38.
artist:five iron frenzy
album:electric boogaloo
I'm becoming more and more amazed at my own memory as i go through my album collection. yet again i remember everything about purchasing this CD on the day it came out.
i was counting down the days until this release, because OMGFIFWUT. i mean, they were my favorite band ever back in 2001. anyway, on November 20th, 2001, the day it came out, Sarah took me to the Christian book store up the road to go pick it up. we got back to campus and i called Amy and then went over to her room to have a listening party with her and her boyfriend.
i remember hearing it and thinking "what in the world? what happened to the ska?" because this album is notably different from the previous offerings. in all honesty, its a great CD, but at the time i wasn't having it. i was disappointed. the songs were heavier, the lyrics seemed angrier to me, and instead of the ska sound we had all come to know and love, i found myself describing it as "a rock and roll album with some horns." listening to the closing track, "eulogy" i found myself wondering if this was Reese's swan song. the band didn't disband right away, but it was only two years later (almost to the date, actually). they only released one more album after boogaloo, and the tour for that album was "winners never quit: a farewell tour."
its been nearly 10 years now since that album came out. the band is long gone, off doing other things. this band is still near and dear to my heart, even if i don't listen to their music much these days. i have made some really great friends because of this band. i definitely have some really great experiences because of this band. fif was more than just a recording group to me; to a lot of us. that band is woven into our histories. its strange, because I've never connected with another band so intensely, on such a level, before or after this band came into my life. i don't even have the same relationship with brand new as i do with fif. it feels weird talking about the band like they are one collective person, but i don't know how else to describe it. because of the band, i started visiting the board. because of the board, i made some insanely awesome good times friends. because of those friends, i have had some experiences that i know i wouldn't have otherwise. also, i got a lot of musical suggestions through the board. if you look through my friends list on facebook, a good portion of them are boardies. and if you ask any one of them, id be willing to bet they would say the same things as i just have.
one weird little thing before i go. from probably the day that this album came out, i had the signature on my email account set as:
"The angels are singing over the plains
the shepherds are quaking, echoing refrains
And all of our slogans designed to take away the pain
meant nothing to the Son of God that night in Bethlehem"
i don't see that when i send an email, so i never really thought much about it after that. i was emailing one of the guys that i met while interning at MTV, and he saw that and asked if i liked five iron. i explained to him that they were indeed my most favorite band in the universe, and it turned out that this guy was from Denver (which i did already know) and was very good friends with Reese Roper himself. at the time, that was the coolest thing that could have ever happened to me.
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