FILTER FILTERED

I'm a regular dude and as such my love for certain uncool bands embarrasses me thoroughly. Like, say, last summer, as I stood pumping my fist at an under-attended Filter show held at a drink-and-punch outdoor festival. Throughout most of the show, I mentally chalked up the crowd's inactivity to casual fandom, confident that when Richard Patrick & co. kicked in to "Hey Man Nice Shot" or "Welcome To The Fold" or the car commercial ballads, a roar would issue forth from the hands-in-pockets rubes present. No dice, really, cuz by that time, we'd all been lulled to sleep by the four anonymous dudes (and Rich) soberly douche-rocking their way through lifeless new songs (from the latest record which is so forgettable that the title escapes me) peppered with the occasional semi-informed political rant. You read that right, political rants at an outdoor festival in July. Unnecessary. 

Get ready for more unnecessary cuz Filter is releasing a greatest hits album! From a press release via Blabbermouth:

The Very Best Things (1995-2008)'s 14 songs encompass studio recordings, rare radio edits and a scattering of soundtrack contributions. It begins with "Hey Man Nice Shot," the Top 10 hit that put the band on the musical map in 1995 and pushed debut record Short Bus to platinum status. From there, the retrospective touches on songs that reflect the evolution of the band's music, including "Soldiers Of Misfortune", from their 2008 album Anthems For The Damned.

The Very Best Things track listing:

01. Hey Man Nice Shot

02. Welcome To The Fold (Radio Edit)

03. Jurrasitol

04. (Can't You) Trip Like I Do

05. Take A Picture (Radio Edit)

06. Soldiers Of Misfortune

07. Where Do We Go From Here (Single Edit)

08. Dose

09. I'm Not The Only One

10. Skinny

11. One (Is The Loneliest Number)

12. The Best Things

13. The Only Way (Is The Wrong Way)

14. Thanks Bro

Cheesy title that plays on a song name? Check. Ostensibly the "best" music by the band yet almost solely consisting of singles? Check (listen to "Skinny" below crank it). A contract obligation fulfilled? Check! Reading this, I was so numbingly bored that I scanned the user comments to find a lotta dudes griping about the presence of radio edits on a greatest hits collection. Reader's Digest versions of songs are annoying as shit (except for Great White's "Save Your Love" which is an improvement), but their inclusion here makes sense since The Very Best Things is pointedly marketed toward shoppers, not fans; fans would already own the (awesome) albums and the soundtrack cuts and covers are Boresville so fuck that. 

What is completely stupefying is that Filter actually plays the radio edit arrangements live, as I found out the two times I actually showed my face at Filter shows. Puzzling over the phenomenon back in Spring 2000, I'd figured I musta been super-wasted and misremembering the set cuz honestly what band would do that? Which is what brought me to last summer's show, when sure enough, they played abridged versions of like four different singles. What what what??