Assorted Poems And Stories From A Madman

An Assortment Of Songs

I enjoy a strange array of music, and occasionally I find an artist or band that piques my interest. The first band that I became completely obsessed with (in recent memory) is AJR. If you don't know who they are, they are three brothers from Manhattan, New York, who were infatuated with the arts to the point where they tried to make a band, and succeeded, with over thirteen million monthly listeners on Spotify. When I came across them in spring of 2020, I told my parents about them. That was when my mother chimed up about how she had listened to their music and absolutely loved them. After that, I had a somewhat newfound respect for my mother and her music tastes. I will not deny that some of it is strange, but the vast majority of it, I enjoy.
One band in particular that my mother introduced me to was Weezer. I am aware that Weezer has been memed to death on the internet in the past year, but that does not change the fact that they're music is phenomenal. Their first album Weezer was a grunge masterpiece, and bringing Pinkerton into the mix only cemented them as a band that wasn't afraid to talk about the true, raw emotions that come with growing up and trying to find real, honest love, and not just meaningless sex. Even as the members grew as people, the music grew as well, with Ok Human tackling depression in quarantine, Everything Will Be Alright In The End (EWBAITE) digging into familial and relationship trauma and confronting those demons as you grow up. And my personal favorites, the SZNZ albums taking a look at religion, and the life of someone who tries to believe in a god, but finding no satisfaction when they finally acknowledge the earthly things they crave shackling them down, which is very close to a journey that I have had to take in my own life.
I also owe my music taste to my grandparents who showed me The Beatles for the first time, not to mention them calling me "Art Garfunkel" because of my tall curly hair. They're joke even went so far that they purchased tickets for them and me, so that we could see The Simon And Garfunkel Story when it came to town. That was one of the best musical experiences of my life. The immersion that the music brings you, and the sense of belonging that they seamlessly tailored into their music helped get me into the feel of the concert. Despite the fact that the people on stage were not actually Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, I couldn't help believing, hanging on every word they spoke, and every line they sang. The moment I got home from that concert, I downloaded all of the songs played. To say the least, I loved it.
I don't entirely rely on others to help me find my taste in music, I have to give credit where it is due. My pure, unbridled fascination with all things wonky and fabloo, including two of my favorite bands: Tally Hall and Miracle Musical. Tally Hall started in the early 2000's as a pet project between a few college friends, during their early years, people came and people left until the band found their five (sometimes six) signature members. In order on the cover of their first album, they are Joe Hawley, Zubin Sedghi, Rob Cantor, Ross Federman, and Andrew Horowitz, with Bora Karaca acting as their manager and honorary sixth member. Miracle Musical was started when Tally Hall went on hiatus, and Joe Hawley, Ross Federman, and Bora Karaca wanted to make an album that told a story. I will not tell you the story, lest I ruin the surprise, so listen to Hawaii: Part II on your own time, thank you very much.