Someday legendary Stock Band return with “Today’s Song,” an indie anthem built on punchy guitars, a driving backbeat, and a chorus that arrives right on time.
This new tune is a love letter to our old fans stuffed full of anthrax for the newheads.
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It’s a beautiful day in Indianapolis today, so I just had to get out on the street.
There I am lying in an abandoned truck bed on the side of the road, listening to my portable radio when something infectious comes on. I crank the volume and listen on to hear what it is my local DJ is laying down for me. An explosive chorus leads to a vicious breakdown, followed by a tasty solo, all to be wrapped up with one more go at that chorus. After all this, the DJ goes on to not name the song. Awesome. Naturally, I went prying on the station’s website just to find out that it was none other than “Today’s Song.”
Released April 1st, “Today’s Song” is the latest single from the multi-platinum, genre-defining, legally ambiguous hitmakers Stock Band. We have all been waiting patiently since the release of Album Number Two just over three years ago for some new tunes. (Technically four, if you count the silent live album that charted in Norway.) Well, with the recent release of “Today’s Song,” the wait is finally over, but that begs the question: Was it worth our patience?
“Today’s Song” is a sort of return to form for Stock Band. Their sophomore album, Album Number Two, went in a new direction, exploring a more punk style than their debut, Insert Album Name. An inspiring diversion, surely, but one that divided fans. Critics called it “a bold reinvention,” “a misstep,” and “definitely an album.”
With “Today’s Song,” we see Stock Band getting back to their indie roots. Gone are the thrashing power chords and thundering beats of Album Number Two, replaced by the thumping bass and wah-heavy riffs we fell in love with in the first place. It’s the sound that made them famous, or at the very least, consistently present.
One may readily jump to the conclusion that “Today’s Song” is a cheap trick meant to try to recapture the success of Insert Album Name. A soulless cashgrab built upon nostalgia and nothing more. This would be a woefully rash assumption to make, however. “Today’s Song” isn’t just the pieces of “Insert Album Name” rearranged and given a fresh coat of paint; it’s a new voyage into familiar territory. The sound is the same, but the style is all new. We have those classic screaming guitars, the heart palpitation-inducing drums, that meaty bass, and those vocals that could make a construction worker swoon, but the lessons learned from Album Number Two haven’t been so quickly forgotten. “Today’s Song” has all the attitude of a punk track but the smooth instrumental of something more akin to garage rock. It’s a lovely, remorseful thing that gets in your face and demands its message be heard. It’s a piece of candy with a razor blade in it, an angry honeybee waiting inside a tulip, a papercut received from a letter from home. It’s something that is sorrowful yet sweet that still hits like a brick hits a bay window.
Stock Band frontman Jimmy Guitarman is quoted as saying, “This new tune is a love letter to our old fans stuffed full of anthrax for the newheads. It’s our way of telling the world we remember where we came from but haven’t lost sight of where we want to go. It’s the song that will bridge the gap between our listeners or start a riot trying.” As apt a description as there ever was. There’s something in “Today’s Song” for every Stock Band fan to enjoy. Whether it’s the groovy rhythm that makes you want to dance, the driving beat that makes you want to knock someone down, or those poetic lyrics that have drawn in millions of listeners both old and new, “Today’s Song” is truly, brutally Stock Band at their finest.
Or at least at their most recent.
You can find “Today’s Song” streaming wherever it is you get your music now, provided your platform has decided it exists.
If you’re an oldhead like me, this one is going to remind you why you fell in love with Stock Band in the first place. If you’re part of the fresh meat on the scene, then the song will be a continuation of everything that brought you in with a twist you may not be familiar with. And if you can’t find it, don’t worry – the station will be playing it again in twelve minutes, still unnamed. Regardless of where you stand on the Insert Album Name / Album Number Two division, you will find it hard to deny that “Today’s Song” is a knockout.
So go find yourself a quiet place, sit back, and get down on this fresh track. Or don’t – it may already be playing somewhere near you. It may have always been playing. As for me, I have to get back to the truck bed, stat. Somebody has to fill it with candy bar wrappers and the sound of local radio, and you better believe that somebody is going to be me.
The DJ just put on “Today’s Song” again. I think it’s different this time. I think it’s the same. I don’t think it matters.
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© Soheil Jalili
© Soheil Jalili
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