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Loved this! I grew up in the Chicago suburbs so fall out boy holds a special place in my heart. The sugar we're going down music video with the antlers felt like a real turning point & cultural moment. You're spot on with the tracks you called out...so many good memories of belting Sophomore Slump and I've Got A Dark Alley in the car, fresh off of getting my drivers license, haha. FUCT made me feel special and intelligent and cool for listening to it--I didn't really realize how popular it was. The album made you feel like your relationship with it was personal and unique, like no one really "got" it except you. Pete Wentz was a really fascinating figure at the time, and you captured him well. I remember him being kind of the butt of the joke on the boards and on livejournal. There was the disdain for fangirls (we called them 'teenies') who just thought Pete was hot, and then kinda the disdain for Pete, for playing into it. I remember thinking he was arrogant and weirdly entrepreneurial, to the point of being a sellout. But god i loved him, haha. It wasn't even a crush really, it was just like, mad respect. I also never got too into IOH (loved folie tho) but I was recently listening to Thriller and I love his line "the only thing I haven't done yet is die." Classic pete. To this day I kinda think his blog posts taught me how to write. For better or for worse <33

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This is the kind of gap that fascinates me. Chicago for me in 2005 may as well have been on the Moon, so I love that we were geographically so far apart but had a very similar experience of entering this "secret world" guided by the Internet.

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