The Lost Boys

Hello again, Cody here to entertain you for the next few minutes (or until you get bored and stop reading this). Well, since you've made it this far you might as well keep reading to hear some cool stories about being introduced to some pretty spectacular bands.

My first big shout out goes to Alec Bray, to whom without I would not be the person I am today. A.Bray introduced me to pretty much everything that is hipster. Most notably on AB's contribution list are Belle & Sebastian, The Refreshments, and The Smiths. Where would I be without these amazing bands? Probably listening to shitty pop punk bands like New Found Glory or Simple Plan (maybe not Simple Plan, they just suck way too much). Anyways, thanks Alec, I owe you big time! So yah, B&S and The Smiths are now in my top 5 greatest bands ever. But I should tell you a story about how I was introduced to B&S. It starts with the fact that Alec is possibly the hugest Belle & Sebastian fan ever. EVER. He knows more about them then I think they know about themselves. So when I first met Alec he decided that, without telling me, he was going convert me into some form of a hipster. He made a few mix CDs to convince me that indie music was pretty cool. We would talk a lot about music and I eventually found out that B&S was his favourite band and asked if he could burn me a few of their songs. While instead of a few songs I got an entire disc with 22 tracks that apparently he "had way too much fun making". Needless to say I was blown away by what I heard and my instant favourite song, thanks to some "listen to this one, you'll love it" from AB, was 'The Blues Are Still Blue'.

Next we have a guy who's way too indie for indie people. He's so indie he's mainstream, except not at all. He's our favourite mo-hawked, bearded ectomorph, Mr. Tommy Mosher. I lived with T for a short period and one night he said to me time "C, you ever heard of The National? You'll like them. Here, take this" and proceeded to hand me the album Boxer which I promptly copied onto my computer. Since that faithful night, The National have become a staple to my everyday listening. There's just something about the melodies and the tranquil yet painful lyrics that always get to me. They're the perfect band to just sit back and listen to. One of my favourite songs off of Boxer is 'Slow Show'. The drums and bass in this song are awesome and the little keyboard parts make everything move in slow motion. The lyrics are just too good to describe so I won't even try.

Another guy I have to give credit to is Derek Snider. AKA Kong. So Derek is one hell of a beast when it comes to running and one year he was trying to qualify for the CIS Championships in the 3000m. One way to do this was to run under the auto-qualifying standard (then 8:21) or finish 1 or 2 at the OUA Championships. Derek hadn't hit standard so Kyle and Allan were going to pace him to an 8:20 at OUAs and hopefull Derek would either get standard or a 1,2 finish. While, after some perfect pacing, Derek took over with 600m to go and ran 8:18 (i believe) to win the race, thus sealing his ticket to CIs. The race was pretty exciting and I had filmed the entire thing and was putting together a little highlight video of the season when I asked Derek if he had a song that he wanted me to put over the race footage of the 3000m. Derek replied with "How about 'Jezebel' by Two Hours Traffic?". I had never heard of Two Hours Traffic but after a quick Youtube search, I was like "Hell yah I'll put that song on there!". CIs were in Windsor that year and coincidently, Two Hours Traffic was playing in Windsor the same weekend (as mentioned in one of Robby J's posts). The show was awesome, the band is awesome, 'Jezebel' is awesome. Have a listen.

Ok, this is turning into a really long post. Or maybe it just seems that way since I've drank way too much wine while writing this. Either way, sorry folks. One more friend to mention. My brother Kris. Kris is a pretty hardcore guy. Anyone who knows him can attest to this fact. Kris loves metal and hardcore punk. So while growing up I would usually go for the more punk rock style of music, Kris would always have to one up me with crazy bands like Silverstein and Thrice. Kris is also a pretty imposing guy so any time we were driving around in the car we always had to listen to whatever he wanted to listen to (this still continues today with bands like Slipknot and Stone Sour). So naturally after a while the musical stylings of Silverstein and Thrice grew on me to the point where I had to have them on my iPod. And, after listening to them on my own free will I discovered that I really did enjoy them. I already gave a sample of Thrice's music so here is a Silverstein song. These guys are the most hardcore emo band I've ever heard but they're badass enough that I like them. Here is 'Smile In Your Sleep'.

Ok, I'm done. I got a little carried away reminiscing. I'd just like to send out a big thank you to everyone who has ever given me a mix CD or suggested a band to me or forced me to listen to a band long enough that I eventually have no choice but to like them. You guys are awesome.

C Dot