1996. I’m hanging out with my best friend. Suddenly the house is filled by a song his older brother is playing from his room. Right away, I lose all sense of time while listening and before I know it, I’m knocking on his door. He opens and I ask. He tells me, “1979 by the SP,” in a tone that indicates I should know that. I feel mortified for a second, before getting lost in the song again. He finds me funny, so he plays it from the beginning and I sit on the floor without moving until Twilight to Starlight is over. I find my band, my sound. It takes me a month to save enough money to buy the album and I listen to it relentlessly, until the words pour out of me organically, as if they are my own. Another 10 years pass before I can see the band live for the first time. Every concert since then, happy tears. And even today, I turn 14 the moment I hear: “Shakedown 1979, cool kids never have the time…”