The Fourth In A Series Of Open Letters To Bands I Love That Have Either Broken Up Or Started Sucking

Dear Grandaddy,

I once read in an interview with your singer Jason Lytle that you broke up because it was hard to tour the world when the sound guys were making more money than you. That's rough, and I can understand that it's hard to tour and make no money, but why does that mean we don't get any more albums? I could live with one out of two.

I used to book shows here in Santa Fe, NM all the time, and a band that stayed at my house showed me your album

The Sophtware Slump.

I had never heard anything like it in my life.

It was indie, but electronic. It conceptual. It made its way into heavy rotation among my friend and I, and I forced pretty much everybody I ever met to listen to it.

The song "Jed's Other Poem(Beautiful Ground)" moved me, and the video for the song blew me away. "Hewlett's Daughter" had incredible hooks, and I listened to that album so much that the cd started to decompose before my eyes. I needed more.

And I got it when I heard

Sumday.

What a sad album. What a perfect album. But still this was not enough.

A million years later, I learned that your first album,

Under the Western Freeway

was out of print and hard to find, but well worth the search. It took me years, and some weird favors, but finally it was mine.

They say that wanting something is better than getting it, but in this case that statement is bullshit. I listen to the album almost every day now, and I can also say that I'm cool because I have a rare out of print masterpiece.

So do me a big old favor and start writing another album already. As I said before, I don't care if you tour. I just want to see what kind of stuff you're up to now. Certainly you've not given up music altogether. I don't know what the scene in Modesto, CA is like, but I assume you're in other bands. I know Jim Fairchild put something out, but it wasn't as good as I would have hoped. I'll even forgive you for your disappointing final album,

Just Like The Fambly Cat

. I'll make everybody buy a copy. I'll do your laundry for a month, and I'll wash all your dishes and eat your brussels sprouts. Honest. No Fibbing.

Your friend and fan,

Alex

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