Pick of the Week: These Old Shoes - Deer Tick

My twenty minute commute took over an hour the other night. It was one of those nights when all I needed was to be back at home. I was starving, tired, stressed and I knew if I could just get to my apartment, there would be frozen pizza and pajamas waiting for me, begging to embrace me in their loving arms. But no, I was ass deep in traffic and every side street and shortcut I thought to use was just as blocked up. My Ipod, despite holding every album I’ve ever owned, seemed full of absolute garbage. And then my check engine light came on even though I had just taken the stupid thing in to the shop a week before. I lost it. I became one of those drivers who pounds the steering wheel and makes exaggerated hand motions at parked cars. I thought a heart attack was possible, and an aneurysm likely. But luckily God, or Fate, or Luck stepped in and “These Old Shoes” came on.

I paused and took a few deep breaths. I was calmed by the down home stylings of the Rhode Island based Deer Tick. In the song, the protagonist is desperately trying to get home to some mysterious lover. He takes a plane, and it crashes. He hops on a train and is kicked off. He buys a car and it breaks down. Eventually all he’s left with is his old shoes and that’s not stopping him. And here I was complaining about a little LA traffic? What right did I have to get upset? If I could just sit this out and not kill myself, I’d make it in time for the 7:30 rerun of Seinfeld. For the next two minutes and twenty four seconds, I was blissed out. Like how I imagine parents are when they go see Jimmy Buffet.

And when those two minutes were up and I was still stuck behind the same traffic light that I had been for seemingly forever, I didn’t blow my top or make a scene. I just swallowed all those feelings and let them simmer inside of me, waiting for the next night when no song, no matter how good, could bring me back from the brink.

-DJ Bears!