Remember record stores? You know, places not Borders or Best Buy that are owned by people who actually like music and employ other people who also like music? You know, employees who you get to know kind of well and who pay attention to your music purchases (because they remember you if you go there enough) and then perhaps suggest other albums you might like? Remember those days?
Well, I used to go to Desirable Discs in Dearborn, Michigan. Telegraph Road location. The year was 2002, and there was a guy there with thick-rimmed glasses years before they became standard to the hipster sartorial repertoire. With him, I could always count on two things: 5 o’clock shadow, and good music suggestions. At that time, I had collected every Belle & Sebastian album then in existence, played out Grandaddy’s Sumday, and replaced my lost copy of STP’s Tiny Music… (still one of my faves), and was looking for something new. I walked around, picking through the used stacks, walked around some more–spent a good 45 minutes in there, and finally realized that nothing was tempting me to part with the $15 in my wallet, and that perhaps I should pay a bill or buy some food or something instead.
I walked to the door and motioned to my clerk with that meek, nearly shameful “thanks, but no thanks” gesture you give to clerks when you’ve spent over 45 minutes in their shop without buying a damn thing. He nodded back with that cool, record store clerk head nod, which signals wordlessly “Hey dude, it’s cool. This is freakin’ record store. Come back soon, buddy.” But just as I was opening the door, the oracle spoke, “Hey man, you bought Grandaddy last month, I think this kid’s better.”
He handed me Sha Sha.
“Plus, it comes with this toothbrush.”
Indeed it did. ATO Records sent a batch of red toothbrushes, similar to the one Ben uses on the album cover, as a little promotional tool for the album (I actually had that toothbrush in my toiletries bag for about five years before I was forced to use it when I realized at 2am one late evening that I had left my toothbrush in Grand Rapids after returning back from a trip earlier that day.).
So I walked out of the store with a purchase, popped the disc immediately into my player, and before the end of the first song (sha-doo!), I was hooked. I bought or burned a copy for everyone I knew at the time. Some friends received the album as a gift on multiple occasions. To this day, I still have 4-5 burned copied of the disc resting on DVR spools. I must have sung along to all of those songs 100,000 million times in my car. It was one of the few times that I could say with honesty “that CD hasn’t left my player in 3 months.” Seriously, it didn’t.
And so this past weekend I went on a road trip to visit a friend in Toledo and needed some good driving music. Rifling through my CD collection for the old stuff, I came upon Sha Sha and wondered why the hell this album’s been stored away in a dingy cardboard box for so long–why the hell it ever left my CD player at all.
Every…single…song…is so damn good. I spent the entire drive from Detroit to Toledo singing along–just like the old days. I was neither wasted, nor ready, but I sure as hell sang “I am wasted but I’m ready!” at the top of my lungs. I thought about my brother when singing along to “Family Tree.” I thought about an existentialism class I took in college when singing “Nothing isn’t nothing, nothing’s something that’s important to me.” I thought about my younger, rabble-rousing years and parties at The Beech House when singing along to “Commerce, TX.” I thought about ex-girlfriends when singing “Made It Up,” “In Other Words,” “Walk On Me” (I’ve been in all of the situations narrated in these songs). I thought about the future when singing along to “Falling.”
But at the same time, I wasn’t thinking. I was just enjoying. And when I arrived in Toledo, I was kind of hoarse. I had just put on not one, but two concerts in my car, and without an intermission or a drink of water. And it felt like the songs were all written by me. And it felt like I put on one hell of a performance.
So, now it’s 2009. Ben Kweller has a new album out in February called Changing Horses. ‘sposed to be a more country-soundin’ recurd. That’s cool. I like when good pop/rock artists go country (Ryan Adams and Jenny Lewis alone recommend the practice to others, and I’ve quite liked Conor Oberst’s countrification as well).
Will the new album be better than Sha Sha? I don’t know. Sometimes, a great album comes into your life at a time when you’re so ready for it, and you absorb it like food or sun, and it becomes part of you. And just like a good meal or a sunny day, you can enjoy it over and over again and it doesn’t get old. For me, Sha Sha was one of those albums, and I just can’t see myself ever growing out of it.
