1999 and the promise ring

In 9th grade, I received a mix CD from a boy that I had a huge crush on. He was super cool, too intelligent for his age and liked good music, while I wore socks with skirts and was getting over my 8th grade N*Sync phase by immersing myself in the "rock" scene with Nickelback, Korn and 311.

It was such a great mix CD and I wish I could remember more about the collection of songs, but there is one song that has always stuck out in my mind. It was upbeat and catchy, but not bubblegum catchy like what I was hearing on the radio at the time. No particular section or instrument stood out and grabbed the attention of my catchy bone, it was more like a stew that had been simmered for a few hours. All the flavors had come together perfectly to make something that was incredibly delicious. It always reminded me of a song that would be played in a movie when the main character realized they had made a huge mistake and starting running/biking/swimming/scootering towards the airport to tell the person of their dreams, that they are completely and ridiculously in love with them.

For some reason, I never thought to look this song up on the internet to see what it was called or even who the artist was. I guess it was because I never really listened to music at near a computer and I just never remembered on my own when I was at a computer. I usually only listened to music on the bus or at track meets on my 10 second anti-skip portable cd player (anti-skip my butt, by the way). I could never asked my crush what song it was, because I would look like an ignorant fool.

Jump ahead to 2006. I'm out in Denver interning at Suburban Home Records and I was surrounded by new music, new opinions and new resources to help me find new music. A lot of 'new' going on. In the hallway there was a huge bookcase filled with CD's ranging from Awesome Snakes to Hot Snakes, from Hot Water Music to Hot Hot Heat to Reverend Horton Heat. Everyday I would grab a CD or two and bring them home, put them on my iPod and bring them back. One day I saw the Promise Ring's Very Emergency and I remembered hearing a lot of good noise about the Promise Ring, so I took it and burned it and brought it back the next day. Although this was a great way to get new music, my ears became a little oversaturated. If I really want to appreciate new music, I can't listen to more than 3-5 new albums per week, but I was on overload at about 5-9 albums per week. This resulted in several albums that were barely listened to/ listened to once but not really heard/ never listened to. I listened to a smidge bit of Very Emergency, but mainly in the background at work.

A little while later, I was listening to my iPod on shuffle while riding the bus down the 16th St Mall and the song came on. THE SONG. I was blown away, I couldn't believe it! I recognized it right away; the catchy chorus about waiting in the deep south, the "ooo's" backup vocals, and something about houses learning to fly... it was unbelievable.

The Deep South by The Promise Ring is a fantastic song. Whenever I listen to it, it ends up stuck in my head all day and I'm totally cool with that. The whole album is great and so is The Promise Ring...too bad it took me so long to find out.