Tender Defender: "We are the three best friends that anyone could have, that's right, the three best friends that anybody could have."
We just had a very H-O-T as in heated argument here at the Scene offices. There was name calling. There was yelling and spitting and chair-throwing. The subject matter? Whether or not a rhyming band name is ever good.
You see, today is the best day. A few members of one of my all-time favorite pop punk bands, Latterman, reunited and announced they have a new project called Tender Defender. It is the perfect band name. Latterman were the godfathers of posi and enthused pop punk songs about friendship and making the world (and the music scene) a better, more inclusive place. Their music is super earnest and catchy as hell and whenever I listen to their albums I want to run up and down the streets, high-fiving everyone while doing air kicks. Judging by TD's debut song, "Hello Dirt," which premiered on Noisey today and which I've already listened to one dozen times, not much has changed about their sound. They're still unapologetically sincere, delivering fast, punchy anthems about getting up and getting over it. It makes me want to kick everyone's ass and then bake them cookies.
But! That's not the point. The point is, the silly, fun, rhyming name tore the office in half — "I like it!" "It's terrible!" "YOU'RE TERRIBLE!" — and sent everyone down a shouty path of whether or not rhyming band names are ever a good idea.
Milli Vanilli, Quiet Riot, Scritti Politti, Ace of Base, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Tears for Fears and, yes, Tender Defender — they rhyme, some even roll right off the tongue, but are any of them actually good? Help bring this argument to a humane conclusion, Cream readers, before someone tears someone else's arm off!
And while you think about it, give the new Tender Defender song a listen (or five, six or seven listens, even):
