Cotton Xenomorph\u2019s \u201cCryptids and Climate Change\u201d issue continues, with \u201cPharmacy\u201d by Garrett Stack<\/a> feeling more and more appropriate for the current moment<\/em>.<\/p> Last one of these for a while\u2014too much at once and they get self-indulgent. Plus, we have a few June things to do next week. I want these to sort of have arcs, so if you take Matt Freeman talking bass<\/a>\/re-listen to <\/a>War On Errorism<\/a><\/em>\/re-listen to <\/a>Enema of the State<\/a><\/em> as a sort of trilogy of introduction to my early punk interests, then the Before Today column<\/a> as one way my tastes went when three chords weren\u2019t enough, then this one is the other<\/em> way my tastes went when three chords weren\u2019t enough. <\/p> Did you know that, instead of tuning your guitar to drop D or drop C, you can actually put these things on your fretboard to make the strings higher<\/em>? <\/p> That\u2019s right, I bought my first capo listening to Damien Rice. Youth Group couldn\u2019t talk me into a capo, but Damien Rice could. <\/p> Roundabouts 2005, going into my senior year of high school, the scene shifted. Pop punk was no longer the sound that had the crowd a-clamoring. Idk if it took 9\/11 that long to catch up with us, or if we all just turned 17, but the scene became decidedly moodier and less fun, more post-punk, emo, screamo, hardcore, post-hardcore, metal. Another thing that happened is Murfreesboro got its first Starbucks, followed by its first few independent coffee shops (unless you count The Red Rose, which I do, that place ruled, RIP The Red Rose, I saw Last Tuesday<\/a> and Velcro Stars<\/a> there). Anyway, the coffee shop influx combined with the Norah Jones\/John Mayer era of the pop charts. Suddenly people were into solo acoustic sets. <\/p> Another very fun opportunity for playing acoustic music: a few of my friends went to a different school that had two yearly\u2014well, talent shows<\/em> would undersell these events, music fests<\/em> would drastically oversell them. Picture like a Fall Festival and Spring Performance Night. My dear friends\u2014Local Canadian Devon MacDougall (yes, I had a Canadian friend who went to a different school who was totally real, don\u2019t worry about validating his realness, he lives in Scotland now) and Human BritPop Encyclopedia Kayley Kravitz\u2014were always playing sets. I\u2019d join them, and without fail, we\u2019d cover one of the songs off of Damien Rice\u2019s O<\/em>. I first learned guitar from Devon, playing as many Frusciante riffs off of RCHP\u2019s Californication<\/em> as we could manage. I learned how to be a singer-songwriter from Devon and I playing Damien Rice songs together. So I have a real fondness for this album, even though, as we\u2019ll see, my tastes have kind of evolved. <\/p> Delicate<\/strong><\/p> Typically, I\u2019m an album completist. Straight through, no skips, as the artist intended. Maybe because I liked \u201cVolcano\u201d so much and the opening of this one is soooooooooo soft you guys Damien my guy you gotta make the strings on your guitar vibrate<\/em> that I skipped this song a lot. Then one day I was hanging out with Devon and he started playing it and yeah, this song\u2019s great, I never skipped it again. That chorus sways!<\/p> Volcano<\/strong><\/p> There was a time I thought this song was the hardest you could groove as a white person. <\/p> I have since listened to more music. <\/p> Still the best use of multiple vocal tracks in the outro, for my money. <\/p>![\"O](\"https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/81adce43-4144-4ff8-af75-cc00bd66deca_220x220.jpeg\")
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