FROM THE ARCHIVES

Before they were Paranoid Social Club, they were Rustic Overtones, and before that they were from Portland Maine, the hardcore capital of the Greater Portland Maine area. You wonder sometimes how nice boys from Maine get to be so angry, but then you realize it's Maine and, Jesus, you can only hang out at the L.L.Bean Outlet for so long before you're forced to tear the sleeves off your Men's Rockland Polo shirt, flip the collar to "up," and rock. Bear with me here.

I hearken back to when 311's Grassroots came out in '94, and I was like, "wicked, homie" (because it was '94, and I was doing that black 3-hole Vans, jeans, Soundgarden T-shirt, skater haircut, flanel-shirt-'roud-the-waist thing, and In Living Color was still big), "is this what's coming out of Seattle now?" The truth, as I was embarrassed to learn, was that 311 had, like so many other famous... corn, grown straight out of Omaha, Nebraska.

Puzzling.

The awkwardness of that moment caused me to judge a band's origins less harshly from then on, so when my Man-Bear-Kitten of a roommate suckered me into a Paranoid Social Club (est. Portland, Maine) show, I gave it my due regard. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I actually enjoyed the show (aside from a little ditty called "Last Cigarette," for which I tortured my super-sensitive-but-bottle-it-all-up-inside roomate mercilessly for years. "Dude, It's not really about cigarettes, at all, you just aren't getting it).

If you liked 311 (because you still have "311" underneath your driver's seat somewhere, though you haven't thought about it since '96), but really didn't care for Nick Lofton Hexum's Schoolhouse Rock voice, you might find some kitschy, kick back with an Allagash, swat the mosquitoes, maple-syrupy entertainment from Paranoid Social club.

If you're feeling saucy, spend some of your iTunes gift certificate ($5.00, Chaunkah day 4) on "Ricochet," from the album Axis II. Then go eat some of yo' mamma's waffles.