Schnipper’s Slept On
- story THE FADER
Each Tuesday, FADER editor Matthew Schnipper highlights an underappreciated recent release he thinks we need to know about. This week it’s Electrelane’s No Shouts No Calls. Download “To the East,”, buy the record and read Schnipper’s thoughts on it after the jump.
Friday night, while I was standing up at a noisy restaurant my friend Jessica called me. I’d emailed her earlier in the day about going out that night and I was with making plans. But it was too loud to hear what she said and I hung up. She called back and I picked up again and I told her I could hear her better so she told me an hour earlier she’d gotten engaged. I yelled. Then it was too loud to hear again and we hung up. I told my friend Brian, we high fived and I finished a hearty meal.
I met Jessica through my friend Daniel in early 2002. We were bowling. My college had a bowling alley—the only bowling alley in Washington DC aside from the one in the White House—and on Tuesday nights they had 99¢ games. People would come and we would bowl. Mostly dweeby dudes would come and we would talk about music, but Daniel brought Jessica, who lived on his floor in his dorm, and she talked about forties and Long Island. The first time I met her (and I don’t remember this, though I am sure it is true) I was singing a song that went “We should be holding hands” and she held my hand.
Jessica and I look funny together because she is about ten thousand feet tall. Talking to her was the first time I really gave diligence to tall people’s situations when she outlined for me the difficulty in constantly bending over to hear and be heard. She still wears heels sometimes but she looks elegant. Mostly these days she wears comfortable jeans and sometimes one of the two or three T-shirts I gave her at various times. She used to wear one from my summer camp and I always imagined some fellow camper coming up to her on the street and asking her about it. In the past she would have been rude but she’s a lot kinder now and I credit Justin.
They met at the law firm they both worked at, Jessica as the receptionist and Justin as a lawyer. She showed me his photo on a tiny website. He was at the Kerrang Awards, holding an award shaped like a large letter K. I don’t remember the first time I met him but I am sure that we talked about metal and I am sure that he was wearing a hat. Initially I liked him but he is quiet and didn’t feel like I knew him at all and was completely unsure if he thought I was a giant pussy or not. This was until a few months into their relationship I met up with the two of them for a metal DJ night and he was completely wasted on whiskey and hugged me and told me how awesome I was over and over. Since then it’s been fine. It would be better if I really liked hockey and/or was from Buffalo but some things are unchangeable.
After Jessica called me on Friday I sat down to eat and the restaurant played a song I recognized but couldn’t initially place. It was Electrelane, a band I’d heard of but never heard until I watched a video of a Rodarte fashion show and really liked the song in the background. It was “To the East.” Soon after that I bought the record that was from, No Shouts No Calls and listened to the song over and over. I read about the band, heard this album, their last, was far from their best, so I never really listened to the rest of the songs. I downloaded it and though “To the East” has infinite plays, almost half of the album had zero. But I put it on on Saturday and all of it was good. Have you heard the song “At Sea”? I was listening to this song while reading the NY Times on my computer in bed. About a minute and a half in, unexpected, the drummer starts riding the cymbal, bop jazz style. I couldn’t believe it! I sat up in bed and was genuinely excited to a level that I am embarrassed to share in detail. Just so you know, I’m not trying to make an analogy between simple drum elegance and my friends getting married but you should know that both things happened this weekend and both of them are awesome. And also Jessica used to play drums in a band called Hits. She was pretty good. They had a song with an egg shaker. She started a new band, it’s called Queens.
On Friday, after dinner and some coordinating, I took a cab ride to a dark bar on the west side where a few friends were getting together to celebrate. I saw Jessica and Justin. We hugged, then we hugged again.
Related:
- March Is Schnipper Month: N
- Schnipper’s Slept On
- March Is Schnipper Month: F
- Schnipper’s Slept On
- March Is Schnipper Month: C
- posted on Feb 24, 2009 in SLEPT ON
- tags Electrelane, rock
