I wrote a crazy fan e-mail to We Are Scientists, because I love them. Be weird with me, after the jump!
I want to say thank you and feel
compelled to share this gratitude with you. I briefly met Keith in Boston last week, he
was kind enough to sign the split I bought at the show, and if I had social
skills and we’d both had 10 minutes, here’s what I would have said:
You guys are so good. I am so glad
to have had your music by my side. I
love the way your sound has grown and changed and I’m glad you have been a band
to embrace, rather than run from, those kinds of changes. I adore the new record. I adore the old records. Thank you for making
records. I feel confident in saying that
without With Love and Squalor and
lemonheads I wouldn’t have a Master’s degree. With
Love and Squalor saw me through senior year of college. It was later the CD I left in my car stereo
for my entire final year of grad school.
Brain Thrust Mastery kept me
company one dull summer which was made better by Dinosaurs. Late nights and
bad days have been improved by Steve
Wants His Money. Barbara was the soundtrack to when I
moved. Into a house. You know, like a real adult or something—I don’t
know. And now TV en Francias… we’ll see what part of my life this is.
Point being, I’m so grateful that
you make music. I’m so grateful that I
found your music and that you play incredible shows. I saw you three times in the last 14 months;
once at Bunbury Festival in Ohio and twice in Boston. I was wicked jazzed when I saw you in April
that you played Courage because I had
been stalking the setlists and you hadn’t been playing it but it is one of my
favorites from the new record. The
energy you guys have when performing is spectacular. It keeps me rapt. I love when Chris slays those bass bits live
and it makes my heart valves flutter. I
can’t believe how gorgeous it is when Keith’s fingers leap and hop on the
guitar neck during Nice Guys. And it’s basically a miracle of human
physiology that other Keith can smash drums like that for any length of time
(this is probably true for Andy, too, but I’ve never seen him live…). You guys are silly between songs, but a lot
of those songs are gut-punching. Keith, you
seem like a heart with a head that thinks too much and I love it.
I obsess about your band. I proselytize about your band. I appreciate that you are intelligent and I get
excited by the language you use. I
relish the fact that you understand music and I get gleeful when an interviewer
manages to pull some substance out of you-- Which isn’t to say that I don’t
enjoy you messing with the interviewers by just dryly trying to make each other
laugh, because I also love the sardonic and laconic thing you have going
on. I just love you guys. I love that you play rock music which makes
me so happy and, again, I’m so grateful to have had these tracks whirling in my
head. Chris, I love your magnificent
mustache. Keith, I swoon over your
silver fox locks.
We Are Scientists have meant the
world to me and through enthusiasm, friends, other musical finds, lyrics, and
hooks, the band has changed my life. I
have a different life than I would have if I had never encountered your
work. Thank you for sharing your music
and humor with us. Thank you for
changing and engaging with music. I wish
I could show you WAS stamped all over my heart guts, but this traipse through
my words is the best I can do. Please
just know that I love your work and I’m so fucking grateful for what you have
given to me. Thank you, from the deepest
pits of my tiny, black heart.
