Hometown Glory....

Round my hometown, memories are fresh

round my hometown, oh the people I've met

Are the wonders of my world

Are the wonders of my world...

Adele couldn't have crooned truer words. I have lately been swept with a confusing mix of emotions, ranging from astonishment, pride, jealousy, anxiety, anticipation, and excitement when it comes to thinking about my hometown. I am overwhelmed  by the sick amounts of talent coming from the 716, and while I started off, as many kids do, happy to step outta my dinky Western New York pond, shake myself of its scum, and dive into a bigger ocean, I now can't help but to be incredibly excited and proud to come from Buffalo, NY and to particularly be a graduate of Nichols.

The journey  to this revelation started last August when Lulu, a classmate of mine, tossed me the myspace link to "Passion Pit, Mike Angelakos's band!" Angelakos was a senior at N-high when I was a freshmen and had been one of the school heart throbs for the longest. We shared the stage, we shared the halls, and every other morning meeting or so Mike and his oh so cool senior comrades would makes us laugh and steal our hearts. Fast-forward about 4 or 5 years and he's still at it, except this time its on an international level. It seems like almost over night his band has blown up, landing a spot at the CMJ Festival in NYC this past fall to headlining an a national and international tour this winter, releasing a CD on Frenchkiss Records, and recording another one to be released this Spring. However, it was only until I experienced the religious experience of a concert earlier this month that I truly became moved by this story. For those of you who get a chance, I recommend you participate in the Passion of the Pit in some fashion, live or recorded.

The next step to my enlightenment came one late afternoon while I was Facebook surfing/stalking as a way to kill time between classes. I stopped on the page of a girl I went to school with form Kindergarden to 8th grade and discovered she's dating Pat Feeley, a skinny kid who had been a part of her gang for as long as I remembered. Turns out Pat became the lead singer of Crush the Everlasting. While the music may not be revolutionary, I was impressed by Pat's vocal and lyrical skills, things I never thought he or any other typical St. Joe's guy would pursue. Boy was I wrong...

But that didn't really set in until I rediscovered Sean Seabass Heidenger's facebook page, the final straw. Sean's class was a year ahead of mine and not the favorite of anyone. Still, he and a few of his buddies sometimes amused us with their band No Mo' Napkins, which you could call  the crude, spoiled, over priveledged, sometimes unfunnily ignorant,  younger brother of The Lonely Island,  but this wasn't all Seabass had up his sleeve. Napkins often opened for local band hero at the time Cute is What We Aim For, and today I found out Seabass stuck with Cute, and currently works as their Road and Tour manager, sometimes contributing to their songs. Not to mention that at the same time Seabass was No Mo' Napkining and "Cute is what we mothafuckin aim for"ing it up, he was also creating his own fasionline; Dazzle Me Formal. Back then I thought the dirty dazzle was just the name that his cocky senior class came up with for a party to be cool, but it's much more. It's a legit line, supported by Cute and Crush (who play with Cute and have their own tour) and run by Seabass and his local friends.  Dazzle has been getting hits and recognition from the Buffalo community and national and international scenes as well.

 Enough. I can't handle anymore. While it's easy to get jealous or regretful that I didn't become bffs with the super skinny boys, the older artsy seniors, or the douchebag upperclassman, I can't help but to feel encouraged. Buffalo kids spend a lot of time beating their city and situations down, and consequently get caught up believing nothing cool comes out of it, and therefore nothing cool will come out of their lives for being from it. So we do things like run away, shake it off, denounce it, and go somewhere else to make things happen, but these guys are all examples that you don't need to do that. Even though Mike's band started in Boston, the music in his heart which led to the formation of the band started in Buffalo. 

On a more relateable scale, I think everyone needs to know, wherever they are, that you can do what you want as long as you put the work in and believe in it. I think all of these guys just have a lot of heart, and it's paid off well.

The world is small, so play your cards right and you could win a hand.

K kids, its 3:45. I'm off to bed so that tomorrow I'm ready to work and figure out how to make dreams happen.  A tip of the hat to the dirty buff. G'nite.