Michael Franti too. Starting with The Beatnigs then the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, & Govt. Mule, followed by Spearhead, and then his solo stuff. Both the political awareness and the emotional maturity of his work grew up with me.

Seconds on Green Day and the Offspring.

Agree: Jimmy Eat World is still awesome and have matured well with us.

Disagree: Offspring and Yellowcard? I feel like this new “serious/mature” stage is a gimick to keep going when in fact they should just stop. Yellowcard should have stuck to their guns after “Ocean Ave”. They aren’t that old and that serious album lights and whatever was not so good. I don’t want to be too mean but right now in terms of relevance they are kind of has beens. I haven’t heard about them in forever.

Now Offspring on the other hand has done different records since their height of Smash but they’ve been jokes. Pretty Fly for a White Guy? Original Prankster? “Get a Job”? And by far the worst: “Hit That”. I remember so clearly downloading “Hit That” right before it went to radio on some website, interested to see what they had been doing. I started it up and at first, I thought it was a joke. Like an old school rickroll or something and I had downloaded some dumb Moby song recorded for the a new Honda comemrcial. But then Dexter started singing and it turned out to be real. And that whole album was pretty terrible. “Da Hui” anyone?

Now to be fair I’ve only heard that one new Offspring song about the troops “Hammerhead”. It was a free download but it was so wretched, I didn’t even want to waste the space on my ipod. At least the old songs were laughable, this was unlistenable.

So I don’t want to be too much of an asshole and bash these bands but I think the short answer to looking for a teen angst band that matured is that it almost never works. I mean look at Weezer, Offspring, No Doubt, New Found Glory (Although Mark Hoppus is producing their new record…could be a comeback), Sum 41, The Ataris, Midtown, and most personally Blink 182. They all are kind of terrible now. I don’t think I’ve ever been more disappointed than after hearing the last Blink 182 album or the band members subsequent projects (still waiting for Angels and Airwaves to change the world…bah humbug).

But you did forget to mention Green Day, they’ve matured rather well and hopefully their next album will be strong. And I can’t stress enough how good Jimmy Eat World has stayed.

In closing, I’d say that it’s better to just find new bands (Set Your Goals, Four Year Strong, Hit The Lights) that capture the same energy or go to a different genre (METAL!!!! or indie…bleh). And also break out the old jams! I still rock Dude Ranch.