A few years ago I read a review of the debut EP by a close friend's band. He was pretty excited that someone who wasn't a friend of the band had even listened to it, let alone given it a good review. The interesting part however was the list of bands in the "For fans of..." section. I think there were four bands listed, three of whom were all bands they were into so were to be expected. The fourth however was Texas is the Reason, a band neither of us, nor the rest of the band, had ever heard of. We found some songs on the internet and gave them a listen; the reviewer had a point, my friends band sounded very much like Texas is the Reason, albeit accidentally.
Sometime later I was in New York visiting a friend. My priorities are rarely straight when in exciting new foreign cities, so before seeing the Statue of Liberty or Central Park I went record shopping and ended up spending hours and a small fortune in Generation Records. I liked it so much I went back again two days later to buy some more records. On the first trip I either hadn't seen, or not remembered the significance of this record, but corrected that and bought it, along with a few other bits. And I'm very glad I did - it's a cracking album. Nine songs of lovely, genuine emo/post-hardcore (before those words came to mean what they mean now). The Drinking Song and Back and to the Left are highlights for me. The instrument title-track is pretty good too.
One of the problems with binge record-shopping is coming with so many records you don't know where to start and albums get neglected or under-appreciated. That happened a bit when I came back from New York (it was also Record Store Day when I was in Colorado on the same trip, so my pile of vinyl was a bit ridiculous - the exchange rate was particularly good). This record got caught up in my hectic return home and ended up being a bit of a slow-burner. That was four years ago now, and over that time the record has had time to shine, and I gradually came to see it for the awesome album it is. The band set up a Twitter account the other day and I'm very hopeful that a reunion will result in at least one UK show (Garrett was due to play some solo shows in April, but they got mysteriously pulled last minute). People are often a bit cynical of reunion shows, but if it means I get to see Texas is the Reason, I'm all for it.
Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 9
Cost: £5.42 new
Bought: Generation Records, New York
When: 13/04/08
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no
