The Science of Selling Yourself Short

Here goes nothing - the first entry in the shiny new blog.  In order to not set expectations too high I, appropriately, present Less Than Jake's "The Science of Selling Yourself Short". As this is the first entry, I will likely say/include/exclude things that I will regret later - deal with it.

Whether you're familiar with the song or not, I encourage you to listen to the song right now all the way through (preferably loudly and while dancing).

This song has come in and out of my life for the nine years since its release in December 2003 ¹. As I recall, the early millennial years saw an onslaught of pop based rock/punk. It was like the grunge of the early '90s cleansed for American youth that had been brain washed by the likes of N'SYNC and B-Spears. As an angsty (I use that word liberally) high schooler I found solace in the the rage and bubble gum anger of suburban kids with guitars complaining about everything. I jammed out to Good Charlotte, A New Found Glory, AFI, and The All-American Rejects (their first album was outstanding before they sold their souls to the Man). I would watch the dark (not moody dark per se, more they need to turn on some lights dark) videos on MTV2 while milling about the house during the summer or blare the album on my headphones while locked up in my bedroom "doing homework". Anyway, I digress, The Science of Selling Yourself Short has stuck with me since its release. The music is fun and light with outrageously melancholy lyrics. I knew (and still do know) every line ².

As high school passed and the state of New York allowed me to drive (more poor decisions made in Albany) I listened less to the angst ridden post-turn-of-the-millennium "punk" and diverted toward whatever was on 100.5 The Mix (throwback) and 98.9 The Buzz ³. However, years later (okay, three years later) during my spring semester freshman year, The Science of Selling Yourself Short belly-flopped back into my life. Geneseo, in a move that was clearly short-sighted, paid for a service (no idea of what it was called) that allowed students to download and stream music, instead of stealing via illegal downloading sites. I used it sparingly, but one of the songs I did download was this one and boy did I listen to it. Later in the semester I convinced my friends ⁴ of the awesomeness of this song . We would spend Friday afternoon ⁵  making a playlist for the night. My one request was this song because I was convinced that it would be epic when it came on. I don't recall it ever being epic, but I am still holding out.

In the years since, I have gone through phases of listening to this song. Every time it is like I am discovering some ancient treasure and I play it repeatedly until I can't even stand it any longer. Surprisingly, I do not actually have the song on iTunes - the only way I ever hear it is on Youtube. It's probably better that way - my play count would easily be 500+. 

Toughts on video: Despite listening to this song on Youtube a whole lot of times I actually do not have any strong feelings on the video. It is mediocre in most respects. The video might have been cool if it were the 1980s and the whole live video mixed with cartoons was still groundbreaking technology.

Favorite lyrics: "I'm my own worst enemy."


Play count while writing blog: 7

1. Please note, all [most] facts in this blog will use Wikipedia as the source, no I will not cite them - I am not wasting my time proving I can annotate correctly. I have two degrees, been there, done that.
2. As much as Mary Charles ever knows every line.
3. If I recall correctly they still played "Hey Mickey" back then.
4. These friends are the ones who listened to Dave Matthews Band ad nauseum - which is where that love affair began. No worries, DMB will be thoroughly explored in this blog.
5. This is when my obsession with Friday afternoons began, can you think of a better time of the week than Friday afternoon?