Braid was a band from Illinois.
Todd Bell, former bassist for seminal Illinois punk pioneers Braid (and also Hey Mercedes, who I never quite got into) came into my coffee shop today while I was roasting. I wasn't acting dumbstruck at all, though I insisted he let me buy his coffee, since I have most of their seven-inch records, and we chatted for a few minutes and he seemed like a genuinely nice human being. It felt right to at least feel a little indebted to him to buy him a $3 au lait.
It got me to thinking a little bit about the nature of music and punk and bands. And being 19 and male and stupid and naive.
I say that being 100% mindful of sounding nostalgic, which is an emotional state that I have always thoroughly disliked. 19 was actually a dumb age, and I like you, the reader, too much to lie and say that adulthood was a fun and exciting new thing to enter. My dad had thyroid cancer, and I was anything but calm or wise about that situation. I was in the first adult-sized relationship and made tons of mistakes (and had them made upon me ((figuratively, mind you)). I had barely a clue about what I wanted to do about school. My friends at the time were in similar situations. Nothing was ideal lifewise, really. Like I said, I equate the situation with dumbness, not fondness. Though seeing these bands and being exposed to this music and drinking cheap beer and having these friends made this time worth living.
The music, I guess, as I've been trying to place exactly what that value is that I've regarded it with, is not the typical cliche of something that I felt I connected with or felt that it provided an outlet or safe haven. Rather, I think that was maybe the last time I felt like I appreciated an artfrom for what it was, free from hipster fashion, peer opinion, or scene politic. Maybe I shut it out, maybe I was negligent of such trappings, or I was just stupid at the time.
However, I realize now how positively awesome that time was for learning about art and listening to music. I could learn a lot about how to act now through the context of being at the age that I was when I got hooked into Braid. I had better not act so jaded about art and music, and when the opportunities arise to be frustrated with scene anything, I ought to shut it out. Like how being 19 and aimless and naive, enjoyment through various contexts is a pretty dumb way to be twenty-four.
If you get a chance, a lot of the Braid recordings still sound amazingly fucking awesome. The scene kind of folded immediately after they broke up. The songs "I'm Afraid of Everything", "Hugs from Boys", "Jimmy Go Swimmer", and "Roses in the Car" still strike me the same way they did in 1999. And true to form, some of people I listened to Braid since 1999 are still my closest compadres.
It got me to thinking a little bit about the nature of music and punk and bands. And being 19 and male and stupid and naive.
I say that being 100% mindful of sounding nostalgic, which is an emotional state that I have always thoroughly disliked. 19 was actually a dumb age, and I like you, the reader, too much to lie and say that adulthood was a fun and exciting new thing to enter. My dad had thyroid cancer, and I was anything but calm or wise about that situation. I was in the first adult-sized relationship and made tons of mistakes (and had them made upon me ((figuratively, mind you)). I had barely a clue about what I wanted to do about school. My friends at the time were in similar situations. Nothing was ideal lifewise, really. Like I said, I equate the situation with dumbness, not fondness. Though seeing these bands and being exposed to this music and drinking cheap beer and having these friends made this time worth living.
The music, I guess, as I've been trying to place exactly what that value is that I've regarded it with, is not the typical cliche of something that I felt I connected with or felt that it provided an outlet or safe haven. Rather, I think that was maybe the last time I felt like I appreciated an artfrom for what it was, free from hipster fashion, peer opinion, or scene politic. Maybe I shut it out, maybe I was negligent of such trappings, or I was just stupid at the time.
However, I realize now how positively awesome that time was for learning about art and listening to music. I could learn a lot about how to act now through the context of being at the age that I was when I got hooked into Braid. I had better not act so jaded about art and music, and when the opportunities arise to be frustrated with scene anything, I ought to shut it out. Like how being 19 and aimless and naive, enjoyment through various contexts is a pretty dumb way to be twenty-four.
If you get a chance, a lot of the Braid recordings still sound amazingly fucking awesome. The scene kind of folded immediately after they broke up. The songs "I'm Afraid of Everything", "Hugs from Boys", "Jimmy Go Swimmer", and "Roses in the Car" still strike me the same way they did in 1999. And true to form, some of people I listened to Braid since 1999 are still my closest compadres.
posted by Rustle @ 1:48 PM
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