#simpleside

we've been waiting around searching for the sound that we love

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Fuck. Now we're really getting obscure. With the exception of a crippled Myspace page with a single demo on it and an essentially useless Facebook page, this band does not for all intents and purposes exist. This particular track dates somewhere in the timeframe of 2004 according to the file, but it's been transferred between so many different hard drives and computers it's impossible to know if it's an accurate reading. If I had to guess, I'd say that 2004 would be right - judging from the obvious Creed-era Tremonti influence going on in the tracks that I have, I'd say my discovery of this band stems from one of the Tremonti message boards that I frequented around that time. After all, 2004 was notable for both the death of Creed and the birth of Alter Bridge, as well as the beginning of me taking music seriously both as a consumer and a composer.

This song is actually quite good as far as post-grunge goes; it's catchy as shit, and the instrumentation is serviceable. What blows me away is that - with the exception of possibly one other song - this is the only professional-level quality song that exists from this band that I'm aware of. Period. That's how independent this band was - like Failsafe, they were just a bunch of kids playing music, but they didn't even get as far as the Tulsa-natives did. It's a damned shame that they're still not trying, because after 7 years of practice, they might've become something really worth checking out. But according to the internet, these guys just don't really exist anymore: nothing on iTunes, nothing on YouTube, nothing anywhere. Those were different times.

I'm really proud that I've kept these tracks, actually. It absolutely blows my mind that there are people out there who have no idea that I can still occasionally break out a track that they recorded 7 years ago as kids and sing along to it. That was one of the main reasons I was so eager to make all of my band's music available on our various pages: I might have been able to count the people who were genuinely into the tracks I wrote on one hand, but they existed. I still remember the first time a kid that I had never met before, who did not know a single person that I know, who had absolutely no relationship to me, found us on Myspace and repeatedly sent us personal messages complimenting us and thanking us for the music.

That's like a fucking dream come true. The wishful-thinker in me still fantasizes that maybe, every once in awhile, he breaks out The Smell of Rain and gives it a spin. God help me, he might even know the words. That's surreal. And if I could get through to one kid, then I could definitely get through to others, even if it's just a few. Makes me sad that I lost the support of the band. I still write, but I don't have any motivation any more, save personal motivation. Makes me very sad.

I plan on using this section of my feed to highlight obscure moments like this. Hell, I might even throw up some of my own stuff, embarrassing as it is - old demos, new demos, whatever. Because more than anything else, this song has taught me that once something is out there, it's out there forever, and you can't take it back. 

But why the fuck would you want to?

I wish nothing but the best to the members of this band. Wherever they are, they've still got a fan.