Ha ha! Now the hat is on the other foot!

I'd like to take just a moment, if I may, to talk about Switchfoot. Many of you may know Switchfoot as a popular band of the moment. Their hit single "Meant To Live" has been played ad nauseum for much of the last year. Okay, let's discuss.

Now, to frame this discussion, you need to understand where I'm coming from. Switchfoot is one of the few bands I can actually claim to have been a fan of long before they "hit it big". I have a habit of latching onto a band right before they lose their indie status. It happened with Jimmy Eat World and again with Dashboard Confessional, among others. It's terribly annoying and wrecks my indie street cred, which is why I'm latching onto Alone Together now. (As you all should. Also, I heard The Pawn's Gambit is the next big thing.) But I've been a Switchfoot fan forever, so I can claim "bitter old-school fan" status.

So Switchfoot is huge right now. They've played MTV and Leno and all those shows, even Ryan Seacrest, the Holy Grail of talk shows. All of this is kind of cool for an old-schooler because Switchfoot is a fantastic band and the guys in the band are really cool, so you're happy for good things to be happening to them. But at the same time, it kind of tears you apart to see all the teenyboppers singing along and jumping on the bandwagon when they can't even sing "Chem 6A", let alone "Learning to Breathe". Oh, and it really ticks me off when they play "Only Hope" and all the girls squeal because they're playing "the Mandy Moore song". NO! It's a Switchfoot song that Mandy Moore covered in "A Walk to Remember"! Get it right, teenyboppers!

As you can see, I get upset about these seemingly insignificant things. Well, a couple things happened this week that sent me over the edge. One, "Meant to Live" was used in a teen drinking prevention PSA, but not in a cool way. No, you could hear the guitar intro being played in the car as the drunk teenager stumbled out. Just the fact that Switchfoot could now be considered a band that drunk teenagers listened to kind of ticked me off. Finally, "Meant to Live" is included on the latest edition of "NOW That's What I Call Music" or as I call it, "The Devil's Comp." Seriously, they're up to NOW 16. That's 16 comps of really crappy pop music. And now Switchfoot is on it. Man...

So am I glad that Switchfoot is getting so popular and good things are happening to them? Yes. They deserve it. But does it make me die a little inside? Yes. That's why I'm latching on to the FOR-SURE next big indie band: Signal for No One. Now I just have to go start it.