Pinback

While sipping some "acceptable" coffee (on so many levels...) at a hipster vegetarian restaurant I heard some music playing in the background that caught my attention. A little quiet, a little dark, a little edge - and then a little more edge - and then, "Wow!" it sounds like the best XTC songs - the songs that made you love brit-alt-pop in the 80s. And no, I'm not talking "Dear God" and that inane Peter Pumpkin Head song. I haven't had my interest piqued that intensely in quite some time.

The server comes with my order. The fact that he's working at a hipster vegetarian restaurant should be enough information to complete a reasonable physical/personality profile. I ask him what CD is playing and he says, **mumblesomething** which I can't hear because I'm aging but also because many of my formative adult years were spent working in rock clubs (perhaps while my server was singing Barney songs in the bathtub?). When I ask him to repeat the name I get a sigh of exasperation and a bit more articulation - Pinback.

Great! Having the information was worth the irritation and slight humiliation at having lost all semblances of my former ESP cool powers. I have no idea what the hipster vegetarian people think of Pinback's Summer in Abaddon, but I think it's great. Much more acceptable than the coffee.

In the fine XTC tradition:
- Non Photo-Blue
- Fortress
- The Red Book
- AFK (it's the last song and worth the wait)