Awkward Conversations About Music part 3
(or I really just like to “hang out”)
Last year I worked with someone born and raised in England from a distance (meaning just that I heard and admired his accent but was too shy to talk to him when I didn’t have any specific reason to.) I knew pretty much the bare minimum about him-that he was from England but had lived in the states for five years and was married. Of course, I also assumed that he had only the most refined taste in music. Surely, he knew of many independent bands both British and otherwise. (I did learn something from reading High Fidelity afterall.) I had my chance to talk to him finally right before the summer began when a coworker we have in common came up in conversation. I had seen this coworker a couple of months previous out at a Rob Dickinson (of Catherine Wheel) show, which I reviewed here. We found ourselves in the same place at the same time and I thought I would mention this, figuring he must obviously also be a Catherine Wheel fan because he’s British and so is Rob Dickinson. I mean…isn’t that the way these things work? I thought so…
He redirected my Rob Dickinson topic pretty quickly, referring to how the common coworker was just a music fanatic. At that point, having not learned my lesson, I decided to name a bunch of other British musicians and bands I had recently seen including but not limited to: Elbow, The Boy Least Likely To, Arab Strap, Beth Orton, The Fall and Art Brut Can you guess what happened? If you think I received a blank stare, you’re right. Complete and utter blank. I started thinking maybe I just wasn’t going indie enough for him. I mean, I had heard of people who knew of bands like The Trashcan Sinatras but somehow not bands such as Radiohead. Perhaps, my random bad luck was just the reason for his look of vacancy. I mean, he’s from England afterall and aren’t those guys born with a Kinks album in one hand and a Smiths album in the other? Aren’t they born with a pre-existing photographic memory of every album Neil Halstead has been involved with?
He suggested we should get together sometime maybe in the summer. I was enthusiastic and reiterated how much I love to go see bands and how we should all meet up and go out to see music sometime. He agreed sort of half heartedly. That’s when I started to think maybe something was wrong. Desperately wrong. Awkwardly wrong. It’s when it finally sunk in: he doesn’t really like music like I do. He doesn’t need it to survive or to remain a vital part of his life. He replied: “Yeah, I really just like to hang out.”
Hang out? Hang out and do what? Hang out and listen to music? Hang out at clubs and hear bands play music? Hang out at movie theaters and see films with assuredly good soundtracks? No. Just simply ‘hang out’. But what on Earth would we talk about???