A poinsetta poison rain, traded true love for insult and injury (Day 174)

Today's lyric comes from Alkaline Trio's song Emma, from their album Good Mourning.

What a lot people don't know is that when I first heard the Alkaline Trio, I actually wasn't impressed. That's actually putting it lightly. I hated them. They used to get pushed on me all the time by this girl I was dating, and I always resisted. One day she put on Good Mourning, and for some reason, it hit my ears like a napalm bomb. Something clicked, and I couldn't get enough of them.

I know some people would say this blog is turning into a music review site. I'm somewhat disappointed if others are viewing it that way, because honestly I feel that music is such an important factor in my life that it's almost ridiculous that I wouldn't talk about it often.

Be that as it may, the reason why I'm going with the theme of the Alkaline Trio is because of the role they have actively played in my life.

When I like a band, I mean really like a band, I'm fiercely loyal to them. The Alkaline Trio are the biggest proof of that statement. Through every tragedy, every triumph in my life those records were never far from my stereo.

I hate when people get cheesy and say, "oh this band saved my life" or whatever. The truth is, they did more for me than just saved my life. They helped make it seem like life wasn't exactly great, but nothing was worth ending it over. When I discovered From Here To Infirmary, for the first time in my life I never actually felt like I was alone. Songs about drinking, girls, doing drugs, moving and...I mean everything else.

I really think if I ever have a kid that I'll give them a copy of that album for their fourteenth birthday. I really wish I'd had it when I was that age, things would have seemed a lot more clear. Or maybe they wouldn't have, but I really do wish I'd had it then.

When I was living in an apartment in Casa Grande with Richard (the updater yesterday) , he went on vacation to Hawaii and I wound up getting sloppy drunk with this girl I was seeing at the time. We put the vinyl version of Crimson on, and sat and listened to it. I'd been going through a lot of panic attacks, but every single time I hear something having to do with the Trio, I feel at ease and centered. I couldn't begin to tell you how many times they've made an appearance (or been the whole damned album) on drunken mixes between my friend Austin and I.

They've been such a saving grace for me.

It's true. Music can save lives, and I may be a perfect model for that.

How has music effected you?

-Until tomorrow.