This collection comes from the year or so I spent living in the Riverside drive area of Austin in the early 2000s. Lots of solo trips to Austin record stores, shows at Emo’s, and plenty of time to kill.
Pinehurst Kids “The Onceler”
You’re going to be shocked by this total unique situation, but it was Sles who introduced us to this track. We’d go on to buy each of their records several times over and even had BennyD order a dope hoodie from them. He went with 1 size too small and cracked a smile when he realized it was the lead singer he was emailing about his return.
I’ve long enjoyed The Lorax and I’m pretty sure this song is part of the reason why. Every time reading the book and watching the movie with my daughter, I couldn’t help but hear this song in my head the whole time. Another point in its favor, our cat Shadey looks like The Lorax when she stands on her hinds legs to scratch at the door.
Iiiiii won’t stop you now, you can’t break my fall
Pinehurst Kids
Madcap “Bright Lights, Big City”
This is pretty typical of the type of song I was into at the time. A not-too-serious, fun to sing-along to, punk rock song. Think One Man Army, Face to Face, or H2O. Nothing too hard or controversial, but plenty of pent up energy, raw emotion, and fun concerts.
I hadn’t heard the song in probably 15 years, but the band name popped into my head on the way to pickup my Vonn’s order yesterday. I was like, “oh yeah, Madcap”, and was immedately chanting “We want the streets!”.
I’d acquired a shirt of theirs at Warped Tour 2001, it was my concert shirt for a bit. One of the hundreds of $10-$15 black punk/ska/emo band shirts that made up my wardrobe for a decade or more. In a nice full circle moment, as an employed designers and/or developer, I get to wear t-shirts every day again.
Alkaline Trio “Nose over tail”
This one is tied to 1331 Jefferson Commons, ATX, and probably frolf. Adam and I got a call from BennyD on the road in his green truck. Typically more of a DMB or Modest Mouse guy, he’d borrowed the self-titled Alkaline Trio cd and was blown away by the clever lyrics on this one. There are a lot of literary techniques at play here, but the flipped double meanings are great. I’m sure there is a term for it, but it escapes me.
It starts simply: “Crack my head open, on your kitchen floor, to prove to you I have brains.” While that could prove the existence of grey matter, I wouldn’t call it a smart move.
Better example: “Your voice is the like the sound of sirens”. Ok the mythical creatures that lured sailors to shipwrecks. Not a fan of her voice…. “to a house on fire”. OH like fire engine sirens, “you’re saving me”. Nice one, Skiba!
