I hear U2 music and I think, "Look at that guy 'Under the Blood Red Sky' at Red Rocks waving the white flag." That's it for me. Every U2 record for me is that white flag.

When the mainstream got their hands on punk, they turned it into an anemic pretty thing, where it kind of lost it's teeth and claws and spine and ability to bring truth to power, to point the lights and go, "There! That is f---ed up! It's you, motherf---er!. Lock him up!" Joe Strummer, if he was alive now and gone through eight years of George W. Bush, I don't think he would have suffered that guy lightly.

What has been called "punk" since ~1991 just isn't. It has the appearance of it, but I don't hear it. It just sounds kind of more like complaining than real outrage. But it's not for me to say. Let's pretend you like these mainstream punk-pop bands. Right on! I'm not going to put you down for what you like. Go get the T-shirt. Go to the gig. Life is short. Get out there, man, because all of a sudden, you're 40+, your tastes are considered "classic and vintage" (without being ironic), and you don't have time to go see gigs.