Stubborn
I have odd corners of my music library reserved for bands that manage to succeed in a sub-genre that I otherwise don’t really like. My prime example is Straylight Run, which was an emo band (I know!) that had a very emo song called “Existentialism on Prom Night” (I know!) that just struck a chord with me. And about half of the rest of the album is listenable! Part of my continued affection for them came from the oddest coincidence: I was taking a break from my capstone project or some other wretched thing while listening to the album, and I turned the page on the William Gibson novel Neuromancer to the chapter/book named “The Straylight Run”, which was just too weird to pass up. I can also play the song on my guitar with minimal practice, so it’s basically canonized for me at this point. Maybe I’ve told this story three times before.
They also had a piano, and this was kind of The Fray’s era, so that was important.
I also love The Silversun Pickups, and not just in a respect-of-coincidence way. Kristin and I can normally agree or reach understanding on most music preferences, but this one I just can’t give up trying to break down her resistance. The breathy, feminine-sounding lead singer, the noisy-wall-of-sound, the nonstop distortion, the incoherent-ish forgettable lyrics, all anathema to her.
I think it’s really that they’ve implemented something that, in my view, has solid lyrical (anti-lyrical?) roots in the semi-pop hard-ish alternative rock era (post-Nirvana, talking Bush here mainly), kind of candy-coated in emo influence, and a manifestation of what I understand to be called shoegaze. I purchased an album called Souvlaki from a shoegaze band called Slowdive back when you had to buy music to figure out if you liked it. Can’t say it worked for me, so back to my odd corners theory.
So if you see us both driving down the road, line-in from my phone active, me saying “Just listen to the bridge! Unh! Yeah!” with Claire trying to talk over the music, you’ll know I’m back futilely proselytizing SSPU.
Random flashback! encountered while doing a keyword search to see if I’ve ever talked about shoegaze on the blog! Not my finest work there.
Another flashback from 8 years ago!, talking about pretty much the same damn thing. Oh well.