I think football is just okay because I'M NOT A REAL MAN!!! I don't know how to change my car's oil because I'M NOT A REAL MAN!!! I've never downloaded a sports betting app because I'M NOT A REAL MAN!!! I don't share memes in group chats because I'M NOT A REAL MAN!!! I have never purposefully listened to sports radio because I'M NOT A REAL MAN!!! I don't drink and don't smoke because I'M NOT A REAL MAN!!! I don't objectify women because I'M NOT A REAL MAN!!! I thankfully do not feel called out or made fun of on Viagra Boys' Street Worms because I'M NOT A REAL MAN!!!
Give me that Stooges shit, bro. That Fun House shit. Layer on the skronky saxophone, dude. Make it weird. Real men aren't weird. Real men are cool. They are rugged. They like what other men like. Viagra Boys are a fucking joke. They are NOT REAL MEN!!!
Gender is a pretty fascinating topic to me (because I'M NOT A REAL MAN!!!), and I like listening to an album that is ostensibly about the idea of hypermasculinity. I was at a bachelor party with a bunch of really close friends last week, and it felt good to listen to Street Worms on the ride home. I love those guys, been friend with 'em for most of my life, but I can only take so much of the REAL MAN stuff. I love arguing for fun and about an hour of that night was devoted to a big argument I started in which I claimed that I was the straightest male in the room since I seem, based on historical evidence, to find the most women attractive. It was a dumb argument, dropped specifically because I was tired of a particular strain of misogyny I kept hearing, and saying "you're being misogynistic" would have been way less effective in getting under their skin than "I must be straighter than you."
Street Worms skewers in the same way. An argument like "the professional sports entertainment industry is a pox on multiple generations of males" means nothing to anyone. Accusing sports fans of being obsessed with "wiener dogs" though? That shit cuts a particular type of person like a sharp knife. Regardless of what you say about the music, it's at least presenting a subject matter worth thinking about. Especially if you are NOT A REAL MAN!!!
Maybe I'm focusing too much of my divine feminine energy on that aspect of Street Worms. Or maybe I'm just correctly reading the text. The music is purposefully hypermasculine too, right? Loud, tough, all murky guitars and grunting and snarling. It's like when the class bully starts picking on you, sometimes the best way to combat that is to just start repeating what he's saying but in the most obnoxious voice possible. I think Viagra Boys both succeed in playing the music this way because it sounds great and also playing the music in this way because it accurately mirrors the type of person they are making fun of. This is the only reason that the saxophone and the sharp discordant synths work—it's weird enough to cut through and underline the point that this is all a joke.
This all cuts both ways, though. I could see someone who ascribes to the REAL MAN ideals feeling left out or confused while listening to this thing. I could also see someone like this ignoring the underlining sarcasm and just jamming out to some nut who's screaming the word "sports!" because it's cool. But I could also see someone who has no real stake in this game—someone who is not male and doesn't have any reason to think about what it means to be "male"—being nonplussed by all this. There's the possibility, of course, that I really like this album simply because I'M NOT A REAL MAN!!!
This all cuts both ways, though. I could see someone who ascribes to the REAL MAN ideals feeling left out or confused while listening to this thing. I could also see someone like this ignoring the underlining sarcasm and just jamming out to some nut who's screaming the word "sports!" because it's cool. But I could also see someone who has no real stake in this game—someone who is not male and doesn't have any reason to think about what it means to be "male"—being nonplussed by all this. There's the possibility, of course, that I really like this album simply because I'M NOT A REAL MAN!!!
GRADE: 3.5 pukes out of 5
2 comments:
This review has help crystalized what did not work for me about this album, which is that its critique of hyper masculinity is a bunch of guys making the jack-off motion with some warmed-over genre signifies. The positioning of the songs is that is has something important and subversive to say about the curse of masculinity, but the only point it has is "that shit is lame, right?." The whole record feels like a freshman-year level analysis of the problem, which would be fine if it didn't seem so proud of itself.
You know what's a real indictment and critique of masculinity as a curse for both men and women? The novel Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry and the albums of the band Pissed Jeans.
That's fair. Obviously it worked for me and it didn't for you, doesn't mean either of us necessarily has divergent views on hypermasculinity or whatever. In my view, sometimes simpler is better. No one is claiming that this is presenting a complex thesis in the matter. The jack-off motions can feel right sometimes.
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