The day after Thanksgiving, I decided to stop drinking. It’d been a long time coming and felt simultaneously like a big deal and not a big deal at all. It never affected my job or my family, but it did affect me.

Truth is, I don’t like drinking. 99% of alcohol tastes bad to me, very few people keep a bar stocked with Gordon’s Gin so you’re forced to bring a big jug around with you, and I would always end up eating an entire bag of chips at 10 PM “on accident.”

I didn’t like how much I thought about it, but I especially didn’t like how often I wondered, “what if something happens to my wife or son and I’m 4 G&T’s deep?” So I stopped. It’s been good and healthy for me (fingers crossed my cholesterol and blood pressure are down next time I go to the doctor), and even though I haven’t quite lost the “Covid 25” I put on, I feel better.

But there’s been one particular downside I didn’t see coming during this period. I AM GETTING SICK A LOT. This year alone, I’ve been sick more than I have in like the last two years combined. I got the flu, food poisoning, two different colds, and something that can only be described as, “it’s too cold out I don’t want to get up.”

I have no proof that all the gin rumbling around in my belly was somehow killing these germs, but it sure does feel that way. So if you’re feeling like you want to stop drinking: 1.) Please do! You won’t regret it! 2.) Maybe take a multivitamin or something with Vitamin C in it for a while? 3.) Be proud, as I saw on the most recent episode of White Lotus, peer pressure is everywhere, even if you are a 50 year old movie star.

Anyway, I’m back on the mend (again) and we’ve got a great song this week. Let’s jump in.

benches - Monodrama (2020)

I don’t know a lot about the band benches, but despite being from California, they may be a direct descendent of Interpol (and are definitely fans of Future Islands). It’s the kind of music that might be playing at a coffee shop in a spy thriller from the early 2000s; the sort of place where every table has a different nationality, everyone is rich, and nobody is who they say they are.

The ringing guitars echo in our ears and if you’re wondering if it’s gonna be a happy or sad song, you’re not alone. “Happiness unsated / You should bathe in the sober sun / I’m over it / Sadness saturated / When she leapt into flight for fun / I’m over it.”

These sort of 😊/🙁 lyrics continue throughout “Monodrama,” and as singer Anson Kelly sings “I’m dramatic / So dramatic,” the way he yelps (in tune) makes it seem like the most no-duh moment ever. You’re dancing. Or are you alone in the corner? Either way, you’re tapping your foot.

This is the sort of music that is catchy, but you don’t really sing along to? If that makes sense? Let’s put it this way: you and your spouse just had a fight, you’re driving home in silence, this comes on and you both are sort of relieved. It’s music to think to, music to explore, but also it doesn’t have to be that serious.

So if jangly guitars, a good dose of mono melodrama, and a drumbeat that doesn’t quit get you feeling good, this tune needs to be in your rotation.

Is it a JackJam?

I’m not being dramatic (nailed it) when I say Jack REALLY loves this song. As someone who’s becoming a scholar of what my son will/will not enjoy, I have a few hunches why this one has grabbed his attention.

1.) It gets started immediately. No preamble, just propulsion

2.) The album cover is blue. Pretty much everyday we ask Jack what his favorite color is. It’s always at least two, one is usually rainbow, but a lot of times the other is blue.

3.) His mother likes it. Jack has a healthy case of FOMO, and if two people in the car like something, there’s a good chance he’s gonna dig it too.

4.) I added it in a batch with another song he likes, “Perfume,” by Del Water Gap, so it was back to back bangers.

Ok, that’s it for me. I’ll be back next week-ish with another song that will make you laugh/cry/dance/open this email.

BLAKE