TS: "My Own Worst Enemy" vs "The Impression That I Get"

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Rock music before rock music was back! Fantastic.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 12:58 (twenty years ago)

"My Own Worst Enemy"

― Zwan (miccio), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 13:02 (twenty years ago)

"All My Best Friends Are Metalheads" certainly fits in with the ethos here, if not the timeline.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 13:05 (twenty years ago)

OMG, that's tough. I LOVED both of these for a period. It's tough too because both are somewhat trumped by follow-up singles: "Zip-Loc" and "Rascal King" are the more enduring classics... but man, that skronky feedback behind "Please TELL meee," the Bosstones guy's cigarette-voiced moxie...oof. I'm going to have to give the crown to "The Impression That I Get," just because it's a LITTLE bit hookier and more energetic, and the actual storyline of "My Own Worst Enemy" is sort of wearying...

― Doctor Casino (Doctor Casino), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 15:52 (twenty years ago)

Gotta go with the Bosstones. NEVER HAD TO, KNOCK ON WOOD. Nice opportunity for TMMB to sell-out and fizzle away with a shred of dignity.

"My Own Worst Enemy" was like a combination of the worst of Blink 182 and Offspring. I do like songs that give the song's title at the beginning of a second or third verse.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 16:05 (twenty years ago)

Man, I just flashed back to my sophomore year of high school. MAN. What's next, a Powerman 5000 thread?

Also, I have to weep a (very) small tear for the passing of K-Rock (WXRP New York). Back in the day, they used to rock "all the fly shit." Now, David Lee Roth brings the talk. I mean, K-rock's fortunes began to decline with the rise of the meathead/rap-rock/WWE era - and when they moved on to basically playing late '80s, early '90s nostalgia-rock....well, we've still got Q 104.3 (I think, anyways). Sigh. This reminds me of the time they closed the ol' drive in movie theater.

― M. Biondi (M. Biondi), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 16:13 (twenty years ago)

I still love "My Own Worst Enemy," I think it's ripe for a good cover. It's so absurdly peppy! I used to love driving around when it came on the radio because I would sing a harmony at the top of my lungs. Probably one of the top 10 of the 90s for me. (Uh, that did come out in the 90s, right?)

The Bosstones...eh. It was a fine enough song, but a gold record of the album that came from hung by my cubicle for three years, which is enough to put me off anyone for good.

― Eppy (Eppy), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 16:17 (twenty years ago)

I almost got to interview a bosstone in high school circa "impression" (which i do like, but the chorus is so indirect that it kind of bugs me). I was going to ask what that blue shit was that they were sprayed with in the video and whether the dancer got paid as much as dickie.

― [email protected], Wednesday, 19 April 2006 16:21 (twenty years ago)

I love that Mighty Mighty Bosstones song.

I do not love My Own Worst Enemy. However, at parties around the piano, I often bust it out and everyone knows the words. That, along with Closing Time, Semi-Charmed Life, and Good Riddance (Time of Your Life), get everyone singing along.

I agree that Zip-Lock trumps My Own Worst Enemy. The Impression That I Get remains the Bosstones' finest moment, however.

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 20:15 (twenty years ago)

Send me an invitation next time you wanna do "Save Tonight".

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 20:31 (twenty years ago)

I never got sick of hearing "My Own Worst Enemy" on the radio. Everytime I hear that Bosstones song I want to die. So I'm going to go with Lit on this one.

― sovietpanda (sovietpanda), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 21:14 (twenty years ago)

I agree with Ant about the Bosstones song. It's good but that chorus is just frustrating.

The Lit song is definitely less interesting but I like it more. It's kind of homely.

Joe

― JoseMaria (JoseMaria), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 22:13 (twenty years ago)

Impression.

"Ziplock" was pretty great.

― The Good Dr. Bill (The Good Dr. Bill), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 22:19 (twenty years ago)

"My Own Worst Enemy" is a very underrated song, in my opinion.

― mr poopypants, Wednesday, 19 April 2006 22:38 (twenty years ago)

Wait, so that Lit album isn't bad (I bought it when I was 7 or 8 and loved "My Own Worst Enemy" but the last time I listened to it was probably when I was 9 or 10 because I assume I had crappy taste then).

― Tape Store (Tape Store), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 22:53 (twenty years ago)

Oops...I didn't use a question mark!

― Tape Store (Tape Store), Wednesday, 19 April 2006 22:54 (twenty years ago)

both are pretty great

― Mike O. (Mike Ouderkirk), Thursday, 20 April 2006 02:53 (twenty years ago)

I heard large portions of the Lit album on a road trip a while back, came out of my friend's CD binder because we wanted to hear the singles. Couldn't tell you a thing about the rest of the songs, but I know I heard them. They were on to kind of a good formula: the Offspring crossed with Sugar Ray... which, come to think of it, around the same time the Offspring got the same idea and started doing summer novelty singles, but I think Lit's rendition feels much more fully-realized, or something... never quite could get around the pubescent "hey, we can get away with this!"-ness of "Miserable" though...

