Musicana Monday (Throwback to the Shins)

I got to see Wish I Was Here (new Zack Braff movie) with my bro in Langley while I was on vacation, and I absolutely loved it. Somehow I walked away with "Chutes Too Narrow" stuck in my head. There was a new Shins song for the new film. But somehow I still have the old ones in my head.


So, naturally, I dug out my old Shins albums (instead of listening to them on Youtube like a normal person), and you know what? I still love them so much. Is that way too uncool? I'm starting to understand folks that get stuck in their glory days--you know, walking around listening to music and sporting fashion from decades gone by. It's a lot of effort to keep up.

Plus, lots of the old stuff is just unbeatable. And there's the nostalgia factor--Chutes Too Narrow is packed with nostalgia. It brings me back (not that far really) to my first summer of tree planting.

Some albums just do that--especially if you listen to them all summer long on repeat. It's really not a very summery album, but I was totally down with that. In the summer of 2005 (two years late to the game) I fancied myself a poetic person (and also, I fancied a poetic person), so I was into lyrical stuff. And, in fact, I read all the lyrics in the jacket (multiple times). The Shins do contraries well--like awkward and sexy, and I'm a big fan of that in general.

Also, I was super-awkward, but I had dreams of being cool. And this was the golden age of Seth Cohen. Uncool was the new cool. Indie was everything. The hipster apocalypse was on the horizon. "Pink Bullets" was my jam.

Me; my brother Darren; and my foreman, Karl
End of planting season thrift store costume dinner 2005

Who were you in the summer of 2005? What were you listening to?