So here's a B-side from the debut album by the Dodgers, the band formed by Badfinger's Tom Evans and Bob Jackson (who joined Badfinger for the Head First record, which remained unreleased for decades. Written by Tom Evans and has more than a little of "that" sound. You know the one I mean.
For the longest time, I would refer to XTC as "my favorite band that still exists." That let me off the hook in terms of deciding if I preferred XTC to bands I loved that were long gone (like Badfinger). Later, it let me not have to decide if I liked XTC better than I liked the Beatles.
And then without fanfare, XTC faded away. And years later, Andy Partridge admitted the band was no more.
Which was really too bad because I'd grown used to the phrase "my favorite band that still exists."
And now. Now.
Now, there are some great bands around. Some amazing bands I like.
But what, in 2017, is "my favorite band that still exists."
Maybe, just maybe, it's the New Pornographers. Although I think of them less as a band than a collective that comes together every few years to drop a new record that feels like it exists outside of time. These albums could exist in 1968 or 1972 or 1984 or 2017.
"My favorite band that still exists"?
Maybe. Possibly. Could be.
"This thing could go two ways, won't be another exit for days."
Maybe I don't need a "favorite band that still exists."
"Pack a small suitcase, anything else could be easily replaced."
Meanwhile, the missive from outside of time has arrived.
Again.
And music seems wonderful again.
Plus, there's a motorcycle on fire, going through the hallways of a High School where all the students look like they're pushing 30. And what's not to like about that?
May you live long enough that the useful experiments you long ago dismissed become clearer to you not just because of their failures but because of the nugget of quality and truth that shimmers beside the failures.
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