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I have a couple of CD binders that I keep moving to any new car that I own. They're actually pretty nice with a faux leather soft exterior and the ability to maybe 30 or so CDs. The binders themselves are only 1x2 CDs, making them perfect for the car. I've had these CD binders for many, many years...if I had to guess, maybe 18-20 years.
The reason I mention these is that I'm one of those people that like to travel in silence, or with nothing on the radio. I blame my father for this because he's the same way and I grew up just staring out the window whenever I drove around with him. I also wasn't the kind of kid to have headphones in while on the schoolbus - again, I would just stare out the window and let my thoughts drift. However, when I got into my teens and 20s, I really started trying to find my own musical tastes and since everyone around me was so caught up in music, I happily joined them. But even then, when I was driving around by myself, I would oftentimes just turn the radio off because I found it distracting. It was too much much stimulation, and it was all the time; I needed to decompress.
Now during my early years, that's not to say I didn't enjoy music - far from it. I was one of the people on Napster downloading songs and 33.6k overnight and hoping the phone connection didn't die out while I was sleeping. I would then burn CDs on my newly acquired 2x CD burner, waiting upwards of 30 minutes for a CD to complete, hoping that it also wouldn't die halfway through burning. After all this, I had a fancy CD label maker and would print out CD stickers for the top of the CD-Rs and then happily bring them out to my car to log into my CD binder for later listening. It was actually rewarding because of all the time invested into finding just the right songs, making the best label, and archiving them for later listening.
Music these days is so disposible; so temporary, and by design.
Every once in a while I grab one of the CD binders I have floating around in my car. Since I haven't been into collecting music in quite a while, these binders serve as a sort of snapshot into my history that I can page through; musical tastes frozen in time. A couple days ago I had one of these moments and started pawing through the CDs, trying one and not feeling it, and then trying another, until I got to Odyssey by Fischerspooner. If you haven't heard of these guys, I wouldn't be surprised. I think I only came across them around 2004 because someone at a new-hire training and he was really into the synth-pop scene (I assume), and recommended them to me because I was several years into my electronic music obsession. I think by then I had a cable modem and promptly found their latest album and downloaded it, and burned to CD. That CD is still pretty functional all these years later, although a few of the songs still skip. Maybe that's part of the nostalgia of it all, I'm not really sure.
This is the only album I've ever listened to by Fischerspooner, but I can say that I enjoy every single track on that album. As a case-in-point, I let the CD repeat in my car for the last couple of days because I just really enjoy the beats and the mood it puts me in. I know that syth-type music isn't for everyone, but these tracks really just set the driving mood. I can even have my kids in the car while listening.
After close to 20 years, yesterday was the first time I ever looked up the band to see what other albums they had or even if they were together. Sadly, it seems, they only made one album past Odyssey and seem to have split up around the time of COVID. Looking at the charts, a few of the songs on Odyssey made a decent splash, and it appears that one of the main members had a legal issue with a song on a recent Madonna album ( he collaborated w/ someone that didn't credit him on her album). Also, if you've every watched the move Grandma's Boy (decent comedy in my opinion), quite a few of Fischerspooner's songs are featured in the film.
So this was my foray into my frozen musical past. I've turned into my parents, apparently, and have stopped collecting new music and only really enjoying the ones from my formative years. I'll leave you, dear reader, with a link and some lyrics if you're ever interested in exploring this band.
P.S. - I've had a idea for Gemini when searching for song lyrics...a lyrics database. The CRAZY amound of ads and popups and garbage endured just to copy some TEXT on a website is appalling. How great would it be to have this on Gemini, a text-only protocol?
P.P.S - Apparently they had a rediscovery when "Emerge" was featured at the end of Season 2 of Westworld. I only watched Season 1.
We Need a War by Fischerspooner (Youtube)
Happy by Fischerspooner (Youtube)
We Need a War by Fischerspooner
We need a war
We need a war to show'em
We need a war to show'em that we can
We need a war to show'em that we can do it
Whenever we say we need a war...
If they mess with us
If we think they might mess with us
If we say they might mess with us
If we think we need a war, we need war
Chorus
We need a war
If we think we need a war
We need a war
If we think we need a war
A war to make us feel safe
A war to make'em feel sorry
Whoever they are...
If they mess with us
If we think they might mess with us
If we say they might mess with us
If we think we need a war, we need war
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2023-02-25
Tags: Nostalgia, Old Music, Fischerspooner
Gritty
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