You could have knocked me out with a feeling....

Chaps and Chicks,

I have to work off a bit of my friend Tyler’s blog (@thillsman) to begin this post:  Music.  ((Hindsight review: …begin?  That’s all this post is about!))

Music is one of the most important things in my life.  I appreciate it, I play it, I write it, I feel from it and I feel for it, I yearn for old and new, I connect, I investigate, I learn, and lastly, I surprisingly discover new things about it and myself each day.

It’s fascinating to see what types of music show up in your life and when and where.  During an almost car wreck: Dishwalla – Counting Blue Cars, Waking up from surgery, If Everyone Cared – Nickelback, was stuck in my head, Every day I learn a new lyric by Fall Out Boy that I passed over because I couldn’t understand the meaning or even the words. ...A song that not only connects you to one tremendous experience, but countless others….  Music has a power over us that not many can beat.  That’s why I cherish it, every tune I hear.  I once fell asleep to an Ozarks Public Television presentation of How Music Affects Us.  It’s interesting to know that, in some cultures, there are more notes between C and C# than what we as Westerners perceive.

Anyway, I guess what I have trouble with sometimes is not only enjoying quality, but creativity.  I’m having trouble listening to a band’s new CD right now…and it’s mostly because of my own morals.  The music is great, the invention, the sound, well, most of it, but I can’t get over its constant mentioning of partying and getting totally blasted and maybe or maybe not hooking up.  As a 20-year-old, I guess I’m already a bit past that.  I’m really disappointed, because I loved their previous album, and I tremendously appreciate them taking the world’s advice and going in new and different directions.  I’m just not sure if I’ll be going with them.  They've really taken a step back in my opinion.  I have to say…this album sucks.  Some days I want to pack it up and send it to a friend whom I know will enjoy it.  Not as an insult, but to just get rid of it.  Get it off my desk, sitting there, flipping me off.  You win some, you lose some, I guess.

Then there’s another band that just seems to get it right with me almost every time.  They’re the one group who I defer to when all else fails.  The lyrics are ironic, but I see my life as ironic, and the stories unfold from there.  I feel like I’ve experienced a bit of what they have on both the physical and emotional level.  I’ve liked them since 2005.  Fall Out Boy.  I can’t say I’m a die hard fan, but when it comes to their music, I’ll happily listen when I’m 100-years-old, if I ever make it.

It started with the Sugar We’re Going Down video.  A couple of friends and I had just watched School of Rock at the theatres and decided to form a band.  MTV and VH1 still played a bit of music back then, and Fall Out Boy was one of our main influences.  We never played a single one of their songs, just as we did with my friend’s obsession with Van Halen, but you can bet her bass looked like Eddie’s and I was a different member of FOB every week.  I remember trying to swing her bass around my neck and almost shoving it through her family’s dropped ceiling.  We were rockstars, lying in the middle of the floor playing the first 10 songs of From Under the Cork Tree on repeat.  Those years were weird…just like my love life.  It’s almost like I’ve grown up with them, though they’re older.  Folie A Deux is more mature, and though electronic effects heavy…still holds a place in my heart as “That One CD that never leaves the car player”.  I know almost all the words.  It haunts me, it lifts me up.  That’s what music is supposed to do.  The Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist soundtrack does almost the same.  Each song just seems…perfect.  There are tons of songs that do this to me, and I get almost obsessed with them, and Lord knows, I'll ultimate-guitar.com them and see if I can play the tune.

So the next time one of your friends is obsessed with a band, don’t write them off as stupid, lame and/or too trendy at first, be patient, and give them time…they may just really connect with that band and have something meaningful to say.

 Let's hear it, oh, let's hear it,

Suiteheart.