If It's Here When We Get Back, It's Ours

Friends,

Once upon a time, I was in high school. I know, I know, it seems hard to believe.

Well, at that time, there was a band. A very special band. Special to me anyway. They were called Texas is the Reason. For some reason (Get it? "Reason"? Oh nevermind.), the second I first heard them, I was instantly hooked. Did that ever happen to you? You hear a band or a songwriter and it just cuts right to you, you really have no choice in the matter. You're owned. For some people it was the Smiths, REM, Nirvana, the Clash or any number of great acts. Later in life, Elliott Smith's music would come to mean that much to me. But when I was seventeen, eighteen years old, for me, that band was Texas is the Reason.

I liked them so much, my friends couldn't even make sense of it. At a time when most of the music I listened to was a bunch of screaming dudes that needed to give their dad a hug, this band made me think altogether different thoughts and opened me up to a new kind of sound.

Since that time, they've long been broken up, my musical tastes have changed and countless bands have ripped them off to greater success than they ever enjoyed in their time together. But they still mean a lot to me. To this day, if I hear one of their songs, I'm 18 years old again, driving in my shitty car to go see the girl I have a crush on, thinking about what college is going to be like and wondering if something will ever mean more to me than the song I'm listening to right at that second. It's been ten years since they've been around, and I've done my fair share of living in that time, but there's something about this band that still feels like home, still makes so much sense. They're easy to go back to.

Anyway, I hope you'll check them out if you've never heard them before. They're really something special. Check out some of their songs here: Their MySpace Page. Recordings are available here: InSound.com.

As luck would have it, they are playing a reunion show soon. I can't tell you what that means to me, it just conjures up a range of emotions - and for a change, most of them are nice emotions. They're doing a one-off gig at Irving Plaza on Saturday, November 25, but you can by pre-sale tickets on their web sites tomorrow (Friday) at noon HERE and HERE.

I hope to see you there. It's going to be amazing.

Somewhere at my parent's house, I have this shirt in mustard yellow. As far as I know, it's the first shirt they ever made. It's nice to know it's still around.