Meta Meta Etc.
Brick + Mortar
Week 77: July 19-25, 2020
I'll admit to not thinking about Brick + Mortar all that often. There are a lot of Record Club artists now (337 as of this writing), and I can't possibly care about all of them every second of every day. Many, perhaps even a majority, get swept under the rug, only to randomly pop up. It's easy to forget about Brick + Mortar, because they were always a niche Toms River concern, brought to a slightly larger audience (three reviews total for RC Week 77) due to a club member being from Toms River. I don't see these guys in the news. I only know them from this one week in this one club, five years ago. I've probably listened to the album in the intervening half-decade a total of... I'll guess four times.
See, what I should've done was just ask the Toms River man himself, Sean E., about whether he listens to Brick + Mortar these days. I would assume that his answer is somewhere between "all the time" and "who?" I've attempted to ask former RC captains this very question for this RC@5 column, and every single instance has been "occasionally!" In the past two weeks, I've been to three club meetings in three different clubs with Sean, so I don't really have an excuse for not asking him.
Except that it's not really his responsibility to keep up with Brick + Mortar. That's not in the RC captain contact. Never was, never will be. It's already too big of an ask, to have someone care about this hobby for those few weeks over long periods of time in which I force them to participate in that manner. It's embarrassing enough to have to send an email that Thursday night like "hey, if you could, please write your album review and send it over." I can't imagine expecting someone, years later, to still care. (Sean E. has never, to my recollection, been late with any PoYB deadlines, I'm just speaking generally here.)
Isn't it nice to care, though? I think that's what I'm trying to say here. It's normal to not care about some no-name band five years after three people write a review for their debut studio album. But it's fulfilling to care. To remember, to follow, to care. I am listening to Meta Meta Etc. again, and I find myself caring about them yet again. A couple great songs, a lot of good filler, nothing too cringeworthy. This was a decent album.
At the time I argued that "fine" was good, and I'll go even farther than that. "Fine" is a small ember, and, give it enough time, like say five years, and watch as that tiny ember grows into a roaring flame.
At the time I argued that "fine" was good, and I'll go even farther than that. "Fine" is a small ember, and, give it enough time, like say five years, and watch as that tiny ember grows into a roaring flame.
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