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Atom and His Package
Hair: Debatable
Hopeless CD/DVD
I've seen Atom and His Package six times. The first time was at the Wilkes-Barre Fest in '98 when Atom and His Package was backed by the Packettes. It was a set like no other. A performance that ended in a huge waltz conducted by the Atom and His Package theme song, aptly titled "Atom and His Package." Never again will I see so many punk rock kids move and glide to a ballroom dance in ¾ time. It was the set that sparked my longtime adoration for the sequencing man from Philadelphia, the principal of the Punk Rock Academy, Adam Goren, and his lifeless band member, the QY 700 music sequencer from Tokyo, Japan.
Atom and His Package's humorously witty lyrics and diverse subject matter backed by equally wacky synth-punk were a breath of fresh air, not to just my ears, but to the whole punk rock community. It was definitely a well needed departure from the loads of stagnant and serious punk rock that seemed to be multiplying faster than wet mogwai. Hair: Debatable contains Atom and His Package's entire final show performed in Philadelphia on August 29th, 2003. Atom plays an extremely infectious set of songs that ears shouldn't be deprived of hearing, especially some of his most memorable cuts like "(Lord It's Not Hard To Be Happy When You're Not) Using the Metric System," "Mind's Playing Tricks on Me," "What We Do on Christmas," "Me and My Black Metal Friends," "Hats Off to Halford," "Punk Rock Academy," and my personal favorite, "Meatball." I think I've yelled "Meatball" out at almost every Atom performance I was lucky enough to attend...sorry Atom, but thanks for taking the requests.
Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of live albums. The one problem with Hair: Debatable is that if you are already an Atom devotee, chances are you already have all these great tracks, though it is funny to hear Adam speak between songs and give insight to some of the song's origins and meanings. I would say the main purpose to invest in Hair: Debatable would be for the DVD portion of the release that contains the entire final show. The video and audio couldn't be any crisper. Plus there are some interesting extras on the DVD, especially the interview with Adam and friends that recap on his solo venture after the breakup of his band Fracture, his tendency to endlessly tour, and why he's finally breaking up the one man band and shelving the package for good. New ears should check out A Society of People Named Elihu and Making Love first, but Hair: Debatable is a great album that shouldn't be passed up. Seriously, you can't go wrong with both a CD and a DVD packaged within the same release.
Thank you Adam Goren for broadening my scope of what punk rock can and should be: fun. One of the nicest guys you'll ever meet, and truly one of the more original artists to come out of the underground, Atom and His Package will be truly missed.
by Fake Train
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