listening to 'In the Aeroplane Over the Sea' for the first time in like six year

[Byron The Bulb]

I'm pretty sure I don't care about this band anymore but they're reuniting so I'm gonna give this the ol college try. Will liveblog the results.

 

[Byron The Bulb]

The infamous "I love you Jesus Christ" part was off-putting even when this was like my favorite album of all time. It's even worse now. God this is just grating.

 

[Byron The Bulb]

I don't remember this being this poorly mixed. Maybe it's the combo of shitty macbook speakers and spotify? Or did it always sound like it was recorded with tin can microphones?

 

[Byron The Bulb]

The title track was the first song I ever heard by these cats. I now find it pleasant and vaguely comforting, reminding me of a time when I was just a fresh faced youngster discovering Real Music for the first time. Good lord what happened to me.

 

[Byron The Bulb]

Man these songs are really like deep in my bones. I haven't listened to or even thought about "Two-Headed Boy" in so long and here I am lying on my couch drinking PBR and singing right along with it.

 

[Byron The Bulb]

I remember listening to this album while driving to the funeral of a kid in my high school who shot himself. We weren't really good friends, but I'd known him since the second grade, and his was the second funeral I ever attended, after my grandfather's, who died when I was in the second grade. It was on a Friday. School let out early, and it was raining.

 

[Byron The Bulb]

Man that Advanced Auto Parts ad between "Two-Headed Boy" and "Fool" was sort of disruptive.

 

[Byron The Bulb]

This Anne Frank stuff is just sooooo weird and over-wrought and I know it shouldn't work at all, but....

 

[Byron The Bulb]

I never really liked "Communist Daughter." I still don't.

 

[Byron The Bulb]

Okay this horn part at the end is actually kinda neat.

 

[Byron The Bulb]

Oh man 'Oh Comely.' I've kind of been dreading this since I stated listening. Even though I didn't really understand any of it, this song spoke to me in like deep and fundamental ways back in high school. I didn't have a lot of friends at that point in my life, and really took refuge in music and books, both of which went a long way toward shaping me intellectually and emotionally. Which is to say that Jeff Mangum's warmed over surrealism played a probably extremely disproportionate role in my development as a human being.

 

[Byron The Bulb]

oh shit i forgot what a gutpunch the end of this song is. man.

 

[Byron The Bulb]

you guys this is not going the way i was expecting it to

 

[Byron The Bulb]

Oh no here comes 'Two-Headed Boy Pt. 2' I don't know if I can handle this

 

[Byron The Bulb]

"God is a place where you will wait for the rest of your life"

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

To the surprise of absolutely nobody, I never really got this one.

 

[Byron The Bulb]

This album has once again broken through all the Chinese walls of irony I'd systematically erected to guard against painful emotions.

 

[Byron The Bulb]

I'm crying.

 

[Byron The Bulb]

Well, not really. But metaphorically.

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

Liar

 

[Byron The Bulb]

I won't be listening to this again anytime soon. That was really overwhelming.

 

[Agent of Oblivion]

When I move to Tampa we can have a sit out on the lanai and give this a spin together.

 

[Byron The Bulb]

I feel like all my emotional nerve endings are exposed right now.

 

[Byron The Bulb]

This is seriously like a drug comedown what the fuck did I just do to myself

 

[Mickey Massuco]

Which is to say that Jeff Mangum's warmed over surrealism played a probably extremely disproportionate role in my development as a human being.

 

[Mickey Massuco]

I didn't get the big deal when I first heard this in high school, but I'd probably appreciate it more now. Still, one of my biggest issues was the 'cheap' sounding production you alluded to. Would I learn to appreciate that in new ways today with my learned ears or would it stick out even more? We'll never know, because I ain't listening to this shit again.

 

[Incandenza]

Still a wonderful album.

 

[Edwin]

I always thought the Jesus Christ part was weird too, so I fashioned it as a three-more-syllables way for Mangum to say "damn" or "wow" rather than any actual shout out to Big J. But this is still on of my absolute favorites, and can still wreck me just like it turned you into blubbering poop. The last minute or so of the closing track is pretty much open war on all the feels.

 

[snuffbox]

I like this reunion.

 

[Fall of Epic]

Guaranteed that the only NY date they play will be at the Barclays Center. Fucking Brooklyn.