TUFF ALLIANCE

For those of us who live in arctic climates, the springtime is a big deal. We take off all our clothes and we start to act all crazy. But let us never forget that the springtime is also an emo time. The Tough Alliance, in their never-ending struggle between knowing, doomy critique and naïve and affirmative enthusiasm, taught us that.

I could quote Wordsworth:

. . . Abundant recompence. For I have learned
To look on nature, not as in the hour
Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
The still, sad music of humanity.

but Wordsworth never said it with the pathos of S.E. Hinton. In the immortal words of Johnny Cade and Ponyboy Curtis:

Johnny: I've been thinking about it, and that poem, that guy that wrote it, he meant you're gold when you're a kid, like green. When you're a kid everything's new, dawn. It's just when you get used to everything that it's day. Like the way you dig sunsets, Pony. That's gold. Keep that way, it's a good way to be. I want you to tell Dally to look at one. He'll probably think you're crazv, but ask for me. I don't think he's ever really seen a sunset. . . . There's still lots of good in the world. Tell Dally. I don't think he knows. Your buddy, Johnny.

Ponyboy: Tell Dally. It was too late to tell Dally. Would he have listened? I doubted it.

tuff alliance presents:

Yr Emily Dickinson - NATURE'S FIRST GREEN IS GOLD
(YSI) (Zshare)

1. Ted Leo/Pharmacists "Biomusicology"
2. Lil Wayne "Lollipop" (Chopped and Screwed by DJ Young Redd)
3. The Badger King "Sermon of the 12"
4. Sleater-Kinney "Modern Girl"
5. The Tough Alliance "Lucky"
6. Cass McCombs "Windfall"
7. Howlin' Rain "Calling Lightning With a Scythe"
8. Scary Kids, Scaring Kids "Losing My Religion"
9. The Stone Roses "Sally Cinnamon"
10. British Sea Power "Tugboat"
11. Superchunk "Phone Sex"
12. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart "This Love Is Fucking Right!"
13. Flesh for Lulu "Postcards from Paradise"
14. Teenage Fanclub "The Concept"

Does lightning strike twice?