Silversun Pickups - Swoon

Swoon sounds like it could be the best record of 1995.

And that's a really cool thing to say about a record released in 2009.

Forget these gnarred-out alternarock acts of the nineties struggling to resurrect themselves from their peed on ashes (see reunions of: Jane's Addiction, Creed, Blink182, Limp Bizkit, Smashing Pumpkins, No Doubt). The Silversun Pickups got the right idea--beat those old fogies at their own game.

Like their debut Carnavas, this album is the sonic result of what happens when you rub silk and rust together. The crunch of My Bloody Valentine and the neo-psychadelia of The Verve has never been so neatly and sweetly entangled. But the Pickups sound tighter, more refined, this time--resulting in something as 1995 as it is a brave new world.

I also learned, the hard way, that this album is PERFECT to jam to while walking drenched through Manhatten's East Side without an umbrella.

For a taste, here's the video to lead single, "Panic Switch."

Swine flu ain't the worst of it; Creed is reforming for a tour and a new album this summer.

And if that wasn't enough to make you cough up your lunch, singer Scott Stapp calls this special occasion a "renewing and a rebirth."

However, while this is a most unfortunate announcement and a giant setback for humanity ... I, for one, am quite excited.

Yes--excited. Why? Let me tell you why. There was so much DREADFUL music dominating the charts in the late nineties (e.g. Creed), that all that swill (see also: Limp Bizkit, boy bands, Masta P, etc) spurred on some of the best music as a reaction to the big load of crap on the airwaves. So a return from the schmoes of Creed could spur some kids to get together and write some incredible new reactionairy stuff. And if you ask me, that's what the music world needs right now--someone to hate, some awful bands to loathe. Who better than the grand-daddy of 'em all.

Creed, welcome back.

Of course, it's possible the rest of the world has picked up on the fact that Creed and it's fantasticly self-righteous music is a joke, and will treat this "rebirth" as such. Could be duller than when Guns N Roses put out Chinese Democracy. But my hope is that America eats it up so young America can chew it up, swallow it, and spit something new, exciting, and wild back in their faces.