal hardcore. It’s got the era-specific mix of rap and hardcore, the chunka chunka guitars, the social positive outlook, multiculturalism, punky as fuck drums. Everything! It’s got everything! I can’t even tell you how many times I listened to this album in high school. Many hundreds of times.
How many times have I listened to it since then? Maybe zero times.
I popped on over to Spotify to see if it was there (it was) and I have been jamming out to this thing for a little bit. And, man, it’s still so good. You all are probably going to listen to it and think, “But, Joe, this sounds dated as shit.” Sure, it does, but so does Tchaikovsky’s 4th Symphony and we all stil like that also. So fuck off. This album rules. It’s actually giving me chills.