mewithoutYou

''She put on happiness like a loose dress / Over pain I'll never know''

The are few things in the world that impact humans the way music does. From birth, we are predisposed to crave music and harmony. I can remember hearing mewithoutYou for the first time during my freshman year of high school. The songs were grungy and acidic, off of their very first LP, which sounded as if it had been recorded in a basement. I loved it. Who were they?

They're a Christian band from Philidelphia. They were the antithesis of everything else I liked, and were by far more talented. The band's singer/songwriter, Aaron Weiss, had a way with words I deeply loved and envied. Their first EP, [A--->B] = Life, was what really got me. Weiss' lyrics are painfully personal and his raw delivery only compliments the intimacy. As a listener, I became connected with Weiss, transfixed by his shameless acknowledgement of his virginity and inner thoughts. ''No use in saying how I'm sorry, so I'm trying not to speak'' We had a relationship, my thoughts and his beautiful words. While he spoke in biblical rhymes, things I am wholly unfamiliar with, I saw beauty every time I heard his music. Gorgeousness and gorgeousity made flesh.

Sometimes it's not enough for me to just feel. I have to make the feelings tangible, to create an atmosphere for them all. If you want to know what it feels like to live in slow motion, go for a night drive, one of those nights when the air is electric, roll down the windows and play their first album from start to finish. Magnificent.