(author's note: this post goes best with a fresh cup of coffee. french press.*)

Sometimes the best things in life are also the simplest. As a lover of music with more than one obsession, I used to dread the question: So what's your favorite band? My response was usually to look away and shuffle my feet, ostensibly avoiding answering the question by asking a few of my own: what genre, what year, could you be more specific? Being also a NAVY brat, I had learned early that sometimes even basic questions could end up with a long backstory of an answer.

Are things different now? Yes and no. I've got the band, but I'm still stuck with the backstory....

(cue soft intro music here)

Ah yes, it was the spring of 2005. I was about to graduate (finally) from college and head off for a year abroad. I'd been working at the college radio station for years, but it wasn't until I had less than 6 months in the country that I decided to take an active part in what was in the station's general rotation. The long and short of that job: countless hours virtually unpaid, lots of free music. Which isn't as great as it sounds - any music reviewer knows, there are very few good bands and a slew of terrible ones. I could wallpaper every inch of my room with the amount of crap I've had to listen to over the years. I became pretty great at giving a record a 5 minute spin, playing various parts of a CD out of order, to determine immediately whether it was worth a second listen, if at all. My system would have been disastrous if I hadn't been right every single time. Call it a gift. A lot of good music landed in my lap that way, including the North Carolina band (now all but defunct) Ticonderoga. God are they amazing; they give me chills every time I play their first record. Phil Moore went on to start a delightful band with his girlfriend + comrades, The Bowerbirds.

Promoters. Not always my favorite group of people, sometimes attempting to make up for talent with enthusiasm. I would never want their jobs, so I envy their determination. But they'll send you promos in a heartbeat. This is generally where most of the crap comes from.

Yet one day, while eating a hurried lunch and contemplating the idea of dumping all that day's promos in the trash without hearing a single note, I paused. The cover was eye-catching, cute little fleur-de-lis and an interesting color combination. A bit twee, perhaps. The one-sheet didn't have much to say about the band other than they were from Springfield, MO (where??) and played great, lo-fi indie-pop. Thank you, Captain Vague. But the recommended bands on the cover sticker grabbed my attention: the Sea & Cake, Elliott Smith. Really? I put it on, and the rest, as they say, was history. I was obsessed, and everyone I knew had to hear this record.

(interlude fade in and out)

I played that record all summer. It was perfect for long day drives through the foothills, my feet sticking out the window (I refuse to drive). I got it in my head to own everything this band had for sale, so I looked them up on the internet. Sure enough, there was a sweet little self-released EP to be had. I wrote the band & they responded immediately. I think the first copy might have even gotten lost in the mail and they had to send twice. I might have also been living in Germany at the time. It was a hazy time of infatuation.

The band? Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin.

I know, the name is enough to make you take notice. Well, actually, I used to feel pretty silly spitting the whole thing out; it just didn't roll off your tongue like Ida or Fugazi. But I liked it, and you could shorten it to SSLYBY, which made for fantastic tshirts and fun pronunciations. Like finger tapping each syllable. And they were the nicest guys I'd met in the profession in a long time. I know people say the internet is democratizing and all, but I think they still miscalculate how a little bit of stardom can turn an otherwise sweet, heartfelt singer-songwriter into an obnoxious performer.

Since then, SSLYBY has gone on to: start and end a fantastic tape club, be endorsed by Death Cab's Chris Walla, get signed by a great independent label, tour all over the country, play a show in Russia, and generally increase their level of awesomeness five-fold. And for rabid fans like me, there's finally another record, Pershing. Much more punchy pop than their previous; all the same boy-girl hang-ups. Catchy as hell on every track. I've already got a few new fans singing along, same as the old days.

I recently read a memoir of a public librarian (Quiet, Please by Scott Douglas; it's pretty nerd in a grand way) & started rethinking of all the reasons I got into books and music. Free access to all the newest probably tops the list, but it's also about finding that one great song, one great band that really gets you moving, then sharing it with someone. "You mean you haven't heard of Band X? You haven't lived." And it's true. We all want to hear our next favorite band of all time. So come out to Dupont Circle on Record Store Day, April 19 & we'll give you free stuff, live music, and a lot of sharing. Come anytime, but you don't want to miss local greats These United States are playing at 6pm. Let's swap stories.

*UPDATE: we have so much free stuff - CD and LP samplers, buttons, comics, magazines, posters, stickers, even Bjork 3D glasses - I can barely move around in our stockroom. This is going to be so good...