It’s a strange thing to find oneself addicted. I’ve been addicted many times before to many different things (well, maybe not to so many things… unless you count people), but only once before to a band. Now that I’m back in the land of the musically obsessed, I remember how much I loved mentally mixing the songs by the band of my favor (really makes no different who it was—a different music, a different life) to create a seamless soundtrack to my daily doings. My name is Jeffrey… and this is my first post. I first heard the band we all love on a jukebox in a bar that doesn’t exist anymore in San Francisco. I had read a review of Boy with the Arab Strap in Rolling Stone and decided to have a go at it when I was choosing my pinball-playing music… I remember enjoying the song I played a great deal. I think I might have chosen Brilliant Career, though it could as well have been Is It Wicked… I was distracted because I was excited about the girl I was dating and was telling my friends all about her. After I left the bar, I didn’t really go back to the band for almost two years… Then came Napster. I know that opinions amongst this community range across the spectrum, so please do not take the previous sentence as any sort of incitement to launch into another drag-out on the merits and evils of Napster. I merely mean that when I remembered the band’s name (likely after watching High Fidelity for the umpteenth time), I was able to take their music for a test drive. That was in November, before Thanksgiving. That was when I started to fall for them in a meaningful way. The song was My Wandering Days Are Over, which I had picked off the list simply because it sounded like it would match my mood of late, which is to say gently happy and slightly melancholy at the same time—I believe “winsome” might be appropriate. As I contemplated the inevitable arrival of my mid-late-20s (currently I am only in my mid-mid-20s), the song seemed to invigorate and comfort me at the same time; I could wrap myself in it and still have room to dance. But even more than that, I felt like I had finally found a band that wasn’t afraid to sound… pretty. I bought Tigermilk the day after Thanksgiving…But it was a bit before dawn on New Year’s Day, standing alone on the fire escape, headphones on, smoking a cigarette to warm myself from the inside that I recognized that what I was feeling for the music pumping into my head was nothing short of love. And a love for the music almost by matter of logic (I say almost, as I am sure that some of you would deign to challenge my logic—have at it, you’ll get no rejoinder from me) implies a love of the band. No, I don’t love all songs equally… but I can forgive the deficient ones. Even laugh at them. There’s a whole album to listen to… I don’t know why I would possibly expect any of you to care about any of this, other than I expect—if my wordsmithing in this effort was halfway successful to keep you interested—that some of you can relate to my experience. Since I don’t foresee a west coast concert engagement anytime soon (though I have pledged to fly anywhere in these United States to see them should they be so kind as to even step foot inside them), I guess I am hoping that some of you might say hello and introduce yourselves to me… you see, I’m rather shy. And perhaps even a tad lonely… And if any of you happen to live in San Francisco… well, by all means please say hello. Thanks for reading this far… and I suppose I’ll see you on the playground. jeffrey <P class=MsoBodyText> <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></P> <P class=MsoBodyText> <o:p></o:p></P> <P class=MsoBodyText> <o:p></o:p></P> <P class=MsoBodyText> <o:p></o:p></P></DIV></html> _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+