brandonmichael5
03-31-2010, 04:29 AM
To the Band:
I fully appreciate the role your songs have played in my life since I stumbled across your music. I feel a little dirty for it, but I joined the club back with Stunt (along with the rest of the world). Nevertheless, even at this point so early on in my experience with your work, I developed a relationship of sorts.
Of this album, the memory I favor isn't a happy one necessarily. I was in High School. My best friend and I had begun searching for ourselves spiritually. We found a nice little Christian church to see what it was about. After a few Sundays, during a particular service, I had my first and only panic attack (even to this day). I'm not even sure why it happened - but I had to leave the building and recuperate - grabbing the keys to his truck on the way out. My friend stayed not knowing what was wrong as I reclined back in the passenger seat of his truck. I watched the clouds move by through the branches of a tree. Stunt was in his CD player, I had worked on memorizing the lyrics to 'One Week' on the way there (A skill I one day mastered). I skipped to the end of the album to 'When You Dream' and listened. I've never encountered a more soothing song. It calmed me as I sat wondering. I can still feel that if I try. (And for some fun fact information, the spiritual searching led to agnosticism, weird huh?)
Not long after, I realized there was a new BNL album out - Everything to Everyone. I fell in love with it (in the sense that the music made me feel emotions, something I wasn't accustomed to). This may be the album I run to when I want to be happy (and for good reason, it's just full of fun tunes). But the first time I remember tearing up because of a song was with 'War on Drugs'. Mind you, my finding the music of BNL started out my musical journeys. Near the same time, I took up playing guitar and songwriting myself. This is also the album that brings up the awkwardness of being in a classroom full of high school girls and your best friend (no joke, just us two and about 10 attractive co-students - which made 'Maybe Katie' fit just right... it wasn't a popular class, we wrote the weekly school paper).
After this, I decided I was cool enough to own every BNL album in existence. I searched out and bought everything before Stunt. I enjoyed every second if the search, and the listening. I realized that Stunt felt fabricated. All of the old stuff is what taught me who you all were, your personalities - not just entertainment but pieces of your lives. And I continued to search that out in your songs (and am doing it to this day with All In Good Time).
I continued buying everything you put out - and forcing friends to listen to it when I had control of the music. That's what you do with your favorite band.
'Have You Seen My Love' was a great thing to learn and play for a girl - especially one who invented a fictional character in one of her personal writings that plays instruments and writes music and plays music. That one was basically put in my lap, guys.
Fast-forward to the college years (within which I still reside) and my first big break up occurs. Guess what song brings this memory to life? 'Polliwog in a Bog'. That's right. There is no better sing-along song to sing to when you're feeling something new and undesirable. It has the same effect as watching the Saturday morning cartoons of your childhood.
These are only snippets. I probably have memories attached to every song in the BNL library. Not only memories, but emotions. Which leads me to something else I feel I need to get off my chest...
I fully appreciate the role your songs have played in my life since I stumbled across your music. I feel a little dirty for it, but I joined the club back with Stunt (along with the rest of the world). Nevertheless, even at this point so early on in my experience with your work, I developed a relationship of sorts.
Of this album, the memory I favor isn't a happy one necessarily. I was in High School. My best friend and I had begun searching for ourselves spiritually. We found a nice little Christian church to see what it was about. After a few Sundays, during a particular service, I had my first and only panic attack (even to this day). I'm not even sure why it happened - but I had to leave the building and recuperate - grabbing the keys to his truck on the way out. My friend stayed not knowing what was wrong as I reclined back in the passenger seat of his truck. I watched the clouds move by through the branches of a tree. Stunt was in his CD player, I had worked on memorizing the lyrics to 'One Week' on the way there (A skill I one day mastered). I skipped to the end of the album to 'When You Dream' and listened. I've never encountered a more soothing song. It calmed me as I sat wondering. I can still feel that if I try. (And for some fun fact information, the spiritual searching led to agnosticism, weird huh?)
Not long after, I realized there was a new BNL album out - Everything to Everyone. I fell in love with it (in the sense that the music made me feel emotions, something I wasn't accustomed to). This may be the album I run to when I want to be happy (and for good reason, it's just full of fun tunes). But the first time I remember tearing up because of a song was with 'War on Drugs'. Mind you, my finding the music of BNL started out my musical journeys. Near the same time, I took up playing guitar and songwriting myself. This is also the album that brings up the awkwardness of being in a classroom full of high school girls and your best friend (no joke, just us two and about 10 attractive co-students - which made 'Maybe Katie' fit just right... it wasn't a popular class, we wrote the weekly school paper).
After this, I decided I was cool enough to own every BNL album in existence. I searched out and bought everything before Stunt. I enjoyed every second if the search, and the listening. I realized that Stunt felt fabricated. All of the old stuff is what taught me who you all were, your personalities - not just entertainment but pieces of your lives. And I continued to search that out in your songs (and am doing it to this day with All In Good Time).
I continued buying everything you put out - and forcing friends to listen to it when I had control of the music. That's what you do with your favorite band.
'Have You Seen My Love' was a great thing to learn and play for a girl - especially one who invented a fictional character in one of her personal writings that plays instruments and writes music and plays music. That one was basically put in my lap, guys.
Fast-forward to the college years (within which I still reside) and my first big break up occurs. Guess what song brings this memory to life? 'Polliwog in a Bog'. That's right. There is no better sing-along song to sing to when you're feeling something new and undesirable. It has the same effect as watching the Saturday morning cartoons of your childhood.
These are only snippets. I probably have memories attached to every song in the BNL library. Not only memories, but emotions. Which leads me to something else I feel I need to get off my chest...