dumb fun

back to back three-day weekends is never a bad thing. a three-day weekend with a Voxtrot show stuffed in the middle is that much better. a lot of times i will have the album of the band in my car for sometime before they come through town, getting myself excited for the show. not this case this weekend as i've been driving around to the Pretty in Pink soundtrack and Versus. strangely it works if you think about it.

the new-york based Versus were an indierock mainstay of my nineties listening habits, releasing records on teenbeat, caroline and merge, before they splintered off into several groups following their final release (an ep for insound) in 2001. they've emerged as one of my favorite bands to listen to while working out. i imagine that would be a strange compliment for a band. while a lot of fans would direct you towards Dead Leaves or the smoldering Secret Swingers, it's their 1997 release, Two Cents Plus Tax, that's my poison. their first album recorded with a reasonable budget, it's a quite a departure from the band's suggestively darker tones; high energy and contemplatively heartfelt at times. Richard Balayut and Fontaine Toups take turns unraveling highly literate reflections of relationships gone wrong and harsh self-analysis. one such song, today's "Dumb Fun," always stuck with me because of the obvious, but easy to connect to line "i thought i'd always be with you, but we know that never came true."

Versus "Dumb Fun"