Appleseed Cast "On Reflection"
Many, many years ago I had a role model. I regarded him in just about everything I did: during middle school, during high school, and even a while after into college. The clothes I wore, the way I acted, and the music I listened to were all heavily influenced by one individual who lived hours away. Ever since I was child, maybe seven or eight years old, my cousin Kirk was the coolest person on the planet to me.
Kirk, and his brother David were always the reason I looked forward to visiting Texas. I was very young and very, very shy around both of them. They had the coolest clothes, played video games, had cars, and were super funny. I remember anticipating in nervousness as we neared their home in Mt. Pleasant, TX, desperately preparing subjects to talk about when and if I had the chance to talk to either of them. Being in their early 20’s when I was maybe 13 or so, they were usually busy throughout the week due to work, school, and just personal life. But they both always made time to hang with me and I loved every minute of it. I looked up to both David and Kirk. However, my personality when I was younger seemed, in my mind, to resonate more with Kirk.
One time many years ago my family and I traveled down to their home in Mt. Pleasant for a specific event. I honestly can’t remember what it was exactly. Anyways, I remember hoping for a chance to hang out with either David or Kirk at some point. If I’m thinking of the right time David had taken my sister and I out to just drive around and listen to music. I was pretty stoked on that. The trip was comin to an end and I still hadn’t had much interaction with Kirk. I was kinda bummin when out of nowhere he pops out and says he’s got something for me.
Holy shit, I thought! Finally!
Kirk led me into his room and gave me a mix CD and a piece of paper. It might as well have been Peyton Manning giving his biggest fan a Super Bowl ring. The paper had the track list with every artist and song title on it. Just for me. I could’ve died.
I played the absolute hell out of that thing. I knew that mix CD front to back. In fact it spawned my love for what became my favorite band in high school, Cursive. It also introduced me to one of his favorite bands and still to this day one of mine... The Appleseed Cast.
The Appleseed Cast opened up so many doors in music for me. Their instruments are massive in sound,and most of the time to take the focus of their music. Especially their drum arrangements...holy shit!
Chris Crisci's vocals are always sneaking in and blending in perfectly with the instrumentation. Especially on "On Reflection", I've looked up the lyrics and played the song while reading them and I still can't figure out where exactly he is at in the lyrics during the second verse. But as he wails and the drums pound high to low around 2:18 in the song...it doesn't even matter what he is saying. The music is just too powerful.
And then when you think it just can't get any better... 5:10 rolls in and...it just gets so much gnarlier. This section of vocals and instrumentation is one of the gnarliest most awe-inspiring and victorious moments in modern music. This is completely my opinion, but it's hard to not feel just absolutely on top of the world after hearing it and the emotions it evokes.
I also remember playing the hell out of this monster while driving across the beach in southern Texas, around Mustang Island. Just good sunny memories.
Gnarliest Appleseed Cast song ever.
So a big thanks to my cousins David and Kirk for all of the music they have shown me and for the times they hung out with me. It meant a lot.
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