Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the release of Bomb the Music Industry's last record Vacation in 2011. Lest you think I was keeping track of that, I only noticed this once friends of mine and bands started posting about it on social media and seeing these posts brought back a lot of memories for me around the record. These days, it's hard for to pick an actual "favourite record" and it varies depending on my mood and how the music is hitting me at that moment, but there are probably 5 or 10 I could narrow it down to that take that spot and Vacation is absolutely among those. Since Vacation is sometimes my favourite record, here are episodes from my relationship with this album.
1. Starting in high school, I began a personal ritual in which I would download the new Bomb the Music Industry! record from QuoteUnquoteRecords.com the day it was released and then read along with the lyrics on the website for my first listen through of the record.* The songs and band were so important to me and, as I've explained ad nauseam on here, it felt like they were my own special thing. These listen throughs reading the lyrics were an important part of that relationship and were for sure a major force in me building it. When Vacation came out though, I had to work in the morning and didn't have time to perform that ritual. Instead, I downloaded it, immediately put it on my iPod, and listened to it on the way to work. As a result, it took me a little bit to warm up to the record, and at first it didn't measure up to BtMI's past material.
*It makes me happy that the website still looks the exact same as it always has. Wish I wasn't always so nostalgic, but maybe I should just accept that this is who I am.
2. I saw Bomb the Music Industry! on their Vacation tour in the summer of 2011 and, like Vacation's place in my list of favourite records, I often think of this as the best show I've ever been to. Opening the show, I got introduced to the Sidekicks, who killed it live and immediately became one of my favourite active bands. BtMI! played a long set that mixed all of their wonderful albums and the show ended by them played "Syke! Life is Awesome!" a personal favourite of mine. I stagedove at the end of the set and screamed the ending refrain that I used to write in the margins of notebooks at eye level with Jeff Rosenstock. It was cathartic.
3. During my winter break from school in 2011/12, I returned to Scarborough for the holidays. One night, while sleeping in my parents' basement, I had a really bad night thinking about my life and my future and got really low. I listened to Vacation from start to finish and decided to then do my read along on the website. It made me feel a lot better and that is when it became my favourite Bomb the Music Industry! record.
4. I had a tough year in 2012 and was a particular low point in mid-February. I was listening to the record constantly at this point, but one particular time sticks out when I was walking home from a friend's house in a snow storm. The line "In truth, December destroyed me, January crushed me, by February I was not myself" in "Felt Just like Vacation", while walking in heavy snow, overwhelmed me.
5. In January of 2014, I traveled with Rebecca to New York to see Bomb the Music Industry!'s last two shows. Both shows were amazing and seemed like the perfect way to send off the band. My friends James and Nick travelled to the shows separately and I met them there. So did Dave and James. Rebecca's friend made them wait with all of our coats during the second show. The Slackers opened the first show and that ruled. Even though the sets were lengthy and amazing, something that has always stuck out to me was the band opening with "Campaign for a Better Next Weekend", the first track on Vacation, each night.
6. In January of 2018, Rebecca and I went to their family's cottage with a few friends. It was a really nice and relaxing time. My friend Pat has described it in the past as a formative weekend for him that convinced him of some moves he had to make in his life. On the first night, we cycling through music and he put on Vacation and said something like "I was listening to this the other and thought it really held up." Part of me was like "Duh, I never stopped listening" but part of me was also like "Man, does it ever."
7. In July of 2021 I put on Vacation to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the record. I was feverish, sore, and tired from receiving my second dose of the COVID vaccine. "Felt Just like Vacation" still made me tear up.
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