what’s with all the backhanded new jersey compliments? i’m born and bred in new jersey. and, much like anyone i’ve known from new jersey, i will continue to make fun of my home state every chance i get, but at the same time will defend it to the death should any non-new-jerseyite make any ridiculous “armpit of america” comments. anyone who’s spent any time here knows that it’s a beautiful green state with the best beaches anywhere, and just forty minutes away from manhattan.

and that’s the thing about growing up in new jersey: you get to be really excited and young and inexperienced and go to your first shows in new york. when i was in high school, the brooklyn scene wasn’t quite as accessible because the internet didn’t really work in the same way it does now (no youtube, a dial-up connection that made downloading music nearly impossible, pitchfork was just getting started). i don’t think high schoolers could be into independent music with the same magnitude as they are now. frankly, i’m very jealous of them. i still went to shows at places like bowery ballroom and what was then irving plaza every chance i could get. and i KNOW i was obnoxious. i have a love/hate relationship with teenagers coming to shows. when i see them up in front jumping around like crazy drunk off their asses, it makes me feel old and lame. i can’t keep up, and those day of reckless abondon are over for me. on the other hand, i love it that there’s a place for younger versions of me to hear the music they love and escape from what i know can sometimes be suburban hell.

so really, when i’m giving these supposed “back-handed compliments” to new jersey, they’re really me just putting my love of music into the perspective of my new jersey past. i’m contextualizing the music scene through my own experiences.

plus, i don’t know if you noticed, but i LOVE giving love to jersey bands on this blog. real estate, ducktails, titus andronicus, and now screaming females are some of my absolute favorite bands. i love them with extreme pride because they are from my home state. so, yeah, that’s what’s up with “back-handed compliments” to new jersey. most of the time, i really do just mean them to be straight-up compliments.