It’s an age-old question that echoes down the halls of the pop-punk conservatories: How can one spruce up a genre of music gone stale years before Blink-182 traded fart jokes for childish screamo or Rufio was anything but a food-tossing sass-basket hiding in the forests of Neverland? Answer? A goddamn violin!
Stop the violins:
At least, that’s the theory of thought promulgated by Sean Mackin, violinist/lead dancer, a student of the Florida-inspired Yellowcard school, which adheres to the emo-fied vocals of the Orange County School of Pop-Punk and the sing-song simplicity of the TRL School of Songwriting, a modern powerhouse of post-art propaganda.
The youthful transplants to Southern California (Ventura), famous to anyone with a TV set and a junior high diploma, first formed in Jacksonville in 1997, finally fulfilling their manifest destiny at the turn of the century. After a lackluster California debut, they relegated themselves to the third-tier punk pop shelf, playing with other less-than-spectacular bands like Less Than Jake. Somehow, within three years, they signed to a major label, which introduced the emotionally unstable class of 2003 to Ocean Avenue. The smoothly produced album hit the double-platinum mark a year later based on the strength of the singles “Ocean Avenue,” “Way Away” and “Only One.”
The band describes itself as sincere, and its uplifting motto is “To not let anybody tell them what to do with their life.” It must take some luck, talent, and a Beemer full of payola to live by Fonzie’s golden rule, and Yellowcard certainly have two of the three.
Oh, and they have a violinist. Yellowcard will perform at 7 p.m. on Oct. 7 at RIMAC Arena.
