Tuesday, March 26, 2013

One Year of Kids In The Street (#1YeAARKITS)

Yes, today is the anniversary of Kids In The Street by the All-American Rejects. I thought perhaps I could actually do a full review of the album. I even believed that this morning. And yet, I am having so many crazy thoughts and feelings, that I don’t know that I could get anywhere with that.

For one thing, look at that hash tag. I don’t think I’ve ever used one in a blog title before. It’s important, because the AARmy (AAR fans) want to make it trend today, to celebrate the band and the album. Honestly, with the Supreme Court hearing today, I don’t think they have a chance. Furthermore, trying to make anything trend is so not my thing. However, they want it, and I love them, and so here I am, participating.

That sentence could be confusing. I do love the Rejects, but also I love these AARmy members that I never even knew existed a few months ago.

I was writing recently about how music connects us. It wasn’t a blog post, oddly enough. Another Twitter contact (I hate “tweep”, but I haven’t found a preferred alternative yet) was collecting people’s musical experiences and their feelings. I’m going to copy two paragraphs in here:

They were very different feelings, but they were both real, and those songs helped me through. They relieved the built up ache inside. They took the pain and made something beautiful. They told me I wasn’t alone. Someone else had written and performed that music that was reverberating through me…

That’s what music does. It connects us. It connects us to ourselves, and the deep and hard to reach places within us. It connects us to the bands. It connects us to the world outside. It connects us to each other. And it helps us heal.”

The thing that had kept coming back to me, but I did not use in that piece, is a quote from C.S. Lewis: “Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one.” The connections we make over music can be so powerful, and I think that’s because first we have connected with the music, which told us we were not the only one, and then we connect with someone who had that same connection, and it’s multiplied.

Also, I seem to love pretty easily, so there’s that. Regardless, I love the AARmy, and if they want it to trend, I’ll join in, even if I feel pessimistic and silly.

I have been looking at old blog posts that have mentioned the Rejects, because I have written about them a lot. A lot of them are connected with My Chemical Romance, which brings up more emotions. You see, I also love the MCRmy (some of the same members), who are having a rough week right now, after My Chemical Romance announced their split.

So there are those emotions running rampant, and also there are the thoughts of what this year has been for me – mainly as a writer, but also as a person, and the bands have been a big part of that. This is a big week for me as a writer, and I will delve more into that tomorrow, but one of the things I found that I wrote made me smile:

I don’t think I can write coherently about albums.”

Okay, maybe today, for this one, I can’t, but I have gotten a lot better about writing about music. I might be able to take a crack at it now. But I don’t think I can today.

I wanted to. A couple of people had posted asking what everyone’s favorite KITS song was, and most people had to at least put two, or say they couldn’t choose. I did choose two, and then I kept remembering others. Someone had raised the issue earlier, and I said to just let them take turns, but yes, going over each track individually, and writing what was special and beautiful about it seemed like a good solution. I don’t seem to be able to do it today. Too many feelings.

Also, I just realized I’ve been listening to it wrong. I have the deluxe edition, with four extra tracks. I knew the two demos were extra, but I did not realize that “Drown Next to Me” and “Do Me Right” were not part of the original flow. That changes the whole structure, and now I don’t think I’ve understood it enough. That’s okay. I’ll listen again. I can guarantee it.

So, here I am, as I have so often been before, having written something that was not intended, and that possibly makes no sense. However, I am putting links to some of the other things that I have written about the band. It is not every time I have mentioned them, because that would be ridiculous, but here are some, and a lot of them also mention other bands.

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