Here’s something funny to take your mind off the worst natural disaster in US history. About a year ago I bought Death Cab for Cutie’s “Transatlanticism” for $3 in a pawn shop in Hot Springs. I listened to the first few tracks and thought, “this doesn’t even sound like a band, this is electro-dance insanity with drum machines and synthesizers everywhere – this is the band everyone’s been talking about?”
So I put it away, thinking maybe it was their experimental freak-out record or something. It stayed on the shelf until last week when I saw a video from that record on my Comcast “On Demand” service. It did NOT sound like the CD I heard, so I put the disc back in my car for a second listen. I turned it on today and heard something very familiar. The Faint. In the intervening months since I bought the CD, Jamie had turned me on to some tunes by the Faint, so I knew what they sounded like. I pulled the disc out of the player, and it’s one of those damned discs that record companies just decorate and don’t tell you the title or artist. I did notice the label was Astralwerks. I did a Google search on some of the lyrics just to be sure, and it turns out I did indeed buy a copy of Danse Macabre by the Faint. That’s what I get for buying $3 CDs at Boll Weevil Pawn in Hot Springs.