During my sophomore year of college, I went through a huge Plan-It-X phase. It started when a bunch of PIX bands played right off campus and continued well throughout the year to the point where Ghost Mice songs became a drunken standard for me and all of my friends.
Spoonboy's debut (and up until this year, his only solo album), I Love You; This Is a Robbery, was one of the many albums that I listened to during that phase. I don't think it left my CD player (because I still used a CD player back then) for about a month's time at least. It was comforting; I was in a pretty uncertain place at that time (going through the obligatory college break up, not knowing what to major in, etc) and it seemed like Spoonboy himself was feeling the same way. I vividly remember spending late November nights in the wood studio working on my project for class and listening to the album on repeat.
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I also vaguely recall smelling a bonfire on those nights,
but it was probably just the kiln from the ceramic studio. |
It was after I listened to this album that I tried my own hand at writing songs. I didn't really try to mimic his style, but I really liked how he (and other PIX artists, for that matter) would write songs that had somewhat of a traditional style, but went with a very narrative approach. I know that's why people love Bruce Springsteen, or Billy Joel, or whoever else, but for me this person was Spoonboy. His songs were short, catchy and they got their point across in a way that spoke to me. I don't think I liked any of the songs that I wrote at that period (I've only really ever liked two or three songs that I've written), but the fact remains that I never felt comfortable trying my hand at songwriting until after I listened to I Love You; This Is a Robbery. I think that's a pretty big effect on my life- hence its inclusion on this list.
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