Dangerous, Dirty, and Unfun

Meeting the girl of my dreams? Landing that writing gig at the New Yorker? Closing out Game 7 of the World Series? Silly readers, none of those moments, were they to happen, would even come close to being in the same ballpark of being able to be even remotely compared to this:

Sonic 4? A side scroller? That picks up right after the action of Sonic and Knuckles? Yes, please!

You people might not understand how significant an event this is. I’ve been a Sega guy my whole life. I never owned a Nintendo, but I did own a Sega CD and a Dreamcast. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is, in this blogger’s myopic opinion, the single greatest achievement in the history of video games. I played that game until my thumbs were raw and bloody. The Sonic games of my late adolescence, early teens, late teens, early 20s, and mid 20s have been, to say the least, uninspiring. But this? This Sonic 4? This thing looks like it was handed down by God Herself. I’m beside myself with excitement.

Did you wake up this morning and feel like life was a little more worth living? Like existence had a little bit more meaning? Like you had a purpose that, for once, you felt like you could fulfill?

You should have. Brand New released a new album today, Daisy. Almost three years ago, upon the release of the last Brand New album, The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me, the guys from Straylight Run said that Brand New is the band that will save us all. It’s as true today as it was when it was written.

Regular readers of Dangerous, Dirty, and Unfun will recognize that during the formative years of DD&U’s development, when all sorts of trivial-in-retrospect-but-vitally-important-at-the-time things were happening, Br& Nizzy was the band that spoke with the greatest clarity and meaning. And they’ve only gotten better. Listen to the new album’s first single, “At the Bottom.”