Saturday, May 09, 2020
stop looking through scrapbooks and photograph albums
I'm not really sure why--maybe it's just because I've been listening to so much music in general lately and there's extra space to fill or maybe because thinking about 2000 feels better than whatever the fuck is going on now--but I've been spending an unusual amount of time revisiting sounds from 10/15/20/25-year ago lately. Some records that are now certified classics and some records that have been mostly forgotten, but generally speaking, a lot bands that I used to talk about here.
Idlewild wasn't really one of those bands. I think I stopped paying so much attention to them after 2003's The Remote Part and I wasn't set on broadcasting my often myopic opinions on music into the internet void until 2005, but Stereogum was nice enough to remind everyone that 100 Broken Windows turned 20 this week.
Chris DeVille did a nice job of summarizing the amalgamation of influences that hit a sweet spot for me at 21: REM, Fugazi, pop, punk, but not exactly pop-punk. And I remember pogoing around my room in my parents house to "Roseability" on repeat after discovering it on one of those freebie CDs that came with UK music magazines in the aughts.
I remember being excited that I found them via some import magazine, because it felt important to have "your" bands. I remember feeling ahead of the curve when Pitchfork gave this record an 8.3 and caring about being ahead of Pitchfork. And I remember speeding down the highway to Seattle and back the same day (cause we could barely scrape together gas money, let alone hostel money) in my piece of shit Hyundai Elantra to see them.
I vaguely remember being this bad at using punctuation back then too.
But mostly I remember having my Discman tucked into a shoulder bag on the bus with "These Wooden Ideas" blaring through performatively large over-the-hear headphones and "Actually, It's Darkness" playing so loud off of a dubbed cassette that it was breaking up the car speakers while I zipped around Richmond delivering Chinese food. And I remember how much I used to care about bands, when I didn't really feel obligated to care a ton about much else.
100 Broken Windows, especially in retrospect, really sounds like a band that found its way and I remember how I just couldn't get sick of hearing it when I was trying to find mine.
I still know all the words.
now playing: Idlewild - There's Glory in Your Story
stop looking through scrapbooks and photograph albums
Idlewild wasn't really one of those bands. I think I stopped paying so much attention to them after 2003's The Remote Part and I wasn't set on broadcasting my often myopic opinions on music into the internet void until 2005, but Stereogum was nice enough to remind everyone that 100 Broken Windows turned 20 this week.
Chris DeVille did a nice job of summarizing the amalgamation of influences that hit a sweet spot for me at 21: REM, Fugazi, pop, punk, but not exactly pop-punk. And I remember pogoing around my room in my parents house to "Roseability" on repeat after discovering it on one of those freebie CDs that came with UK music magazines in the aughts.
I remember being excited that I found them via some import magazine, because it felt important to have "your" bands. I remember feeling ahead of the curve when Pitchfork gave this record an 8.3 and caring about being ahead of Pitchfork. And I remember speeding down the highway to Seattle and back the same day (cause we could barely scrape together gas money, let alone hostel money) in my piece of shit Hyundai Elantra to see them.
I vaguely remember being this bad at using punctuation back then too.
But mostly I remember having my Discman tucked into a shoulder bag on the bus with "These Wooden Ideas" blaring through performatively large over-the-hear headphones and "Actually, It's Darkness" playing so loud off of a dubbed cassette that it was breaking up the car speakers while I zipped around Richmond delivering Chinese food. And I remember how much I used to care about bands, when I didn't really feel obligated to care a ton about much else.
100 Broken Windows, especially in retrospect, really sounds like a band that found its way and I remember how I just couldn't get sick of hearing it when I was trying to find mine.
I still know all the words.
now playing: Idlewild - There's Glory in Your Story
2 Comments:
can’t say i expected to ever see this pop up on my feed reader again, but i’m glad i did
By 
Gerald, at
10:35 p.m.
I now know that you and Rob C are the two people I know who still use RSS feeds
By 
, at
11:21 p.m.
