Hoobastank: Visionary Alternative Rock

Over the past few months I have been paying a great deal of attention to the lyrics of Hoobastank's albums. I had always liked the band, but had not paid much attention to the words until one night. I was working on my computer at around 2:00am when "If I Were You" came on the Internet station I had on in the background.

After hearing that song over 100 times this was the first time I focused on the message. It caught me by surprise that I had not gotten this, so the next song that I heard from Hoobastank, "Outta Control", got my undivided attention so that I could catch the lyrics. Those lyrics also spoke directly to my heart. I went onto YouTube (unbelievable thing!) and fished out about ten songs. All of these songs had some kind of spiritual statement that touched me in some way. Even more, the production, performances, writing, and musical arrangements are top-notch. Being a musician, engineer, producer, manager, and entertainment marketing guy, it's very hard to satisfy my preception of a perfect act. But this is one of them. I went even further, running Googles on the band's sites, and reading the Wikipedia bio about the band, as well as how their tours are fairing.

My conclusion, after a few weeks of thinking this over, is that Hoobastank could be one of the most relevant Alt-Rock acts of the day. Using powerful production methodologies, they profess a point of view about the world on a level that borders religious proffering. Today, when the world seems to be headed backwards by decades, young people need bands like this to put certain issues into perspective. This is not just a rock act, this is a special combination of musicians who are trying to make powerful, but not alienating, statements about what they have learned in their young lives. At this point in time Hoobastank is my #1 rock band. I hope the power of that statement is crystal clear.