STORY OF MY LIFE - Certainly a Tragic Kingdom

I absolutely adored No Doubt growing up.

Of course, at first it was probably more of a lust for Gwen Stefani than anything else, but after thoroughly despising her solo albums, I'm now much more confident that I'm a bigger No Doubt fan than I ever gave myself credit for.

I've always obsessed over a perfect existence in Southern California. One where every opportunity I dreamed about would come to fruition simply by hanging out in surf towns & tattoo shops, with skaters & local musicians in a perpetual climate that I only experience 3 to 4 days a year in Northern Illinois.

As I've grown older, I now know that my hopes of the California adventure were a lot of hype & bullshit, mainly due to the influx of idiots from everywhere else. Most of whom, instead of adapting to the scene, insist on bringing their own customs and faults from shit-hole everywhere and crippling the damn place with the congestion & filth of the rest of the planet.

It's a shame really... that hardly anything is authentically Californian these days.

As far as I know, No Doubt could very well be the last band to capture the feel of those simpler times. Times when a band of childhood friends from Anaheim, CA could go about things the right way... survive the hairband era, survive the grunge era, and become pop sensations simply by sticking to what they know, where they're from, and with each other.

Lifelong friends from anywhere ultimately make the most enduring music in my opinion. No Doubt was one of the few female led bands that I listened to at all, at least until these past few years. And despite this new found fascination with the lovely ladies of the current indie scene... I don't really see much of a future for most of 'em.

Everything is about being part of what's “in” now... Hipster indie bands aren't any better than the influx of boy bands in 1999 in this regard. Backstreet Boys were hot... then there were 10 of 'em. Indie surf shit was hot, then there were 100 of 'em. This year there seems to be a swing towards dorky college dropouts singing Phil Spector tunes... next year they'll be but a memory until they come up on shuffle and I can't believe that I didn't already delete that shit off of my iTunes.

It's a throw away society these days, and I hate clutter, so that doesn't really bother me so much... but I guess what does bother me is that most musicians don't seem to have the heart to sound like themselves, to sound like where they grew up, or even to aspire to make anything someone will care to listen to after more than 6 months.

In pop music it's a thin line between no one buying your shit because you're cool this year, everyone buying your shit for all the wrong reasons, and etching your own place in time by sticking to your gut despite a change in attitude every 6 months by consumers and teens... relevant blogs or Pitchfork.

This year marks No Doubt's 25^th anniversary. To put that in perspective, veteran '90s rockers, Pearl Jam, is at the 20 year mark... Sublime & Nirvana survived for 7 or 8. Does that mean that No Doubt is better than any of these bands or anyone else ever for that matter... to each their own.

But it does mean that they've made music the right way, regardless of whether you like it or not. Maybe even more importantly, Gwen has carried herself as the most respectfully cool SoCal pop icon during the most despicable era of imported & homegrown semi-starlets in state history.

When I'm forced to deal with women my age or below in any capacity, I instantly focus on their influence by Stefani or Snooki. All ladies lean at least a little bit more in one direction or the other, and if they don't... then why Fuckin' bother, right? Unfortunately, for our heath insurance rates at least, the Snooki's of the word have been tipping the scale for a while now, and too many young white women smell like hotdog water as a result.

No Doubt is slated to release their 6th studio album sometime this year, and I'm confident it will boast at least 2 gems that will help offset the yuck monsters for a quick blip of momentum against the filth tide. It's just a shame it's gonna take a bunch of 40 year olds to do it, and I'm afraid when they call it quits they'll leave a void in pop culture that we're already too unfit to refill.