Week of 2022-09-04: Belmont by Snarky Puppy
-------------------------------------------
Snarky Puppy is incredible. I'll never forget
first hearing about them in college. It was the
first few days of my freshman year, a magical time
when no one knows anyone so everyone is super
friendly. Strangers start up conversations, because
why not?
I was sitting in the student union (I think outside
the poster sale where we all bought cliche movie
posters to add some color to the drab dorm walls?)
and this guy starts up a conversation about music.
He's a drummer, and I'm a drummer. "Who's your
favorite drummer?" he asks. I can't remember who
I said. But he was ready with his answer: the
drummer from Snarky Puppy (I can't remember which
one). He _insisted_ I check out Lingus, and I'm so
glad I did--what an incredible song.
Anyways, that was 2014, and now it's 2022 and they're
still at it. They've been dropping songs for the
past few months to promote their upcoming album and
on Thursday 9/8 they dropped "Belmont".
It's not my favorite ("Bet" takes the cake), but it's
the song of the week because I have this distinct
memory of being in Acadia with Jennie and my parents
for a hiking half-vacation (I worked evenings and
afternoons) and just kinda being bummed out about
the state of my job (a few friends leaving). I had
had an interview with an Open Source company a few days
earlier that I was really interested in, but I had had to
decide to decline to continue that morning because
the pay cut was too severe.
So there I am in the kitchen, packing my hiking bag
and feeling a bit down that I had to turn down the
maintainer role, and I saw there was a new Snarky
Puppy release--to my surprise, it kinda fit the mood.
Sad at first, but there's hope in there. All things
melancholic resolve eventually.
