In the heat of things, it was hard to believe it, but now I notice a fuzzy, melodic link between Hüsker Dü, The Promise Ring and Green Day. I wouldn’t have caught that in high school because, back then, I knew that old college radio dudes liked Hüsker Dü, straight edge girls liked The Promise Ring, and people who hadn’t discovered cooler stuff after buying Dookie still listened to Green Day. Now, along comes Austin’s Wild America to give me perspective by drawing from all three of those bands’ subgenres, making a rad musical mixture of almost everything I liked in eleventh grade. Thanks guys. I expect nothing less from thinking men whose record cover is their band’s name written in the sand and whose lyrics say things like, “I understand religion. I’ve read enough to know there’s no god to pray to, to make you come to me.”
–CT Terry (Freedom School)