Unknown Album - Track 01

So we're getting to that age when we start to pathetically reminisce about college years. I always thought all that "best years of your life" stuff sounded soul-crushingly sad, and I still think anyone who says that must have made even worse decisions than I did after graduation. For me, college memories always involve women interested in me that I never ended up dating. I could write a decently-sized book, and each chapter would be one of these college girls.

Anyway, I had forgotten about one of these girls until this afternoon when I happened upon a CD she burned for me. One of the folders in my mp3 collection was listed as Engine Down but the album was not recognized, so of course I had about 15 unknown tracks. If there's one thing I'm OCD about it's unknown tracks amongst my mp3s. I once had the misfortune of trying to find good music on my sister's ipod, it was like trying to differentiate between different colors of hay in a haystack, nevermind the needle.

"Oh Track 14! I love this song, by Unknown Artist!"

The point is that I had gone to an indie rock concert with this girl, Rose, in downtown Blacksburg. At the time I had been in college for over two years and the most "collegiate" rock I had been listening to was Radiohead. So Rose was, in way, ushering me into the shrouded world of hipster music.

After the show, we were pretty impressed with how well they pulled off the "rock band" look, which says more than enough about how much we liked the songs. Nevertheless, Rose wanted to buy their CDs after the show, but of course I'm too much of a cheapskate to do such a thing. You'd think being in a young struggling band myself would make me want to contribute, if only for solidarity's sake, but that would mean spending precious dollars. Now that I think of it, she was pretty generous to burn me a CD of their stuff, as there was no indication she was any better off than I was financially. Regardless, she did, and moved to New Jersey shortly afterward, thus depriving me of the opportunity to epic fail in trying to take the relationship any further. Probably for the best.

The punchline to all of this is that as I searched for which Engine Down album I had on amazon.com, I couldn't resist checking out some of the reviews to see where this band stood in the eyes of the masses. Here is the gem that I felt should be immortalized in my blog:

Product Description
Imagine it: the Mediterranean circa 1500 B.C., when Crete flourished in culture and life. The famous bull-jumpers performed their dangerous sport in utter bliss with no worries of death as the town square bustled with daily activity. At that time, it seemed like a utopia. And as this image floats by, Engine Down's music is the perfect soundtrack. This is music that transcends the toils of everyday life in our modern age, travelling through time and touching the rawest of human emotions. Explosive bursts of energy, lush guitars along with vibraphone and cello make this release stand alone as a formal digitally encrypted introduction to the innovative musical force known as Engine Down.