"the nights i can't remember i can't forget"

The Knockdown

The Nights I Can't Remember I Can't Forget

After listening to The Knockdown's album, "The Nights I Can't Remember I Can't Forget", I can actually say that I am speechless. For once in my life there are no words coming to my brain or out of my mouth. And no, in this case, that may not be such a good thing.

Now don't get me wrong -- I'm not saying that they suck, because in all honesty they don't. Let's just say they're not the typical band you'd find in any given punk's record player - they're more of a new-age/post-hardcore/emo-type band that I feel only about 3% of the kids reading this will really appreciate, if that. For what they do they are pretty good at, but if you aren't a fan of that type of music (which I admit that I am not) then I am pretty sure that you will not find this band or CD very enjoyable.

At best I found the songs tolerable, and even that got old after a while. This could very well have something to do with my deep-seeded hatred of all things remotely emo, or because before putting on the CD I had high hopes and expectations that this just never lived up to. With a name like The Knockdown and a CD title involving drunken endeavors, I had hopes that they would have been something great - straight up punk, or folk punk, or hardcore. And after reading the lyrics to the first song, "Squirrelaholic", there was still hope - after all, it looks like it could have been written by Anti-Flag or some other political pop punk band with all of the big words and "holler back now"s and talk of useless wars going on. But alas, it was not meant to be - no matter how much you rationalize or tell yourself that they'll be good and that they'll be hardcore, as soon as the song starts you know that there is no hope. Nothing in the known world will be able to save you from the emo whinefest that you have just willingly subjected yourself to.

Three of the five songs on the album sound like any other pop-emo band you've ever heard before, with slightly depressing lyrics, the emo whine, indecipherable metaphors, everything. Take this line for example and tell me it's not emo/teen angsty: "Well I'm sure that a savior's born every fucking day / But they learn not to care before anything is saved". Ouch.

The only songs that I found tolerable were "Squirrelaholic" (the first track on the album) and the hidden bonus track. "Squirrelaholic" is the least emo and most pop, and I could definitely see it being on MTV or MTV2 or any other station like that with all the pop-emo they play nowadays. The "whoas", "heys", everything in the song comes together to form a junior highschool-esque ballad about bastard sons and stolen lives. Without a doubt this was the catchiest song on the album, and one of the best in my mind. The other song, "Basements and Houses", is probably their best song. I actually really liked it, so much so that if I were to make a comp with songs I liked on it, this one very well might be one of them. In a lot of ways it reminds me of a Rancid song...the lyrics are along the same lines of Rancid's "Radio", and at the end they have the whole clap-while-singing with no backing instruments thing going on that Rancid also seems to enjoy doing. The vocals are not whiny and are actually pretty okay, they especially impressed me with their harmonizing in the chorus "This is all you wanted / What are you waiting for? / Now is the time to sing along". It's a pretty solid song, and if I was in this band it would be the one I wanted people to remember when they thought of us. (Of course, I'm not in this band so that really was a pointless thing to say).

Basically this band is emo, emo, emo (or indie, indie, indie...whatever you prefer calling it) with some slightly good tendencies picked up from better bands. But just as soon as you start to give in and give them credit for something tolerable, they'll pull out a good charlotte/fall out boy-type song that makes you regret your previous thoughts of them. This band is not for everyone and certainly not for me, but I will admit that musically they are good at what they do and if you like emo/post-hardcore/whatever this band claims to be, then you might want to give them a listen.