“Make It Up” from Sha Sha (buy)
P.S. Thanks a million, Desirable Discs records store clerk guy, whose name I’ve forgotten, for this and all the other suggestions. I hope you’re doing well.
17 Comments
you burned me one of these…
meg and i used to listen to this nonstop on the midland to grand rapids (and vise versa) trips.
Sha Sha is such a perfect pop record – after only two listens you could learn all the words.
I’m pretty sure you burned Sha Sha for me at one point. I never gave it much of a chance though since I was jealous of Ben Kweller for having a record deal at a young age and getting to hang out with people like The Strokes. Plus our drummer Mikey gave our band’s demo to Ben Kweller when he played at MSU and shockingly he never got back to us with countless words of praise and encouragement! Maybe I should give him another chance now that I’m not so bitter.
“Sometimes, a great album comes into your life at a time when you’re so ready for it, and you absorb it like food or sun, and it becomes part of you.”
That is going in my book of quotes. SO TRUE! I’ve always felt this way but never knew how to put it in words. Amazing.
Yeah…Sha Sha came out in my junior year of highschool just when I was really getting into music (and weed) so it is near and dear to my heart as well.
Awesome post.
I hope everyone who received a copy of Sha Sha from me posts a comment. If so, it will be the most commented-upon post in this modest site’s history.
I was at that show, Dan. It was a good one. I remember by then Ben Kweller had gotten big enough where he walked through the audience of the no-smoking hall with a lit cig hanging out the side of his mouth. You were at stage left, if I remember, on the second level. Too bad he never got back to you guys!
Thanks for the kind words about my werds, Be Rad. I’ll be posting a comment to your Lily Allen post shortly.
Oh my gosh, Desirable Discs and Ben Kweller!! You just made me so nostalgic for my college years.
Well, that tends to be what we’re good at here in Post-Rockistland–making 20-30 somethings nostalgic for their college years. Glad to be of service!
While I’m here in the comment section, I’ll add a note that I was too blogger-shamed into sharing. It’s a bit sentimental (ergo, the possibility of losing coolcred), but it’s the comment section.
The part of “Family Tree” that reminds me of my brother: “I am the book, and you are the binding.”
He’s a good guy.
Dood, you made me a copy of this. At Greenfield Village.
I’d listen to it on my long rides into work. Seeing that picture and thinking about that album reminded me how awesome life was in 2002. Seriously, the world was mine for me to own. Now it just poops in my mouth.
Ha! I told you guys that I made EVERYBODY this disc.
And life was awesome in 2002! Of course for me, the world was 1850 at Greenfield Village, from 10am-4pm every day.
The world didn’t poop in my mouth in 2002 OR 1850, but 2008….? The point being, let’s all start listening to this album again on a regular basis, to remember when the world was holding it in, and we had really good minty mouthwash!
S-er, I fall into the “some friends received the album as a gift on multiple occasions” category. “How It Should Be (Sha Sha)” is the best 1:49 song ever recorded. Remember the first time we saw him at the Magic Stick? The Stroh’s was a-flowing.
remember how much blow he and his bandmates were doing? or am i only one that remembers things like this? his coke intake was more impressive than the show.
Yeah, but he still put on a good show, perhaps heeding momma’s advice: “don’t you let it go to your head.”
Good story, but I gotta point out that Sumday wasn’t released until 2003. So, did any of this REALLY happen?
Ah man, you’re correct Fact-checker Shawn! What was I thinking of then? I got into “Daisies of the Galaxy” a bit late. Maybe that was it.
Either way, I feel cross checked by your fact check.
Actually, now that I think back, Ben Kweller opened that Magic Stick show with “I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You,” the Elvis version. That was great–not only opening a show with a cover, but opening a show with that cover.
I really don’t remember anything about the show except ‘Stroh’s for the Bros’.
I often get nostalgic for 2002 and Sha Sha is one of the reasons why.