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When in Rome
Mar. 19th, 2021 01:36 pmWay back when I was in high school and I still had Myspace, I got in contact with a band called Wax on Radio. I think they had sent me a message on the twee platform, and I listened to their songs on the Myspace player. I instantly fell in love. The bassline of one particular song, "When in Rome," was so spacious and peaceful that it became something that I listened to in order to center myself. The song ends in that same bassline but with some treble accents-- I used to imagine myself skating on the stars. The songs ends by fading into about 2 minutes of crickets.
It was gorgeous, and I listened over and over on my trashy dial-up internet. Eventually, I asked for the CD for my birthday (or I bought it for myself. I can't remember which) The CD was only released on this small Indie label out of Chicago, the band's base of operations, so I had to borrow my mom's credit card to purchase it online.
The album art had this circular logo on it that looked like a bird-- a crane maybe-- spreading its wings with a crane within it, and a crane within it, and a crane within it. Black and white. It felt cyclical and unifying, like a yin yang.
It was one of those albums where the end of every song led into the beginning of the next song. Not only that, but the chorus of the last song became the chorus of the first song. It was written with Romantic composer sensibilities. There were leitmotifs, recurring melodies, sometimes variations of the same themes, but reinforcing this idea of the cyclical nature of existence. The lyrics were as deep, and the whole thing was so cohesive and satisfying in a way that no band I have listened to before or hence has been.
I listened to that album until the CD was scratched and unlistenable. Luckily, I had backed it up on iTunes, but eventually my laptop died, and the album was lost to me sometime in college.
I looked to purchase the album again, but the band had fallen apart. They had existed for only a few years, put out one album, and then broke up for some reason. The label no longer sold the album online. I tried to torrent it, but it was too obscure.
For years afterwards, I would search for the band to see if anyone had uploaded the whole album somewhere, but no dice. I saw you could still buy the album online, now on Amazon, but I lived in China, and there was no guaranteeing that the thing would ever get to me. Youtube held one or two of the singles, but the live versions posted on the site were bad-- either terrible quality, or, disappointingly, the vocalist wasn't so hot live.
It was gorgeous, and I listened over and over on my trashy dial-up internet. Eventually, I asked for the CD for my birthday (or I bought it for myself. I can't remember which) The CD was only released on this small Indie label out of Chicago, the band's base of operations, so I had to borrow my mom's credit card to purchase it online.
The album art had this circular logo on it that looked like a bird-- a crane maybe-- spreading its wings with a crane within it, and a crane within it, and a crane within it. Black and white. It felt cyclical and unifying, like a yin yang.
It was one of those albums where the end of every song led into the beginning of the next song. Not only that, but the chorus of the last song became the chorus of the first song. It was written with Romantic composer sensibilities. There were leitmotifs, recurring melodies, sometimes variations of the same themes, but reinforcing this idea of the cyclical nature of existence. The lyrics were as deep, and the whole thing was so cohesive and satisfying in a way that no band I have listened to before or hence has been.
I listened to that album until the CD was scratched and unlistenable. Luckily, I had backed it up on iTunes, but eventually my laptop died, and the album was lost to me sometime in college.
I looked to purchase the album again, but the band had fallen apart. They had existed for only a few years, put out one album, and then broke up for some reason. The label no longer sold the album online. I tried to torrent it, but it was too obscure.
For years afterwards, I would search for the band to see if anyone had uploaded the whole album somewhere, but no dice. I saw you could still buy the album online, now on Amazon, but I lived in China, and there was no guaranteeing that the thing would ever get to me. Youtube held one or two of the singles, but the live versions posted on the site were bad-- either terrible quality, or, disappointingly, the vocalist wasn't so hot live.
Last week I did my bi-yearly check, and I found that someone had uploaded the whole album onto Youtube. :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-5-xmcLr6I&list=PLl87SEujHP9JkwQ5TbHtUhGPGgmGnDFBW&index=7&ab_channel=MikeMara
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