FUTURE VIRGINS:
Western Problem: LP
I spent a few years in college as a the music director for the local college rock station, and after countless hours of listening to new music in order to make the decision about whether to add new discs to our rotation, I got incredibly good at the “recommended if you like” section of our description page. Problem was, even though I could suggest to people, “you’ll like this if you like that,” it became more and more difficult to differentiate between “good” and “bad” music. For a period of time, I thought I’d lost my passion for music; it all just sounded derivative. I feel like a band like the Future Virgins would have snapped me out of that line of thinking pretty quickly had they existed back then. These guys knocked me on my ass with their first seven inch and nothing’s changed with each subsequent release. This is probably the best DIY pop punk band in existence, and I don’t apply such labels lightly. Perfect, passionate, and energetic songs that make me want to jump around my bedroom all night long with a huge smile on my face. I didn’t expect this to top their previous efforts, but I think it just might have! I dare someone to try to knock this out of its current “best record of 2011” position. –Chris Mason (Plan-It-X South/Starcleaner, plan-it-x.com, starcleaner.com)