Dear World,
Remember a few years back when I started saying that As Fast As was going to be the next big band? Remember? I made everyone listen to the first open letter to the damned, and I blabbed about them and I tried very hard (but unscuessfully) to make it up to maine to see them play?
Then I came to Los Angeles, where I listened to the first open letter on my way to my very first day of work. I told EVERYONE in the office about how great this band was. They all gave me that condescending look jaded music industry people give young idealists like myself when they claim to have discovered the next big thing. But hey, octone agreed with me. So CLEARLY I was right and the people I was talking to just missed the boat, or weren't paying attention with this one.
I was not discouraged by their attitudes. I knew I'd found something good. So when I got hired at buzznet I told them loud and clear that this band was a great band for us to get involved with. Whether its because they trusted my judgement, or because my bosses are already involved in contests and stuff with their lable, they let me run with it, and so low and behold, I get to do all the buzznet As Fast As stuff. Yay.
And let me tell you, last night seeing the guys on stage, and hearing those songs that I love so dearly made me very happy. I felt like a proud mama, watching them play and rock out. They really won over the audience. I especially enjoyed Spencer's little interlude during Gretchen my Captain, and I jumped for joy during the a capalla parts of Skin the Kat, I looked at my friend michelle and started screaming "told you so, told you so told you so!" I honestly got chills. So very well executed.
I feel a bit like I have come full circle with this band- I remember the day I bought the old album. That night I was in portland and I guess maine is small enough so that being in the bar with the live band, I was bound to run into the other live band people in the area, who come to watch. My friends that I'm there with introduced me to Jon Wyman, fabled producer of the northeast. Some dude with a lightbulb tattooed on his arm walked in and sat down with him. My friend, who was performing that night pulled me aside and said "that guy sitting a the table with Wyman wrote the album you have been ecstatic about all day". I remember going over to the lightbulb guy and introducing myself, and him and discovering that his name was (and is) Spencer Albee. I was a little tongue-tied, which isn't really like me. I think it was the lightbulb tattoo, I couldn't stop staring at it. When I came to LA, and talked about the band, the first question everyone asked was "is the lead singer hot" becuase thats what industry people in LA care about. But the only thing I remembered about Spencer was that he had a lightbulb tattooed on his arm. And that we shared a favorite track on the album (open letter to the damned, incidentally. But I'm not sure that that is still the case.).
I also remember seing them live for the first time sometime around october. And being very pleased with their performance, but man, seeing them yesterday, they have come so far. I am so proud. And so excited for their future. Honestly, World, I cannot take credit for helping them become the band they are today. But hopefully someday I'll be able to look back and say that I helped them become the band they wanted to be. After nearly two years of rooting and watching them develop, I was so so happy to see them starting down that road that I'm sure will take them to great places.
So World, and people reading, go out and buy the album. honestly, its impeccable.
love,
lizy