Somehow, this whole line of thought is leading me inexorably to Goldfinger and MxPx but i'm not sure we're ready to go there.

― Doctor Casino (Doctor Casino), Thursday, 20 April 2006 03:52 (twenty years ago)

Send me an invitation next time you wanna do "Save Tonight".

I added that to the repertoire entirely because of your suggestion. It went over well. So did Fly by Sugar Ray.

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Sunday, 23 April 2006 20:40 (twenty years ago)

This one's for you, Kenny.

― Rex Mantlepiece (RMANT), Sunday, 23 April 2006 21:10 (twenty years ago)

"My Own Worst Enemy" by the biggest margin measurable by anything ever.

― edward o (edwardo), Sunday, 23 April 2006 22:33 (twenty years ago)

I'm sorry, but a party featuring piano ballads of "Save Tonight" and "Closing Time" (which is actually pretty decent) sounds like a lukewarm version of hell.

"My Own Worst Enemy" is one of the most annoying songs in memory, whereas "Impression That I Get" might not be so bad with some distance on it.

(also, I refuse to believe "Worst Enemy" came out in the '90s, it's still too damn vivid)

― milo z (mlp), Sunday, 23 April 2006 23:08 (twenty years ago)

Hey, I have to play the songs that everyone knows. I don't know most of them, so I just play songs people can sing along to. When I'm alone with a small group of friends, I can bust out The Clash or Rocky Horror.

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Monday, 24 April 2006 08:38 (twenty years ago)

I have to go with Lit's song. Bosstones songs good too, but if you really like Ballads, check out Butch Walker album Letters. (In case you don't know who he is, Butch is a mamgaer for Avril Lavigne, his back up band is American Hi-Fi, and formerly of Marvelous 3.

― JR, Sunday, 7 May 2006 12:22 (twenty years ago)

Just downloaded both. Lit is feeling very proto Busted in a sort of Dawnsons Creek era area but the central riff is rather similar to the opening part of the Arctic Monkey's No 1 hit I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor. Did this record tacitly lay the foundations for British guitar music this decade?

― pscott (elwisty), Sunday, 7 May 2006 14:05 (twenty years ago)

Now the Bosstones... Haircut 100 for a post Cobain era?

― pscott (elwisty), Sunday, 7 May 2006 14:08 (twenty years ago)

(also, I refuse to believe "Worst Enemy" came out in the '90s, it's still too damn vivid)

There were many significant changes in the businesses of radio and popular music during late-98/early-99, and so to a lot of people the music of 1999 feels like it's from the current decade. Which is why it bugs the hell out of me when Eminem and Britney Spears are considered 90's artists.

The thing about both of these songs is that I associate them with other rock songs that were popular around the same time, and so I would have to use that particular grouping to make an accurate comparison...

-April '97-
"The Impression That I Get"
"Song 2"
"Your Woman"
"Hell"
"Virtual Insanity"
"The New Pollution"
"Semi-Charmed Life"
"The Freshmen"
"MMMBop"
"Monkey Wrench"
"Greedy Fly"
"The Perfect Drug"

-May '99-
"My Own Worst Enemy"
"What's My Age Again"
"Nookie"
"Scar Tissue"
"Freak On A Leash"
"Lit Up"
"New"
"Blue Monday"
"Battleflag"
"Rock Is Dead"
"Steal My Sunshine"
"Ends"

It's a tough call, but I think Spring '97 is the winner for me.

― billstevejim (billstevejim), Sunday, 7 May 2006 15:13 (twenty years ago)

This thread is starting to remind me of being on a VH1 show in the year 2015, when I'm as fat, bald and bitter as the loneliest record store clerk in the world, and the only way I can scrape two pennies together is by going, "Does anyone remember that band The Flys? I mean, 'Got You Where I Want You?'... More like 'I Don't Want This Shit At All, heh-heh'"

...
(Also, you can say "shit" on TV in 2015)

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Sunday, 7 May 2006 15:20 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

MOWE is a great song that is obscured by all the 'dragon-shirt' bullshit from that era that it is too easy to visually and sonically associate with it.

― Richard Wood Johnson, Saturday, 11 August 2007 02:57 (eighteen years ago)

WEIRD i was thinking about "The impression that I get" today for the first time in years today. is it on an ad campaign or something? that is too random. Love the song.

― tremendoid, Saturday, 11 August 2007 03:43 (eighteen years ago)

Whiney's post above is incredibly, scarily OTM.

― Doctor Casino, Sunday, 12 August 2007 19:25 (eighteen years ago)

RWJ too, "'dragon-shirt' bullshit," hahahha

― Doctor Casino, Sunday, 12 August 2007 19:25 (eighteen years ago)

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