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March 21, 2005
Minneapolitan
the Fire Show - Magellan was a Felon
Olias Nil and M. Resplendent = the Fire Show. This song (which is awesome) was party to one of the worst record-buying decisions I ever made in my life (all other culpability belongs to Mr. Joe Tangari)- I found a copy of the "Saint the Fire Show" LP for cheap-cheap at Let It Be Records in Minneapolis when I was visiting that clean, sweet city back in the hot and weird summer of '03. I was there for a business conference which I really did not want to attend at all (I ended up having to con $40 out of someone there just to get a ride back to the airport so I could make it home- long story), and so did a lot of aimless wandering around Mpls. During one of my slack-jawed romps in the downtown, I found Let It Be and proceeded to purchase: Iron & Wine's "Creek Drank the Cradle" (good decision), Daedelus' "Rethinking the Weather" (listened to 3 tracks of it, took it out of my CD player and never listened to it again. Put a voodoo curse on it, then sold the damn thing), and The Fire Show's "Saint the Fire Show".
Now it's not like I hadn't done my research. I had heard a few of the Fire Show's songs, and I liked what I heard. This album (StFS) was their swansong, and supposedly their best, and it wasn't like I was going to find this album in a lot of other record stores, so why not pick it up. I brought it back to my hotel room, popped it into the CD player, and hit play. Holy fucking shit. I looked at the case to make sure it was the correct record. Yes. Good god: the noise, the meandering percussion, the wailing and just the aggressive oddity of the thing were too much to take. I listened to the whole thing, all the way through, once. I went back to Let It Be and tried to return it. The guy behind the counter looked at me with a mixture of pity and contempt. No go.
If I had given the record a few more chances, I bet it would have grown on me. I'd like to think that my tastes are a little more wide-ranging now than they were 2 years ago, or at least that my tolerance for post-punk-ish experimental pretension has increased marginally. Anyway. This was the song that tricked me into purchasing this record- listen and you'll be able to tell why (hint: because it's good).
Posted by matt at March 21, 2005 08:00 AM
Comments
FYI, this Sunday the 27th, Grizzly Bear will be performing at Relative Theory Records in Norfolk (www.relativetheoryrecords.com ---> click on "live shows" on the left). It's a pretty neat place if you've never been there before, although, what with your street-wise downtown wanderings, I imagine you have.
Posted by: ms. holt at March 21, 2005 07:38 PM
Hey Ms. Holt, thanks for the heads-up. I will definitely go to Norfolk to see Grizzly Bear. Last summer I was planning on seeing Xiu Xiu there at Relative Theory but I got caught up in some last-minute couch-wrangling activities, if I remember correctly.
Posted by: Kevin at March 21, 2005 10:37 PM