About a week ago I popped in an old Five Iron Frenzy CD while I painted the basement and remembered how much I loved FIF. Loved the music. Loved the lyrics. Loved the concerts. They were my favorite band in high school and college, and if they hadn’t broken up they’d still be my favorite band (well, they could wrestle U2 for the top spot–which would be quite the battle: 8 on 4 in favor of FIF, and while Bono probably talks big but wouldn’t put up much of a fight, Larry and Adam look like they could crack some skulls).
I realized after enjoying a little nostalgia that I’ve yet to find my new Five Iron Frenzy. Aside from U2, no band has really come along where I enjoy their music as much as Five Iron Frenzy. I’ve discovered plenty of great music that I do like, but no group like Five Iron where I can devour every song on every album (OK, so FIF had a few duds, but I love most of their music).
I wonder if it’s because I’m getting old.
It seems like young people (I’m talking mostly teens here) have the ability to latch onto music with a voracious appetite. They’ll devour entire CDs and actually listen to them, picking up the lyrics and all the subtleties. That’s how I listened to music as a teenager.
Nowadays I’m too busy to sit down with an album and listen to it straight through while reading the liner notes. I don’t pick up on the lyrics and I rarely notice the subtleties. I don’t devour an album. It plays in the background while I do something else and I determine the good songs as being the ones that pulled me away from what I was doing to stop and listen for a second. I tend to tag those songs in iTunes so I can find them again and then rarely listen to the entire album again (and when I do, it’s in the same manner where it just becomes background noise again).
I also wonder if as a teen I was less discriminating. I mean, I liked Petra. I wasn’t exactly a music snob. Now it seems like something has to be especially amazing to grab my attention, and it’s very rare that a single band can do that more than a few times, and rarely over multiple albums. Teens in the youth group would latch on to new albums, buying the T-shirt and memorizing the lyrics. I’d just shrug my shoulders.
I kind of miss the Five Iron Frenzy days. I’m currently taking auditions for the coveted spot of my new favorite band.
Wow… FIF
We want the funk! Gotta have that funk!
Great use of the horn
Dave
Of all the ska bands that seemed to come out during that time, I think I liked the Supertones the most. I always thought of ska as a fad as it was really popular during the early to mid 90’s and seemed to kind of fade out. Then again, Christian music seems to always be six to 18 months behind on the “music scene”. Anyways, my 2 bands that I continue to buy albums on are Switchfoot and Jars of Clay. I just don’t buy the same amount of albums that I used to, so I definitely agree that I’m getting older and maybe a little more wiser on the music I buy. Maybe it just means I’d rather pump $12.95 a month into XM then possibly buy an album I won’t listen to but 4 or 5 times when I open it up.
The ska was definitely a fad, but all of those bands adapted with the times and moved beyond simple ska. Five Iron was pushing into rock with horns and more straight up punk rock near the end.
Jars of Clay has had a few songs here and there I’ve really liked. Their Good Monsters album had a couple songs I love, but I tend to ignore the entire rest of the album. That’s the kind of thing I mean–at least with Five Iron I like the whole album, even if some of it isn’t my favorite. I couldn’t tell you what else is on the Good Monsters album, though I could tell you what’s on my least favorite Five Iron album.
LowerTown Depot was concieved by developer Jeff Wallis of St.Paul.
He hired J.Buxell Architecture, in 2002, to develop the once Standard Oil “blending plant” building, built at the turn of the last century, into a low cost lofts “for sale” property.
Preliminary plans were prepared that same year.
In fact, an entire campus was planned and surrounding parcels were being aquired. Jeff took reservations on the couple dozen lofts in this “Phase One” existing structure. Negotiations with a general contractor were begun.
Plans were also prepared for a “Phase Two” addition.
Then, it all was shutdown. Must have been 2003 by then.
Pity…it was very popular and soldout Phase One almost immediately.