The Day-Of Club
Proud members since 1992
Some clubs are easier to join than others. Within the halls of Random Ramblings, there is an elite club that many an artist is jonesin’ to join: the presitigious Day-Of club. This club belongs to the bands or musicians whose new albums we buy on the first day they are released. When you absolutely, positively can’t wait a second longer to hear their new music, then you you grant them membership.
This club was born when we were in high school, during what was in our (biased) opinion the best era of new music since The Beatles: the early to mid 90’s. We remember getting R.E.M.’s Automatic for the People on the day it came out and being amazed (and rightfully so, as it is their best overall album and one of the best of the 90’s). We also remember getting Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy when we were supposed to be getting ads for newspaper class, but that is another story. (We will only sacrifice our journalistic integrity if it is a really, really good band).
This is not an easy group to become a part of. The application process is simple: you must release 2 or more albums that we like. Once you’ve shown that you can consistently put out good music, then it makes us want to immediately hear when you produce more music. Now, usually, you have to be consistently and release these 2 or more albums consecutively, but there are exceptions. Take for example Radiohead. We absolutely loved The Bends and OK Computer (along with the rest of the world). But we only loved parts of Kid A, Amnesiac, and Hail to the Thief (although this last one was better than the other two, in our correct opinion). We were iffy as to if they should still be in the club, even though they’ve released some of the best music of the last 10+ years. But then they came back with a vengance and released “In Rainbows”, a really great album. So they are solidly in there now.
Other people at the top of the Day-of club: Coldplay, My Chemical Romance, R.E.M. (got steady again with “Accelerate”), Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, and The White Stripes. Bands that are still on there but no as strong as they used to be: Foo Fighters and Weezer.
Of course, as with every club, there are going to be some people on the outside looking in. What stings even more is if you used to be in but now are out. This dubious distinction belongs to the following bands: U2 (I was with them until “Beautiful Day”, which is not horrible but is pretty mediocre by our standards), and Wilco (they were still making good music with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost is Born, but it wasn’t as enjoyable to listen to as their earlier work. But we are impressed with Sky Blue Sky, so maybe they’ll join the ranks again in the future).
So there you have. These bands are the Navy Seals of the music world. The best of the best. The elite. In a world of challengers, they are the heavyweight champions of the world. But they are only a bad album or two away from giving up the crown.
