My company holiday party was last night and it was… well, it was really something. An incredible venue with a panoramic view of Salt Lake City, a live band, an open bar, an ice luge, and a whole lot of people both younger and prettier than myself who were wearing their holiday finest. Despite my occasional griping, there are some real perks to working in the advertising business. And I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t overindulge just a bit, but under those circumstances, how could I not, right? Right?
Fortunately, I didn’t make an ass of myself — so far as I know, anyhow — and I had a nice long train ride in which to sober up before I had to drive home from the park-and-ride lot. Even so, I had to laugh when I snapped on my car’s radio and the first song that came up was this:
Lit was one of a handful of so-called “pop-punk” bands I became briefly enamored of during the last period in which I made any real effort to remain current in my musical tastes. (If you’re curious, the others were Sugar Ray, Blink-182, The Offspring, and Bowling for Soup.) “My Own Worst Enemy,” the band’s best-known song, was released in March 1999 and landed on a number of charts, including the Billboard Hot 100 (peaking there at #51), the Billboard Mainstream Top 40 (#31), and Billboard‘s Alternative Songs, where it was a number-one hit. Unlike the music of those other pop-punkers, I still hear this one from time to time; one of our local Sunday-night sports shows was using it as a theme song for a while, I believe. I still love the opening guitar riff, so raw and catchy at the same time, and the the lyrics still amuse me too, although now they’re more a reminder of a certain period of my life — the time when I was teetering on the edge of responsible adulthood, about to turn 30 — than anything I can actually relate to. Except of course when I’m driving home from a really wild party in the wee hours of a school night.
As far as I can recall, today was the first time I’ve ever seen the song’s video, and it amuses me too. I don’t know about you guys, but the the late ’90s “lounge lizard revival” fad seems a lot more dated to me than anything on Miami Vice. I might have to write a longer entry about that sometime. But for now, I’ve got a train to catch and a weekend awaiting. And some hair of the dog to imbibe…
