#bbngiii

Guest Article #2 - Eric Paolillo! Eric is a great friend and person in the same “beautiful” village of my own, here on Long Island. The first time I met Eric I thought he was 20. I believe he was 17. He’s the man. He’s mature, intelligent, and a great friend. He also makes beats over at his record label.

Now, let’s get to his great article relating to a feeling that I can describe as “Catch 22”. It’s a great feeling to sit and smile calmly while thinking of warm past memories, but it isn’t one when the past is irrecoverable. Catch 22, the massively impactful and significant New Jersey ska band that many love, takes me back to when my brother was learning how to drive and it was mandatory for us to listen to him consistently and wonderfully listen to phenomenal ska punk. Ahhhh…

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Correlating; Musical Nostalgia and Memories By Eric Paolillo

Back when I was starting high school, I was quite a shy kid, except during band. Music was my “most hopeful talent” at the time, so I spent a large portion of my freshmen year making new friends that I didn't know in the music department. Throughout my freshman year of band, I would constantly be intrigued by new music, compositions and how key changes, tempo changes or any rhythmic or frequency changes would trigger this sense of warmth, or just a sensation that makes me feel something. Fast forward one year to tenth grade. I have a great set of friends I made, I have some dating experience thanks to a lady I will just name Trisha (I can’t think of a regular name to call her) and my musical taste was expanding (for the better I’d hope). After a day of school, I would usually come home, play video games and listen to music. I was quite awful at school/concentrating and my ADD didn’t help that either, so I would actually never do any homework. What my ADD did help me out with though was always looking and listening for new music. At a time, I was completely obsessed with The Needle Drop and would actually, look to him for new music or reviews. He was my go to guy. Whatever his reviews said, that's what I believed. (Note: I was fifteen and very impressionable). While scrolling through some of his reviews, I stumbled across a video titled “BADBADNOTGOOD - III ALBUM REVIEW”. After the first listen, I was completely in love with this album & group. I would listen to it all time, whenever, wherever. It was my soundtrack for 10th and 11th grade. So, back to 10th grade. I made a new friend in geometry. I was very happy because she was a very funny girl who knew what to do, and basically dragged me through the class. I’m very thankful I became friends with her, because if I hadn’t, I would’ve had a very mundane and boring high school experience. Anyways, my friend who I will call “Tina” had a friend, “Jesse,” who I thought at the time was absolutely stunning. She was everything I would want in someone. Tina knew it as well. Me and Jesse knew each other from band and the new club I joined, Drama Club, so I was able to talk to Jesse when I would see her in the halls, drama club, band, etc. After some time of getting to know Jesse just from being around her and associating with the same people she did, I was in love. It’s now a new day, and I walk into geometry listening to BBNGIII before I hear Tina say something to me. “I asked Jesse if she’d ever date you”. “Well what did she say?” I ask. Tina says “Jesse said she could never, you're just too nice for her” (if that was the quote, I believe it was, it was along the lines of she wouldn’t date me). If you haven’t been rejected before, it’s not fun. It certainly isn’t fun when you are in Love before they even know you want a chance and then they deny that. I always kept something in my mind though. There was a song on BBNGIII with the title of “Kaleidoscope”. It always kept coming up. I would often think about the title of the song and what it meant. Even though you can’t see anything clearly through a kaleidoscope, it all makes up a whole big thing of small little shapes that have edges and corners. So, even if you can’t see this big picture, it’s still there, you just have to find it. So I did. I didn’t give up and hey, I finally got the girl! (cue balloons!). I was so happy, for the first time in my life I was happy with someone outside my immediate family. Looking back on it now, I would kill to have another relationship like I had with Jesse, if I wasn’t such a mess towards the end of the relationship. While dating Jesse, I would listen to all of BBNG’s albums with her and she loved them. It was more enjoyable to her than my usual hip-hop catalog. Everytime I would listen to these albums, I didn't know what it was, but I would just get butterflies. It confused me because these albums never made me FEEL the way a piece of music from band would make me feel. Was it the subconscious comfortability I had with my band classmates, that I had with Jesse while listening to these albums? Was it the music itself? Was it just Jesse? To this day I’ll never forgive myself for the slow decline in our relationship, and I still kick myself in the butt for letting something like that go. I am not sorry, however, for sharing my music with her, and letting my feelings pour out while listening to this music and just being in love with Jesse while bonding over something we both enjoyed. To this day, I can’t listen to BBNG without feeling like I’m back in 2016m walking to Jesse’s house waiting to see such a god given smile. It makes me wonder why, that when I listen to this certain band, it triggers nostalgia. Or better yet, what in the music, causes or triggers nostalgia? I for sure will never know, but I do know that I will hold on to these memories and think back to a happy time. Even though the nostalgia I feel while listening to these albums is sad, it still makes me happy deep down inside. Thank you Jesse for making me feel something I never thought my mind could even conceive, thank you. And thank you BBNG for elevating my high school experience in a positive way. I hope my curiosity for nostalgia never dies out.

next to T McFerrin’s ‘Early Riser’ it’s my favorite album released this year so far. next level jazz, while it’s a trio of 22-, 23- and 22-year old dudes from Canada.