As a confused Snoop-Dogg-Dr-Dre-listening-suburban-Chicago-jr-high-kid, the song Disarm pulled me from the dregs of early 90's gangsta rap and pop music. Rock had never spoken to me until then; frankly, music in general really hadn't spoken to me. I remember sitting in the living room one Saturday morning, watching MTV and hoping to see some Tupac. Disarm came on, and I didn't want to flip channels at the risk of missing something "good". It sounds absolutely ridiculous, but it was a life changing moment. The strings, the drums, even the mildly goofy "band poorly superimposed over pictures of rooftops to look like they're flying" cinematography sent shivers down my spine.
I'd like to say that I threw out all my Boyz II Men and rap CD's, a changed pre-teen, but it was a slow process. That video opened up my closed little mind, however, and I began to voluntarily listen to more and more of this "alternative" thing that was going on. I liked SP, but I didn't completely fall for them heart and soul till about three years later, when I found a practically brand new copy of MCIS at the used record store (seriously, who the frak would sell back their copy of MCIS? Poor, misguided soul...). Six bucks for a mint condition double album of...well...anything, and I was in. It quickly became my favorite CD, and the rest is history. When I hear Galapagos, I still remember the smell and feel of the cool spring breeze coming through my bedroom window while I did my trigonometry homework junior year of high school.
There are many, many, many other SP stories I could relate: my first conversation with my future husband as he complimented my SP t-shirt the first day of college, standing in line for 8 hours in all black in 90 degree heat outside the New World Music Theater to get the best seats, the pianist playing Infinite Sadness as I walked down the aisle on my wedding day, being at the United Center at the Pumpkins' next-to-last farewell show in 2000, being in a tiny theatre in Davenport, IA in 2008 as they make their comeback...it's good to have my old friends back
