Ever notice how bands that originally are born as "jokes" or "side projects" more often than not end up blowing up? In the early 2000s, I had more or less bailed on following hardcore in Northern California (because for the most part, it was well on its way to being the void of fun it is now), and for a while, the Bay Area wasn't really churning out even decent bands, much less bands that made any impact across the country. I had heard of Set Your Goals during my time living in Orange County and being out on the road, but the general feedback I got was that they were a fun, melodic band comprised of members of brutal bands that wanted an outlet to blow off steam and have a good time. I saw their name around and that they began to gain momentum and notoriety as the last decade progressed, but they still hadn't really crashed into my world and commanded my attention.
That all changed in February of 2007 when I saw Walnut Creek's finest with Lifetime and Shook Ones in San Francisco and watched the crowd at Slim's (a club in the City) explode when they took the stage. I hadn't seen a crowd in San Francisco that full of life for a local band since AFI gave up being a hardcore band and started playing mall-goth. Throughout their thirty minute set, kids were diving off of anything that was nailed to the ground, screaming along word for word with every song of the bands set (including a cover of Jawbreaker's "Do You Still Hate Me?" that got yours truly walking on heads), and got the floor moving so much that there wasn't anywhere you could stand without being at risk of losing your beer to a spin-kicking twenty-something. That night, Set Your Goals arguably out-responsed Lifetime, and that statement is coming from a dude who has two Lifetime tattoos. Needless to say, I was instantly a fan of the band, and see them as being one of the most interesting and impactful current Bay Area hardcore bands.
Since that fateful night at Slim's, I made a point to catch them whenever they played around town, and whether it was a headling show, a show where they were supporting someone else, or even when appearing on the annual summer shitshow known as The Van's Warped Tour, Set Your Goals stole the show more often than not. Clearly, there is something about this band that gets that kids pumped up and excited. Set Your Goals are honest, true, and energetic, which are three of the attributes that attracted me to punk and hardcore as a young blood in the first place.
Set Your Goals newest record, Burning At Both Ends, dropped today. Coincidentally, Taking Back Sunday also dropped their new self-titled record today. I bring this up because Taking Back Sunday have reached the heights of stardom playing hardcore influenced melodic punk (not so unlike SYG) and I've heard the two bands lumped together and "written off" or "looked down upon" for not being "hard" or for "being music for teenagers". Both bands probably draw from the same pool of fans, and share the same praises from the yaysayers and criticisms from naysayers. Taking Back Sunday are veterans with a lot to prove to a lot of people, while Set Your Goals represent a new generation of melodic hardcore/pop punk bands, rabid with energy, going for broke with nothing to lose. Attention Taking Back Sunday, welcome to your sundowning years. Set Your Goals are beating you at your own game.
Before I get into the meat and potatos of this review, let's just get a few things out of the way. It's 2011. No one is going to rewrite Start Today, Can I Say, I Don't Wanna Grow Up, or Jersey's Best Dancers again. Holding new bands to the standards of ground-breaking records of days gone by is lazy to me. Tastes can change, and people grow up and move on, but if you can't give a band like Set Your Goals a chance because you can't get over the existence of Gorilla Biscuits or Dag Nasty, you have a problem being boring and unfun. Punk and hardcore are somewhat limited in their genre, and holding new bands to standards that can't and won't be met due to how the times have changed is bullshit. Let yourself have a little fun and give the new kids a chance.
Burning At Both Ends is a great hardcore record with unique pop sensibility and sense of honesty in its music and lyrics that is absent from a lot of their peers. The band manages to blend pop punk accessibility with the tenacity and aggression of hardcore, filling their record with songs that breeze between being capable of modern rock radio airplay and spinkicking/stagediving insanity. Every one of these songs has the potential to be a breakaway single, and they manage to achieve that sweet spot without the use of gimmicks or putting what they hold true to their hearts in the backseat. The first single, "Certain", could hold its own next to anything Blink-182 ever did, and addresses the struggles of being young and in love without sounding forced, melodramatic, or like complete and utter bullshit. "Start The Reactor" is a bouncy homage to growing old and staying punk (something I personally found easy to relate to), and finishes off with one of the gnarliest breakdowns they've ever written. Overall, Set Your Goals has written a record that will ring true with teenagers well into their adult lives, as well as reignite and enkindle that spark hardcore left in the hearts of all of us who are growing old with it.
Burning At Both Ends hasn't left my iTunes or iPhone since I picked it up yesterday, and I look forward to seeing Set Your Goals wreck shop this weekend at the Mountain View stop of the Van's Warped Tour. If you're a young kid and are looking for your generation's Hello Bastards or an old fart looking for a reason to still care, Set Your Goals are waiting to blow you away.
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