The feeling of discovering a brand new and wonderful musician/band/album/song is, to me, one of the greatest feelings in the world - which is of course the reason I'm always on a quest for musical newness and the next thing I'm going to love. But almost as great and slightly amazing in a different way is discovering a wonderful musician/band/album/song - in the midst of the piles of music that you already have. It's a little bit like going home for the holidays, digging through your old bedroom's closet and discovering an awesome t-shirt you never knew you owned when you were in high school.
There's always a catalyst to falling in love with something that has sat unnoticed in your collection for a while - and for me, it was the inclusion of Mazarin's "For Energy Infinite" on a random mix I had downloaded. I had heard of the band, and I had picked up their album at some point after hearing "Another One Goes By" (and before hearing that the Walkmen decided to cover the song), but apparently it didn't make much of an impression at first, or as I prefer to think, I never actually listened to it all the way through (highly likely, considering how many unheard CDs are sitting on my shelves at home at this very moment). But "For Energy Infinite" was like a lightning bolt in the midst of that mix - a burst of static energy and guitars and whirling melody. It made me dig up my copy of We're Already There pretty quickly, only to discover that the rest of the album is just as good. In fact, it's become a bit of a standby go-to in the past few months, definitely a candidate for what I like to call permanent rotation.
It has been almost three and a half years since the release of We're Already There, long enough for the band to apparently change their name to Black Stoltzfus (huh?) and decide to reinvent themselves (not sure how long that message has been on their page - this may mean hiatus until further notice). Maybe they'll pop up again someday and maybe not, but no matter what I'll still be listening to We're Already There.
"The New American Apathy"
"For Energy Infinite"
If I remember correctly, some other band named Mazarin sued with a "we got here first" argument, so the GOOD Mazarin had to change their name to...Black Stoltzfus (that hurts just to type).
Posted by: Caleb | Thursday, December 04, 2008 at 11:51 AM