Going the Distance: 4 Miles

Pee Shy: 4 Miles

 [Purchase]

 It's been so long since I've posted here that I sort of forget how to do it, so forgive me. But I've seen that there's been infrequent posts lately and thought I'd see if I can help with a post or two in the interim. I've posted songs from this album before. It's a great little album by a Tampa, Florida based band started by two ladies who were spoken-word artists who decided to start a band with their clarinet and accordion and brought along a bass player and a drummer for the ride. They use guitar and other more conventional rock instruments as well, but the addition of the clarinet and accordion adds something different to the mix.

Who Let All The Monkeys Out is their debut album and came out in 1996, though they only ever made two albums as a band. Like their unconventional name and instruments, the subject of their songs is often quite different from the normal love song as well. "4 Miles" is one of the more conventional songs, though still not ordinary. I love the sound of it.

Tobacco: Ode to Nic

Pee Shy: Ode to Nic

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As anyone who has been a smoker or known a smoker will tell you, quitting is tough, and you will miss cigarettes for years and have cravings all your life. In many ways, coping with quitting isn't unlike coping with the loss of a relationship. Something that was familiar and comforting at one point is now lost from your life and you now have a void you don't know how to fill.

The Tampa-based band Pee Shy saw this and wrote a song about quitting smoking like an ode to the loss of a guy. In this case, Nic is Nicotine and not Nicholas.

Jailbait: Little Dudes

Pee Shy: Little Dudes

[Purchase]

The strength of this blog is in the unique and varied perspectives it brings together through music. When we find out the theme each week, it is our own responsibility to interpret it the way we see fit, and different song choices show different sides to the same story. Posts like Susan's yesterday give us that perspective and allow this blog to not just be a grouping of random music, but also a place for people to express themselves.

That being said, I thought I'd offer a perspective that had yet to be touched upon this week, that of an older woman with her eyes on a younger man. These days the media can't talk about "cougars" enough, that is, the woman in her 40s who actively pursues younger men sexually or otherwise, and there's also been a lot of media attention about younger men with the hots for older women as well. In this song's case, it's mostly tongue-in-cheek, but what it does is creep you out enough to realize there's still a double standard.

Pee Shy was a Tampa, Florida based band in the late 90's. Two spoken-word poets with little musical experience are determined to start a band, and do so with a clarinet and an accordion. Their music is both artistic, and yet somewhat comical. So, despite the serious nature of the subject, the song is also sort of funny. Being a girl whose boyfriend is a good 5 years younger than her (which, over time isn't a big deal, but when you're 26 and he's just turning 21, it feels like a big difference), I understand the appeal of the younger man. As the song says, "they never try to tell you what to do", and they seem to be more in awe of the more mature woman's interest in them. I imagine the ladies in the song hanging out at an arcade or other high school haunt basking in the glow of their own influence and power to romantically intimidate the boys. Not to mention getting from them things they've not been able to get from men their own age, namely respect and admiration. So, are they taking advantage of these boys or doing anything against the law? No. But the point of the song, to me, is also that it creeps people out more to hear this than it would if it were a man singing about a girl.