Sorry to be harping so much on music lately, but my deep thoughts on a few films have to wait until I catch up on some deadlines. Let’s also blame my distracted ways for not being sure what to make of today’s press release from the St. Louis band Story of the Year. It’s reasonable to be suspicious when any record company sends out a headline like “Story of the Year Pays Tribute to the Troops and Their Families with New Video.” It seems even more suspicious when the song is called “Terrified.” I tend to think that our troops should be paid tribute with songs like “Ballad of the Green Berets”—or maybe a ditty like “Hey, Ahmadinejad, We’ve Got A Message for You to Pass Along to Uday and Qusay Hussein, Who You’re Going to be Seeing Real Soon.”

Anyway, here’s what the moderately punk rockers of Story of the Year have to say about their work:

"The video for ‘Terrified’ is pretty much a direct interpretation of the lyrics," explains singer Dan Marsala. "A story of a husband who is off at war, scared of the fact that he might not ever make it home to his wife and family, and a pregnant wife who is left at home, not knowing if she will ever see her husband alive again. It is an extremely touching subject because there are hundreds of thousands of families in America going through this exact scenario as we speak. It has to be one of the most terrifying situations that any family could ever experience. I think the video is a great representation of the story told in the lyrics and it is our tribute to all the families who suffer through this situation every day."

"What excites me the most about this video," adds guitarist Ryan Phillips, "is that it takes an enormous issue our generation is facing, the war in Iraq, and instead of getting political we honed in on the human aspect of the situation.”

“Terrified” is a pretty lame song, but there isn’t anything really objectionable about the lyrics. The band tried to get real American soldiers to be in the video, too. It’s not likely that the press release went to many people who care about saluting our troops, so it’s at least worth writing about here in a bid to reach sympathetic ears. You might even like the tune, depending on your tolerance of easy-listening emo.

 

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