I called it quits at Brain Drain

One thing I've heard about kids today is that they download everything, and therefore have more of an allegiance to songs than to artists. I was thinking that this might be a good thing--it might free me from feeling embarrassed that I really like a song by a band with a name as stupid as Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.

(Just as an aside, listening to that song again, it strikes me that The Feelies are probably neck and neck with Gang of Four as the most-ripped-off band of the '00s. I'm pulling for the Feelies, since I never really liked Gang of Four. I suppose it's also possible that all these bands that sound to me like they're ripping off the Feelies actually think they've found a new way to rip off the Velvet Underground and don't even know that the Feelies beat them to it.)

But isn't following artists part of the fun? I mean, I'm excited when new product from Jack White or Belle and Sebastian or Frank Black or any of the bands I currently like arrives, because I'm interested to see what they'll do next.

And yet...when you follow any artist, they always end up breaking your heart. Either they break up too soon, leaving you pining for that next album that's never coming, or else they stay together too long, and put out a really crappy album that makes you break up with them, or, else an album that's actually kind of okay, but shows you that they're headed downhill and the next album is going to suck, and you break up with them early to avoid that heartbreak. Or, worst of all, they put out an album that makes you think the next one might suck, but then you buy the next one anyway, hoping against hope that it'll be a return to form, but of course it isn't.

But maybe those breakups don't have to sting so bad. After all, you'll always have the first album. And great bands are like buses. If you wait around long enough, you'll eventually see one you want.