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Way back in the 1900s, T. Rex summed up perfectly what it was like to be a “20th Century Boy”: Marc Bolan ran wild like any true man of the ’70s, moving like a cat, charging like ram, stinging like a bee, and just generally being everyone’s man. Friends said it was fine, friends said it was good. Hell, everybody said it was just like rock and roll.
Of course, here in the 21st Century, we’re all a bit more grown up, more tired, less mobile, and things are just generally way more depressing. We’re saddled with student loans, calls from debt collectors, political paranoias and just an incurable sense of existential dread that follows us wherever we go. Friends say it’s not fine, friends say it’s not good. And hell, nobody says any of this daily bullshit is just like rock and roll.
Bi-coastal rock band The Bottom Dollars know this all too well, and their new Record Store Day single “21st Century, Man!” deals with the constant interruption we get from others who slow our roll and want a piece of our pie.
“It’s about being out with your friends and having your day/night interrupted by calls from credit collection agencies,” says frontman Brian Cherchiglia about the song, which you can hear below. “The song attempts to humanize and overlay a relationship between the singer and the collections agent as the singer basically delivers a ‘baby I love you, but I’m not ever gonna change’ kind of message.”
This is how modern-day romance has devolved.
Cherchiglia adds that the track has been kicking around in Bottom Dollars live sets for years, but only recently had it gotten the official release treatment. This past weekend, the band issued the single on limited-edition, hand-cut, lo-fi 7-inch vinyl, all part of Record Store Day’s 10th anniversary. “This version was originally tracked for pre-pro for our second LP,” Cherchiglia tells us. “When we listened to it again, we thought it sounded good enough to put out — so we did.”
We agree.
The Bottom Dollars are in the midst of a North American tour that touches down locally Saturday night (April 29) at the Plough & Stars in Cambridge, and the show serves as a homecoming for the group’s newest member, Mick Greenwood. Most will recognize the one-time Bostonian for his musical work in The Self-Proclaimed Rockstars, The Interrobang, and Zerobot, as well as efforts curating the annual Space Age Senior Prom and just generally being a dude you’d call when you need some shit sorted out. Buy him a drink or three, and raise a glass to the 21st Century… man.
Featured Bottom Dollars photo by Sheva Kafai.
The Bottom Dollars Live Dates
04.27.2017 Live Taping at Paste Magazine (streaming only)
04.28.2017 Mercury Lounge (New York, NY) $
04.29.2017 The Plough & Stars (Cambridge, MA) $
04.30.2017 BRYAC (Bridgeport, CT)
05.01.2017 Canal Club (Richmond, VA) #
05.02.2017 Georgia Theatre (Athens, GA) #
05.03.2017 Egan’s (Tuscaloosa, AL) #
05.09.2017 Barracuda (Austin, TX) #
05.17.2017 Stork Club (Oakland, CA)
$ = w/ NO ICE
# = w/ Fiona Silver
